Hi Nigel
I am new to this forum- litterally within the last couple of minutes! Anyway I wondered if you could give me some advice! We bought an apartment off plan in 2006. It was a 1 year build with a guaranteed rental for 2 years. We paid our 20% and the mortgage had a grace period of 1 year until completion. In 2008 & 2009 we were still frantically chasing completion (now 2 years late), we were also requesting that our developer upheld the "Late penalty" clause in the sales contract whereby for each month it was late he owed us 400 euros-almost 8k at this point! After numerous meetings with our lawyer and the developer we still were not told of a completion date- we then discovered that our lawyer was related to the agent who sold us the property and was also good friends with the developer! By the way at this point the bank was chasing us as there was now 15,000 euros of interest on our unpaid mortgage. Anyway I managed to find a PDF version of the Cyprus Bar Code of Conduct on the internet- I subesquently faxed my lawyer accusing her of breaking this code in 5 different areas- and reporting her to the Nicosia Disciplinary Board for not being independant or impartial, not acting in our best interest, lying etc etc and I sacked her! I then started dealing with the developers lawyer direct-didnt trust another lawyer to act on our behalf. I received a fax off them in August 2009 stating that as they have tried numerous times for us to take delivery and hand over the final payment of 26k then they would be cancelling the contract. I responded by asking them to submit evidence that they had informed us/our lawyer on numerous occasions that the proeprty was ready for delivery because we had had many meetings and couldnt get any answers- also the contract is between us and the developer therefore they are responsible for making sure we were contacted (at this point they knew we had sacked our lawyer) our bank also confirmed that the final payment had never been requested! The devloper is still refusing to pay the late penalty but will NEGOTIATE and put in solar panels for free. My repsonse was that by virtue of the fact that he will negotiate deems him liable to compensate so we want the whole lot. I also pointed out that a contract should be upheld by both parties and not just by US. I have probably really bored you now so the top and bottom of it is, we are refusing to take delivery- the 26k still sits in our Escrow account until they pay us what they owe. What are the implications? I dont see us getting any money off them now, the interest on our mortgage has wiped out any equity in the property so I hope the bank reposess as we dont technically own the proeprty so hopefully the developer losses out all round- am I right? I havent heard from them since September- I faxed them again 4 days ago with no response.

Hi Sharon and welcome to the forum.

I'm sorry to hear you've been mislead by a couple of crooks masquerading as property developers and lawyers. I have sent you an email advising you how to progress matters.

Is your guaranteed rental written into your contract of sale?

Unfortunately, changing one lawyer of dubious parentage for the developer's lawyer was not a good move - you should have gone to an independent lawyer to ensure your interests were properly protected.

Regards,

Nigel, she didn't say she changed to the developers lawyer, but i dealing direct with him!

It is these miserable fatherless sods that spoil it for everyone.

By the sounds of it it has to me the lawyer 'L' from Paphos?? Someone needs to be doing something about this person.

Hi Nigel, thank you for your response and I received your email of which I shall take your advice.
You are right Panthenman I am not having any lawyer represent me but I am communicating directly with the developers lawyers. It has amazed me how a simple woman like me though can tie their lawyers up in knots!!! they sent me faxes with incriminating evidence and I took the step of always putting "Without predudice" on all my written accusations......they then threatened me with slander which I had great pleasure in pointing out that Slander is verbal but also that by putting "without predudice" it couldnt be used in court as lible!!! They are now ignoring me! I dont intend to take delivery of the property and will kiss goodbye to my 20% deposit just for the sheer hell of it rather than pay them another penny. The bank insisted that I could only get a mortgage through them as thats who the developer banks with.....so they can deal with him now for their mortgage payments, they cant take from me what I dont have!

Hi Sharon,

Sorry for the misunderstanding - I didn't appreciate that you were dealing with the developer's lawyer directly. That makes it even more important that you get an independent lawyer to represent you.

The reason that you could only get a mortgage from the developer's bank is that the developer has mortgaged the land on which the property is being built - no doubt the estate agent, your original lawyer, and the bank 'conveniently forgot' to advise you!

I'm sure the lawyer I advised you to contact will be able to help.

Regards,

I was contacted last week by someone who has complained to the Cyprus Bar Association about the lawyer you mention. The lawyer is appearing in front of the CBA disciplinary board on Wednesday - hopefully they will do the right thing this time around.

Regards,

From the disgraceful stories I have heard, this person should be up in front of a firing squad not some micky mouse committee.

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