A word to the Wise

Towards the end of 2009 i saw a property for sale that i fell in love with i let my feeling get the better of me despite all i advice i had read about being careful. I contacted the owner and paid a 1,000€ deposit until i could get a flight over to complete the promissory contract. Two days before my flight i received an email telling me that teh property had been sold. Under Portuguese law i was entitled to double my deposit back. This i found out later but not at the time of the contract with the 1,000€ deposit. Well i agreed to meet with the owner to get my money back as i didn't trust giving him my bank details to pay the money direct to my bank.

We arranged to meet in a bar in a town called Serta In Central Portugal at 3pm in the afternoon. I received the money back and all seemed well or at least it did. During this trip i viewed a property and liked it, i liked it so much i got another flight to go and see it again and make a decision about what to do. I decided to buy the house after viewing a number of times and driving up to the village also a number of times to make sure that i was doing the right thing. With this i agreed to buy the house and pay a deposit. I transferred the deposit less 1,000€ that i had in cash, so i arranged andother flight to sign the promissory contract.

Three of the 50€ notes turned out to be forgeries, as the money was handed from me to the estate agent who counted it and then handed to the sellers agent who also counted it each time in front of me. The sellers agent was a retired bank manager and he then went straight to the bank where it was found that three 50€ notes where forgeries. The Police where called and i paid another 150€'s from my account. I then flew back the next day and left the Police to carry on with there investigation.

Well on the 3rd January of this year the local Police called at my house to ask me to go to there office on the 16th January at 11am in the morning but no mention of what it was for.!

Today i went to the Police station with the estate agent Richard, Richard also had copies of all my emails over the sale of the house that fell through and the deposit i then paid for my house that i did in fact buy. When we got to the Police station the local translator had been called. Even though the Police could speak English under there system they have to conduct things in there language and not in mine. So the translator was provided for me. The interview lasted over two hours and many times they would go over things to make sure that i understood what was going on. At the end i had to sigh and initial a couple of forms. One form it was pointed out to me was that if the case goes to court i take this form and i can ask for the 150€ back that i had lost.

Well the moral of the story above is Don't look at something that looks to good to be true and loose your heart to it. Take sometime to research all your options, if it looks to good to be true there probably is something wrong.