Judgment condemns to compensate 16 owners with €360,000.

Archive photo of other terraced houses

The judgment condemns the developer mainly for the poor installation of the facade cladding of 16 terraced houses.

DPCON has just obtained a completely successful judgment in a proceeding in which it defended the interests of 16 single-family homeowners suffering from a serious problem with their facade cladding.

In the judgment, the Magistrate-Judge of the Court of First Instance No. 6 of Móstoles finds fully proven the damage detected by DPCON in its report: the cladding panels covering the facade of the 16 homes are at clear risk of detachment and falling. Due to their size (more than 30 centimeters long), their on-site installation was completely deficient. They were not mechanically anchored and moreover the mortar adhesive was applied in spots, not over the entire surface. This, in addition to violating the provisions of the Technical Code and the Building Code, represents an obvious risk to the safety of the residents of the homes.

The developer’s deterrent arguments have been of no use whatsoever. Neither the statute of limitations for actions under the Building Regulation Law (since its liability stemmed from its contractual obligations set forth in Article 1,101 of the Civil Code, an independent and binding liability always for the developer-seller), nor the counter-report submitted in the case file (whose content and credibility have been rejected, point by point, by the Magistrate), nor the assessment or minimization of the few damages acknowledged by the defendant, have prevented the claimant from obtaining compensation for the affected parties. Their compensations, which ranged from the lowest €17,000 to almost €30,000 for the highest, have been paid with complete satisfaction by the 16 affected homeowners. Totaling more than €360,000 in compensation for all.

Furthermore, the reckless attitude of the defendant developer, who at all times refused to reach an agreement and even violated what had been agreed between the parties prior to filing the lawsuit, and its obvious attempt to misrepresent the applicable technical regulations, has been harshly penalized in the judgment; since the Magistrate, in addition to ordering payment of the principal (more than €360,000), has sentenced the selling entity of the homes to pay interest from the filing of the lawsuit, and court costs.

In short, the decision made at the time by the 16 affected owners to hire DPCON for the judicial claim of damages in their homes has now proved to be extremely wise, since with a small initial outlay (payment of the expert report), which was also recovered via cost assessment, they have obtained their highest compensations: in this way they will be able to cover the costs of the cladding of their facades.

This is just one of the hundreds of successful judgments that DPCON has amassed in its more than 30 years of professional practice.

DPCon Claim for Construction Damages.