ARCHIVED - Mazarron council remains silent about receipt of 3 million euro bond for Camposol Urbanisation

The money should go a long way towards fixing long-standing defects providing it is spent as intended

The question has been asked many times – What happened to the Bonds/Guarantees lodged by constructor Justo y Manoli SL (Grupo MASA), to fund incomplete construction?

With the demise of Grupo MASA subsidiary Justo y Manoli SL in 2015 it was thought that the bonds had sunk along with the company, but a court case which has its roots in events occurring nearly 12 years ago and has been rumbling on ever since has finally reached a conclusion and in the past few days Mazarrón Council has received just under 3 million euros (2,914,474.28) to be spent on works towards the completion of the urbanisation.

It should be pointed out that the award is not compensation or an ex gratia type of payment, the funds will have to be used according to the parameters defined in the court ruling which refer to technical reports supplied by Mazarrón Council architects, engineers and technicians, any attempt to divert the funds to other projects will open the door for the appellants to attempt a clawback of funds as happened the last time Mazarrón Council executed bond funds in 2014 and 400,000€ had to be returned.

The original Court case was actually resolved in the Council’s favour some years ago but has been subject to multiple appeals by the Justo y Manoli bankruptcy administrator (Auren Concursal SLP) and the bond treasurer bank (Banco Santander SA), this culminated on 3rd November 2020, when appeals by both of the above were dismissed by the Murcia Superior Court of Justice (TSJ), this ruling did allow for further appeal but in June of this year Santander signalled that they were willing to settle for the full amount of the outstanding bond, nearly 3 million euros which will be ring fenced for use only as intended on the Camposol urbanisation.

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Camposol will agree that this amount will not solve all the problems that beset the urbanisation, indeed the Court commented that the Councils technical reports and costings to complete the unfinished urbanisation works amounted to over 8.9 million euro however the bonds available did not reach that figure.

Mazarrón Council will now examine the reports and guarantees which extends to over 700 documents and over 1000 pages to ensure the funds are applied to the correct projects which will then be prioritised according to current needs, this is in the knowledge that part of the appeal allegation from the bankruptcy administrator was that “the execution of guarantees is not possible for purposes other than those for which they were issued, the content arguments must be adhered to in the appeal judgment” indicating that the funds are to be used solely for completion of unfinished works or projects contained in the original plan for the public urban infrastructure and not remedial construction, maintenance work or new projects not covered in the guarantee documents.

For the moment, there has been no comment from the council about the receipt of the bond money or of how it will be spent.

Comment from Silvana Buxton, Mazarrón Councillor for Camposol
“This is great news. We have been following the Court progress for some time.It seemed like a roller coaster but the outcome is welcome news for all Camposol residents and homeowners, it obviously will not solve all our problems but will make a big difference we just have to be careful the funds are used in the correct way, the Council are aware of the Court ruling and we will take advice from the Council technical and legal advisors.”
Further announcements will be made as information becomes available.
Article: Paul Drury

Image: Archive.