On previous occasions we had referred to cases in which our clients who had acquired apartments by private contract that later obtained a favourable judgment against the bank where the amounts on account of the unfinished sale had been deposited due to the responsibility of the developer.
In November 2018, the Court of First Instance 2 of Arona fully estimated the claim and condemn the bank to reimburse the clients not only the amounts advanced but the legal interest accrued from the date of each payment.
However, in subsequent judgments issued by other courts (with the same developer, same promotion and same defendant bank) the bank was ordered to return the principal with plus the legal interest from the date of the request, that is, from the presentation of the claim.
These judgments were appealed before the High Court of Tenerife only in relation to legal interests. The High Court agreed with us, condemning the bank to pay the interest from the date of each one of the payments. Obviously, the difference was substantial, given that the application of the interest since 2005 instead of in 2018 or 2019 meant a more than deserved compensation for our clients.
It should be noted that during the year and a half or two years that the appeals lasted, the clients collected the principal (since the judgment in relation to this sum was already final). We only had to wait for the legal interests.