Property Investing News – Fighting Back Against the Scammers and Con Artists

One thing about the global downturn that could be considered positive is the amount of scams and cons coming to light, and the small property investor has certainly been prey to many. In a booming economy, many of these were written off and the injured parties pleas for assistance were ignored.

But several groups of small investors are fighting back. The problem appears to be all over the world. The more tha market was booming, the more the con men took advantage of ignorant investors with an eye on the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We can all see the pot of gold vanishing into the bottomless pit of the global banks losses and a backlash around the world is happening, both against the multimillion pound/dollar payoffs of the bank executives and the obvious scammers in the property investment world.

If you have been conned, scammed or are discovering that the small print in your contract does not cover you as well as you were persuaded it was, here is some news and a few resources to help you.

Small investors in the Trump resort Baja, which has been canceled are suing the developer “Irongate,” which has been withdrawing monies from an escrow account with no intention of completing the building.

Illegally built houses being demolished in Tenerife

Many of Dubai’s developers are showing their true colors and “screwing the small investors to the wall,” would not be overstating things. There are a number of groups around where a number of investors are banding together in an effort to obtain fair treatment. Hydra investors have a group here – Hydra Facebook group. Beware the facebook groups run by developers – you will be able to tell the difference – they are the ones that say Dubai is not having a financial crisis.

Two groups of investors are pressuring RERA in Dubai: The Emaar Investor Group and the Dubai Property Investors Group, unfortunately I have not yet been able to find contact details for either of these. Please leave me a comment if you have one.

The Cypriot government is being pressured to change the law to prevent unscrupulous developers in Cyprus from holding on to titles of property purchased and using the title as collateral.

Spain. What to say about Spain? What a mess ! With unemployment expected to reach 17-21% over the next two years, minor politicians being arrested for corruption all over, most sellers in denial and illegal building scams all over the news, it is hard to be positive about Spain at the moment. Buildings are being demolished all along the coast.  I am sure there are or will soon be some bargains to be had for the small property investors in Spain, but for now, this is a good blog to read – Costa Del Sol property blog. There are a number of discussion groups here.