A second home in Bulgaria?
Around 23 000 new-built apartments South of Sunny beach are looking for buyers. This showed data of the ...
Posted by Yanko on 2008-04-01
Sunday Business Post Bulgarian property firm Bulgarian Dreams has been expelled from the Association of International Property Professionals (AIPP), according to the association, which says it was in breach of the voluntary professional code.
Bulgarian Dreams has said that a complaint received by the AIPP from one of its clients was unfounded and says that it in fact resigned from the organisation in the second week in January.
A statement from the AIPP said: ‘‘Although the AIPP has previously expelled members as a result of unpaid membership fees, the recent expulsion of a member due to a breach of the voluntary professional code is a first. The reason for this decision was explained by the panel at the hearing in late January.
‘‘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 agents 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.”
Paul Owen, chief executive of the AIPP, told The Sunday Business Post that the tribunal was concerned that Bulgarian Dreams had failed to supply further information to allow it to establish the truth or otherwise of clients’ allegations.
‘‘The complaints were lodged predominantly on the back of delays in the delivery of projects to a Bulgarian Dreams’ client,” Owen said.
‘‘This is obviously something which is out of the company’s hands, but the tribunal found fault with the lack of information, and in some cases potential misinformation, passed to clients by the company.
‘‘The last thing we wish to do is expel a member, it doesn’t serve the complainant’s interest in any way. Unfortunately, if a company does not adhere to our disciplinary procedure, the association must take action. We can’t have members availing of all the benefits of being members of AIPP and then allow them to sidestep any sanctions which may be taken against them on the back of complaints.”
Robert Jenkin, the owner of Bulgarian Dreams, was unavailable for comment, but the company issued a statement to The Sunday Business Post stating that the delay to the property in quest ion was not caused by any fault on the part of the developer.
‘‘Bulgarian Dreams maintains that the complaint was unfounded,” the statement said. ‘‘Bulgarian Dreams had engaged with the client and attended a number of mediation meetings with the client.
‘‘AIPP is a voluntary organisation which charges its members over £3,000 per annum. Bulgarian Dreams resigned from the AIPP in the second week of January 2008, principally because of a change in the way that AIPP dealt with disputes.
‘‘The change resulted in all disputes being referred to a panel (for whose time AIPP members are charged) without any prior assessment of the validity of the dispute. This is impractical for members, is not how the AIPP was originally conceived and makes the resolution of disputes much more costly for members.”
The AIPP responded that members are not charged for disciplinary hearings, though they may be liable to pay costs if they are found to be in breach of the association’s code of conduct. It said that most complaints are either dismissed or sorted through mediation.
It also said that the changes made to its procedures, which it claims are very minimal, impinged in no way on the Bulgarian Dreams case.
‘‘We try where possible to get clients together with agents to mediate, unfortunately the client in this case wasn’t happy with the answers received during the mediation meeting and asked that the case be referred to a panel hearing,” said Paul Owen.
‘‘Bulgarian Dreams excused itself from this meeting, which was accepted by AIPP, but failed to respond to requests for documentation following the hearing, in order to prove that it had abided by the code of conduct in all dealings with the client. They were asked to attend a further hearing to put their side of the story but failed to do so. For this reason, the tribunal saw no option but to expel them from the organisation.”
On the issue of Bulgarian Dreams’ resignation from the association, Owen said: ‘‘Once a company joins AIPP, which is a voluntary organisation, it cannot resign while there are outstanding complaints against it.”
The AIPP was set up in 2006. Further information on the tribunal ruling can be found at www.aipp.org.uk or www.aipp.ie