[size=55:d6plg806]Irish times

'Getting Embroiled in Litigation in Bulgaria is Not Fun'

SOLICITOR Anthony Joyce has been acting for property investors in distress since he agreed to represent people who'd invested in apartments being sold in India by a company called Kuvera.

They had bought apartments costing from around €30,000 but found they weren't being built.

He started a successful action to freeze the Irish assets of Kuvera's owner, Kieran Murphy, an action that ended with 230 investors settling with the developer. They got properties in South Africa and the UK and shares in the Indian developer's company;
they are still waiting for €7.7 million awarded to them in December 2010 against a Northern Irish solicitor involved with Kuvera.

Joyce is also taking action against Simple Overseas Properties on behalf of investors in a Moroccan development called Assilagh Beach and Golf resort and against Ciaran Maguire of Flash Developments who sold properties worth €300,000 in Cape Verde. Both Simple and Flash have now gone out of business.

Joyce says the common thread in the three cases is that some element of the contract was created in Ireland and there are documents to prove it.

Since these cases, he has had many queries from people who bought in developments in Bulgaria and elsewhere.

"
I tell people, the first port of call is the jurisdiction where you paid the money."


Solicitor Tom McGrath was flooded with inquiries from people needing advice on foreign investments after dipping his toe into these waters about a decade ago.

Now his firm – McGrath, O'Donnell Associates – still helps people if it believes it can help, and if clients are prepared to pay fees.

"
Getting embroiled in litigation in Bulgaria is not fun,"
he says, although he has had success there doing just that. The typical problem, whether it's in Bulgaria or Spain, is of people buying off plans, paying over deposits – only to find that the property has not been built, they can't get their money back and both agent and developer has disappeared.