The Latest Spanish Property News from Kyero.com

Kyero.com was the first Spanish property portal to voluntarily join the AIPP in 2006. Since then, the AIPP has emerged as one of the leading trade associations dedicated to protecting the rights of consumers when buying property abroad.

The Association of International Property Professionals (AIPP) has expelled overseas property specialist Bulgarian Dreams due to a “breach of the voluntary professional code”. Although the AIPP has previously expelled members over unpaid membership fees, it said this is the first time the trade body has expelled a company for breaking its code of conduct.

In a statement, the AIPP explained that: “Member companies against whom complaints have been upheld will not be published, providing the company has followed the Disciplinary Procedure and accepted any sanction imposed by the Association”. It added that “in cases where the sanction imposed is expulsion from membership, the AIPP reserves the right to publish the details of the company and the complaint(s).”

A spokesperson for the AIPP said it reached the decision after its board meeting in late January. A statement from that meeting read:

“The Tribunal finds the essence of membership of AIPP is that members must agree to abide by the Code of Conduct of the organisation and by its constitution. The essence of the Code of Conduct is that they should behave professionally in their relationships with their potential buyers.

“The Tribunal finds that the conduct of Bulgarian Dreams in this regard fell way short of the ambits that should be expected. The Tribunal was also very concerned that Bulgarian Dreams had failed completely to respond to the orders of the Tribunal – not the requests – that it supplied further information to allow it to establish the truth or otherwise of the client’s remaining allegations.

“In these circumstances the Tribunal considers that it is inappropriate for Bulgarian Dreams to continue as a member of the organisation and recommends the Board to expel.”

Bulgarian Dreams had seven days to appeal the decision, which has since lapsed according to the Association, and added that it now has a maximum of 28 days to remove all mention of the AIPP from its marketing materials.

The AIPP also revealed that it has received a total of 79 formal complaints about its members since its inception. Of those, 12 cases were mediated between the complainant and the member company (without payment) and 12 cases were mediated with a financial settlement paid by the member to the complainant. This brings the total monies paid out in financially mediated settlements by AIPP members to £76,000. A further eight complaints have been taken before the AIPP’s disciplinary panel, resulting in five fines awarded to complainants totalling £25,500. Only one member, Bulgarian Dreams, has been expelled from the AIPP.

Story from The Overseas Property Professional (subscription required)