I am replying to the defamatory and libellous comment left by Leslie John Brookman which is now the subject of legal action by us. Mr Brookman first contacted us in late 1995. I personally picked him and his family up from Heraklion Airport in the middle of the night and drove them to our Company Apartment which we gave him free of charge for the duration of his stay. We spent one day viewing property, but he decided not to buy anything at that time. I also returned him and his family to the airport, all at my expense. This is the way we treat our customers, whether they buy from us or not.

In January 2007 he contacted me again, by email, and said that he would like to make an offer for a property that he had viewed in Papagiannades that was still for sale. We had had a previous problem with this property when a prospective buyer paid a deposit and failed to complete the transaction so I wrote to Mr Brookman "There are a couple of points that I need to clarify before I even put this to the vendor.
I don't believe that you gave Power of Attorney to anyone to sign Contracts on your behalf, or opened a Bank Account whilst you were here. Whilst both these things can be worked around, they will cause inevitable delays to completion, for example to enact Power of Attorney at the Greek Consulate in London takes two trips and a minimum of four day etc etc.
Because of what has already happened on this property, I need to be sure that anyone else that I represent in this deal can actually complete the transaction."

He responded saying "We assure you we are extremely interested in the property and will do all it takes to ensure payment is received within time restrictions.Please notify us of the necessary steps that need to be taken to make the payment to get the ball rolling."

We prepared all the documents for the Greek Embassy in London, held Mr and Mrs Brookmans' hands through the process. We also negotiated with the owner and obtained the price reduction that Mr Brookman wanted. The owner accepted the 5000 euro deposit that Mr Brookman had sent to us and returned the previous purchaser's deposit to us which we refunded in full. At all times we had stressed that time was of the essence and that completion needed to be made within four weeks.

Mr and Mrs Brookman enacted Power of Attorney and sent it to me arriving at the end of February. I negotiated an extension to the completion period with the owners as Mrs Brookman did not have a Birth Certificate, needed to obtain a tax number. This eventually arrived at the end of April, some two months after the required completion date. I obtained the tax numbers and handed all the details to the Notary to prepare the Contract. On 10 May I asked Mr Brookman for the balance of the price so that we could conclude contract. On 12 May Mr Brookman said that the money would be with us within seven days. Now ten months later it has still not arrived. There were a succession of excuses as to why he did not want to send it. He then demanded his deposit back, which the vendors refused to give him, correctly in my opinion. Whilst we bend over backwards to help our buyers we also have to be fair to the sellers. When I look at this case I was very precise in telling Mr Brookman why time was of the essence and diligent in asking him to complete. Up until communication with him stopped after an email that said "Adam Send my money back or else, Les", we had been telling him that he could still complete the sale - on 27 July I wrote "The deposit has been paid over to the owner, as you know. It would be easier if you were to complete the contract as planned. This option is still open to you."

I have paid for the topograph, the Contract preparation and Power of Attorney drafting out of my own pocket. I have spent time obtaining tax numbers, holding Mr Brookman's hand through the whole process as well as acting as unpaid taxi driver and providing him and his family with free accommodation. Mr Brookman is the sort of customer that no-one deserves or wants, unfortunately I ended up with him.

Adam Hunter - East Crete Property.

Adam Hunter