Protected housing

A group of buyers of official protected housing in Madrid took the developer to court because they received the houses later than agreed . The contracts set the delivery date, at the latest, for August 2007. However, the houses were delivered between July and August 2008, almost a year later.

The buyers claimed compensation for all that time during which they could not live in their houses. To calculate what they were asking for, they took as a reference the rent of similar houses . The court that first examined the matter acknowledged that there had been a delay, but rejected the claim because it considered that the damage suffered had not been sufficiently proven.

The buyers appealed and the Provincial Court ruled in their favor and ordered the developer to pay an amount to each one. The company then went to the Supreme Court (TS). Its argument was that compensation should not be granted without a specific proof of the damage suffered by each buyer.

The TS has rejected the appeal. Its reasoning, explained simply, is that a house has a value due to the fact that it can be used . If its delivery is delayed, the person who bought it loses that use during the wait. In this case, since they are homes intended to be used by their buyers, that loss is a real harm and directly related to the delay; it was not necessary to provide additional and specific evidence of that damage for each person.

That does not mean that any delay automatically entitles one to compensation. The TS emphasizes that this way of assessing the damage applies when the harm is evident and linked to the breach. It also distinguishes this case from other real estate agreements, such as the exchange of a plot for a future construction. Finally, it upholds the compensations agreed upon in appeal.