A foreign investor who owns buildings at 16 and 18 Carrer de Lancaster in El Raval has asked Barcelona’s Courts of First Instance to annul the sale of his stake in land beneath the properties to developer Corpedificacions, known as BeCorp, for a symbolic €12.10, which he says he accepted only so that a separate private contract would guarantee his buildings’ owners and tenants access to the planned facilities. The case matters to the buildings’ owners and tenants because the lawsuit says they were promised permanent use of a planned swimming pool, gym, garden and parking spaces, but are currently being refused access by the project’s subsequent owner.

The civil trial is scheduled for January, according to documentation reported by Crónica Global, although a witness living in Miami has yet to be summoned. The claim is directed at BeCorp and BCN Housing Place, which the investor alleges knew of an earlier private agreement when it bought the project in January 2022.

BCN Housing Place told the investor by burofax, a formal recorded legal notice, that it would not honour the agreement because it regarded itself as a third party unconnected to that contract, the report says. The company’s position has not been independently set out in the material available for this report.

Dispute over a private agreement

BeCorp owned 47.46% of 2,199 square metres of subsoil in the block and planned, with Faceras SL, to build underground parking and shared facilities. The investor was interested because access to those facilities could increase the value of the flats he intended to renovate and sell.

According to the lawsuit, the parties reached an agreement in early 2020 under which the investor would transfer his rights and obligations in the building project. In return, the owners and tenants of numbers 16 and 18 were to receive lasting rights to use the shared areas and priority to rent up to four parking spaces.

  • The investor was due to pay €77,907.75 towards construction and a maintenance charge.
  • In December 2020, he signed a public deed selling his share of the subsoil to BeCorp for €12.10.
  • A separate private contract recorded the promised access rights and the investor’s payments, according to the claim.

The lawsuit says BeCorp’s legal department proposed separating the transaction into two documents on advice from tax advisers. The public deed was registered in the Property Registry, the official record of property rights, while the private agreement on use of the facilities was not.

That distinction is central to the case. Article 34 of Spain’s Mortgage Law generally protects a buyer acting in good faith who relies on the Property Registry, but the investor argues that BCN Housing Place cannot rely on that protection because it knew of the unregistered agreement.

Shared executives at the centre of the claim

The investor’s lawyer, Sergio Villanova of Int Law, argues that BCN Housing Place had knowledge of the arrangement because of links between the two companies. The lawsuit says Pedro Molina Porras and Pau Castro Sáez held posts in both firms at the time of the December 2020 deal and the January 2022 resale.

It also says Francisco Magret Llorens signed contracts as BeCorp’s sole administrator after serving as an administrator and director of BCN Housing. Castro Sáez, who had been the investor’s contact at BeCorp, became president of BCN Housing the day before leaving his BeCorp role, on the date that coincided with the sale of the project, according to the reported court documents.

BCN Housing’s annual accounts attribute 66% of its capital to Scranton Enterprises B.V. and 34% to BeCorp. The documents submitted in the proceedings also refer to a €406,830.45 mortgage loan that BCN Housing granted BeCorp in October 2019 on the property.

BeCorp and BCN Housing contend that the investor transferred his stake to avoid redevelopment costs, according to the report. The lawsuit disputes that account, stating that he had already paid €307,000 towards the project and faced roughly €108,000 more in costs.

The claim seeks annulment of the deed on grounds of an allegedly false basis for the transaction and alleged serious fraud. It requests return of the subsoil stake or, if that is not possible, payment of its value and any income derived from it. Villanova estimates the alleged losses at more than €1 million, saying deposits had already been paid on flats the investor had committed to sell.

For residents and tenants at 16 and 18 Carrer de Lancaster, the immediate issue is the claimed access to the proposed shared facilities. The January hearing is pending the Miami witness being called.

Reported by cronicaglobal.elespanol.com, Crónica Global.