A widow now living in Spain has spoken of her despair as her ideal retirement move turned into a nightmare, causing her to face a bizarre legal dispute.
Ex-pat Anita Mozley, 74, is originally from Derbyshire and moved to Spain in 2012 with her husband, Geoff, who she sadly lost when he was 69, after a battle with leukaemia.
A former administrator for earthwork contractor DNS Midlands, Mrs Mozley, told Derbyshire Live that her ideal retirement move had turned into a nightmare.
Facing a “waiting game”, she remains anxious and has double-locked her doors as she says representatives from BC Grupo, a property registrar in the country, knocked on her door informing her that she no longer owns her house. This is despite a court order issued in 2018 that she claims certifies her purchase of the property.
The story began when Mr and Mrs Mozley attended a property exhibition in Derby in 2005, after which they decided to purchase a home in La Murada outside the city of Orihuela, in the province of Alicante, about an hour’s drive away from Benidorm. The home was purchased via a company called Atlas which has since dissolved.
Mrs Mozley says the couple paid a deposit of £2,121.57 and more installments over the next nine months to Atlas and solicitors Aroca Seiquer & Asociado, who arranged the purchase. In February 2006, she claims she and her husband then signed for the purchase of the property, paying €57,711.25 to the builder.
But in 2018, Mrs Mozley says she then had to go to court – costing her, she claims, €20,000 – and obtained a court order, seen by Derbyshire Live, as the builder of her home aimed to repossess the house. Four neighboring properties whose owners did not go to court, Mrs Mozley says, have been repossessed, and she has been visited by debt collectors, who have made her feel “scared” and “harassed”.
Now, despite a pause over Christmas – she has not had a representative knocking on her door since November 28, 2022 – Mrs Mozely said: “I’ve double locked all my doors, they are locked now even though it’s not dark yet. I still feel so anxious.
“This week it’s the holidays here in Spain, for the New Year and the three kings. I don’t think anybody is working as much as they normally do. I’m trying to be positive it’s no good being anything else.
“I fear I’ll have to go back to the UK, but I don’t have anywhere else to go. Here I’ll get less support than in the UK. Hopefully, I won’t get rehoused, it’s just a waiting game, unfortunately. I’m hoping to come back to Derby in January but I discovered recently that my passport was up in April. I’m trying to get online to get my new passport sorted.
“I’ve asked BC Grupo to contact my old solicitor to get any paperwork that they could reference. I just hope they do, I’ve been talking to people but nobody has been in the situation that I am in.
“I’ve also written to the judge who declared that I own the property. The people knocking on the door are saying that doesn’t stand anymore. I’ve written to him [the judge] asking if it still stands.”
Derbyshire Live contacted BC Grupo’s branch in Murcia for comment. After outlining Mrs Mozley’s case using Google Translate, due to the language barrier, a spokesperson said the office “does not look at this type of operation, you need to contact [the firm’s office in] Madrid”.
A reporter then attempted to call the company’s HQ but it could not be reached using the phone number given on the firm’s website. An email address was also not included on BC Grupo’s site.
A spokesperson from Aroca Seiquer & Asociados told Derbyshire Live in November 2022: “We are unable to make any comment about any potential clients, current or past, in accordance with the Data Protection Act.”
