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Our Trip in Brooklyn
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Awesome Gallery Post
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Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.
Mark Twain
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Brooklyn Brewery Mash Video Post
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FRENCH LEASEBACKS ARE LIKE BOATS
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Your two happiest days are the day you buy one
And the day you get rid of it
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Commercial Lease
French leasebacks are flawed by design because they use the French statutes of commercial leases in a non-commercial setting and the false promise of a “guaranteed rent”, which violates your consent from Day One. Translating the lease into English (when they do…) is far from enough. At the onset, they hid material terms from you with abusive terms in violation of EU directives and of your own national laws (yes, your laws protect you… So, we jump in and throw your “tenant” under the bus and see how he capitulates and let you go with exit penalties.
Your Law Applies
EU laws protects your consumer rights better than you, the French courts, and your adversaries could ever imagine: your national consumer laws preempt French consumer rights. Hang on! We are using a long forgotten EU regulation (a regulation applies directly to member states without the need to transpose it into national laws like directives do) to force French judges to apply UK, Irish, German, Greek consumer law (you name it) and not the French Consumer protection code. Of course, you can also decide to sue in your home country, but it usually will cost you an arm and a leg compare to our flat fee litigation cost. So, we’ll get a French judge to enforce your law against the French developer, notaire, tenant, and bank. Plus, we drag the EU Commissioner for Consumers into the French procedure to make sure everyone keeps a stiff upper lip (lawyers can’t say ‘everyone try not to shit themselves’.)
Suing for Damages
With the EU Commissioner by your side and the support of your national consumer protection authority we make sure we get the developer, the bank and their notaire’ attention when they are served your lawsuit papers. We’ll file suit on your behalf against these bad actors of the French leaseback scam, first to reset the clock and get all the contracts declared null and void for mis-selling, breach of consent, fraud, and other niceties of EU consumer laws, but also to get your hard earned money back from your loan payments, owners association fees and taxes, as financial damages. We know case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and from national courts and administrations that sustain our claims. We also believe the last thing big French banks and major developers want is bad publicity of EU magnitude. Cheating on EU consumers is not good for business.
Mortgage
French commercial banks don’t renegotiate loans. You miss a few payments and they start foreclosure proceedings. Your property goes for public auction at a very discounted price and professional sharks buy it on a dime. You end up foreclosures with a loan balance that you cannot repay in full and the bank must sue you before a French court to recoup money owed. But they do a sloppy job at it, missing EU regulations and ending up fighting for their life to save their own contracts from cancellation with damages for you when we enter the dance. We love it.
Unfair Terms
Under the Unfair Contract Terms Directive (93/13/EEC) that has been transposed into law in EU state, contract terms can be deemed unfair if they create a ‘significant imbalance’ in the trader and consumer’s positions. The UK and Ireland regulations attempt to redress the balance in favor of consumers where standard form documentation is used as with leaseback paperwork. All contractual terms must be written in plain and intelligible language and cannot artificially choose the French law as governing law of the contract to the detriment of the non-French consumers. For starters, how French can be plain and intelligible to English and Irish consumers who don’t speak the language? French leaseback contracts are also unfair as contrary to the requirements of good faith, typically when hiding the consequences of non renewal of a French commercial lease after 9 years, causing a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations to the detriment of the owner. Good faith takes into account the strength of the bargaining position of the parties, whether the consumer had an inducement to agree to the term, and the extent to which the seller has dealt fairly and equitably with the consumer whose legitimate interests are to be taken into account. When was the last time French leaseback actors took into account the legitimate interests of English, Irish, German, Greek, and other EU consumers into account? Really.
Support
We consider client support as important as our litigation and negotiation skills. If you need help, get all of your questions answered quickly with exclusive access to our dedicated support forum. We are also offering support to our clients by email and by phone.
VAT Clawback
The very people who created the leaseback scheme and its abusive use of commercial leases in a non-commercial setting, e.g. the French Treasury, will claim you owe back the VAT that was deducted from the sale price as a tax incentive if you don’t leave up to your (almost always undisclosed) promise to keep your leaseback alive for 20 years! So? Are you really stuck with your tenant or pay back the VAT to the French government who does nothing to help you when the scandal is all over the media? Here again, our firm know there is only one way out: get the property deed and the sale cancelled all together with the lease and the bank loan. We throw the baby out with the bathwater. Sorry!
Unfair Commercial Practices
EU Directive 2005/29/EC on unfair commercial practices enables national enforcers to curb a broad range of unfair business practices, such as untruthful information to consumers or aggressive marketing techniques to influence their choices. Sounds familiar? French leaseback sales to non-French speaking consumers are considered unfair because they are contrary to the requirements of professional diligence of banks, sale agents, and notaires, and they materially distort the economic behavior of the small EU investors to whom it is addressed. The Directive regards in particular as misleading sale presentations that are likely to deceive the average consumer, even if the information is factually correct, or omits material information that the average consumer needs, according to the context, and causes the average consumer to make a decision that he would not have taken otherwise. Article 7 of the Directive gets the nail in the wood considering as a misleading a “trader who hides or provides in an unclear, unintelligible, ambiguous or untimely manner such material information”. When French developers sent across the EU hundreds of sales agents to convince individuals that it was a no-brainer to buy with leaseback overpriced properties in France, with rent guaranteed by commercial leases with robust operators, and pre-arranged mortgage loans with major French banks, they violated EU laws. When the French consumer authority DGCCRF is supposed to be impartial under article 11(3) in fulfilling its role of protecting consumers, one wonders why all it does is producing a couple of lame reports over the last 7 years. Could it be because the DGCCRF reports to the Ministry of Finance, maker of the infamous French leaseback? Talk about conflict of interest.
Summer 2011 in Brooklyn
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Standard Post without Image
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