Posted in: Civil Law
We frequently have clients approach our lawyers here in Punta Prima having only just discovered our firm’s litigation experience . They sometimes feel that all is lost with their legal case.
Fortunately, often we can assist, as their case may be within the time limitation period. For civil claims and contract claims, for many years this has been 15 years. That is 15 years from when there was a breach of contract.
However, from October 2015 the Spanish government changed the law and said that people should not have to wait 15 years to see if they would be sued. Thus they changed the law to state that for Actions before the new law date, fifteen years would apply but with a limit of five years from October 2015, thus the expiry for all Actions is October 2020.
A contract from October 2004 will expire October 2019, and a contract from October 2014 will expire October 2020 (five years from the October 2015 – as will all Actions from before 2015).
Now we are growing close to the expiry date of that 15 year deadline for many Actions against Banks, Solicitors, Accountants, Insurance companies and other entities.
Thus if you had a claim from a contract signed to buy a house in 2006, for example, and you never got the deeds, then it will expire in October 2020 (5 years from October 2015).
Please contact us to see if there might be a claim with the documentation you have. To review it is free, and there have been changes over the years, such as a Supreme Court Precedent on Bank Guarantees allowing many more people to claim back money.
We need the story of what happened, documents and copies of payments.
The other time limitation periods that clients must remember are to do with the topic of employment.
It is very important to realise that when someone is sacked, they must file an application with the relevant Tribunal within 20 working days of being sacked or they lose the right to claim for dismissal or redundancy. To claim for unpaid salary, they have quite a bit longer, as this can be claimed within a year.
All employees in Spain should be aware of this time limitation, as it does not give someone much time to act. Please share this article to others and contact us if we can help in any way.