Boa noite, amigos,
I think an elderly friend may have been scammed. He says he owns two apartments under construction, with constant delays. He won鈥檛 say where the apartments are located. Can I find the apartments he owns?
Couldn鈥檛 his attorney do this? I鈥檝e been to a cart贸rio and found documents on a deceased American鈥檚 property a few years ago. I had the address then. I don鈥檛 have an address now for a property search.
Can I do this? Does my friend鈥檚 attorney need to do this? Or is there a Brazilian jeito? 馃榾
Thanks for any advice.
Alan
-@alan279
"I think an elderly friend may have been scammed. He says he owns two apartments under construction, with constant delays. He won't say where the apartments are located. Can I find the apartments he owns? "
No, He is not getting scammed.聽 He is getting short changed.聽 Big difference.
Let me enlight you and every unsuspecting dupe at this forum...
In the days of yore, builders built large vertical structures with OPM's ( Other People's Money ) . On those days, the buyers were bankrolling most of the project through pre-construction payment plans.聽 I actually had a "compadre" of my father who got wealthy doing this聽 Her is deceased. He built quite a bit on Vila Clementino,Sao Paulo ( Vila Mariana ).
And then came Encol, a Real Estate Developer who built all over and left a lot of buyers holding notes and no finished projects.聽 Building skeletons.聽 聽
I actually saw a completed and delivered project near Moema ( Planalto Paulista ). Shody Construction, an evidence of piss poor management of money by the Developer.
So the governing bodies to the Construction Industry intervened, not to bail out misled buyers, but rather to regulate how funding ought to be done since thereafter.聽 聽
Since then, any large construction project, in theory, must be approved with a funding plan that does not rely exclusively on buyer's installment lay-a-way payments.聽
Now, a Developer must secure alternative sources of funding. Either through Bank Bridge Loans, their own working capital, and or Securitization ( through Secuitizing firms, obviously )聽 of the Development Project.聽
In theory, this would be just the assurance buyers so much needed.聽 In聽 reality, it only provides limited warranties from a project going sour for lack of cash infusion.聽 You still need a developer's healthy balance sheet, and cushioning money of your own聽 to account for project聽 delays and cost overruns.聽
Since 2006, a number of developers started getting cheap money, sometimes through private Equity ( Read Foreign investors mostly, and in particular American Firms ). So they went all out and open up their books through IPO's.聽 聽
Once again, this would be some windfall, only it did not fare as such.聽 聽Free money lends to monkey business practices ( mostly stretching many slated聽 projects thin),聽 and "living at large ".聽 Plenty accounts of Developers buying expensive yatchs, keeping trophy mistresses on the side, syphoning money to Miami, London, buying luxury cars.聽
Recently there was a situation with a well heeled surname, Horn, who ran a company called Esser. His closer relatives successfully ran another Real Estate Development Firm and Property REIT, Cyrella.聽 聽 聽
Well, Mr Horn ( the wrong one, not聽 Ellie but rather Alain and聽 Raphael Horn ), their firm聽 had some cash flow issues ( they were banging out TV Commercials with stock firesales ).聽 So he decided to stiff his Securitizing Firm ( the former聽 Ourinvest, then headquartered at Avenida Paulista ), and a lending Bank ( Safra ).聽 This came out in the specialized trade rags, so true story.
As a testament of his shody dealmanship, there is an unfinished building on the lower digits of Rua Augusta, started and unfinished by them.聽 And another one close by Barra Funda's Transportation Terminal.聽 A lot of his brethen, mostly Jewish, got screwed. The broker salesman, a nice elder Jewish Uruguayan man himself, fell so ashamed he retired from the trade in disgust. Lots of apologies issued in his behalf, however little he could do himself.聽
It goes to say, pre-construction buys are聽 not聽 a scam, but the transaction聽 is rife with pitfalls.聽 AS a licensed broker, I adamantly oppose you folks to get into such deals.聽 聽All you need to verify, is to take your prospecting seller//developer and plug his name under reclameaqui dot com dot br.聽 You will have plenty anedoctall facts to get you scared out of your wits.
Now, to our fellow member, Allan,
if you really want to get your beak on this hornet's nest, it is your predicament.
Wronged buyers do resort to legal action, mostly through Class Action Lawsuits.聽 All you need is your friend's full legal name and plug it on Google Search .聽 If his name comes under 聽 聽database, then you have a fair chance to identify the adversarial parties.聽 聽Which might include the Faulty Developer.
To scan jusbrasil is free. To get under the case details, then you need a licensed attorney to comb their databases.聽 Soi, you will pay the retainer fee or the initial consultation.
Faulty Developers have what we conventionally call, projects portfolio.聽 Sometimes, the Developer's name is not in full evidence under the legal docket.聽 They use proxy companies to each and every project as a legal shield.聽 聽Each project has its own Tax ID and namesake, with assigned management, partners, working capital, business address. All pro forma stuff.
Just for illustrative purposes, let's create a Fugazi company.聽 Sunrise Ranch Empreendimentos SPE Ltda.聽 聽 聽That SPE is a dead ringer.聽 It indicates you have a company that has been created exclusively for that specific project.
So, my five cents to you all happy campers.. Stay clear of pre construction deals and their rosy prospectuses. You are getting fleeced.聽
Oldie is good. Lots of opportunities there, for savvy聽 and well heeled and schooled buyers, there is.聽 聽 As for the suckers, quoting P.T. Barnum, "They are born every minute"