Final certificate

[Sodyllt]

A quick run down of our position..

We now live in the UK after six years in Cyprus, we have very good long term tenants from the SBA in our Cyprus property, they pay rent thru our UK bank which we declare to HMRC.

We bought the land and had the bungalow built on it in 2007/2008 it was our second property in Cyprus the first was in 2004 which we sold on.

We have the Land Deeds, we have no mortgage. It's a 240 sq m covered inc veranda on 2400 plot. When it was in construction we altered the build to include the covered veranda at front, we also added a pergola along the back, plus had a gazebo built in the garden, we also have ( now completely defunct ) sky dish in the garden. So a change from the plans, the roof for example needed altering to be part of the new covered veranda...

We set in motion amnesty when it first came out, decideing ourselves this MAY be the way to get the certificate correctly, our developer still hadnt sorted this out, so we got in touch with the original architect and she did the necessary, she then asked us for €600 to alter the plans.....needless to say we left and did no more as we thought its just yet another scam....

Btw our developer may not have organised the completion certificate, but the build is excellent, we have no problems with it, other than the much needed certificate...well actually we have a well, ( as do all our near nieghbours ) we are concerned about that having a licence?

We are both registerd with the inland revenue in Cyprus ( we had capital gains tax from our previous sale to pay ) we have land deeds and so far no IPT bill...our tenants are responsible people and are ready to pay for us....my question is this....

Is there anything else we should do from the UK?

The tenants may be staying until April 2016 by then we would like to attempt to sell, to do this we would like to get all our ducks in a row, to at least pass on what is a really good property with ALL it's correct paperwork, then the new buyers can live in peace...

I thought I should start now to get this final certificate of completion ( we've been living in the property since 2008 ) sorted, as it seems to be the one very important document that eludes us.

We won't be able to return to live in Cyprus as I'm now registered disabled, so it's become even more important to attempt to sell as we would like to buy in the UK again.

We thought we've got 18 months to sort this out, so we will start now.

I've been in touch with a number of EAs in Cyprus who advise to leave selling for a while...

But it seems it may not pick up by 2016 either, we though would be happy to get what we paid in 2008....

Thanks in anticipation Nigel I'm sorry if I've waffled, it's a family failing....

Lyn

[Nigel Howarth]

Hi Lyn,

I suggest you each complete a Form 318A - just enter you details on the form and details of the property. Then send it to the tax authorities with clear copies of your passports, Title Deeds and a covering letter of explanation. This should help the tax office to link your property to your tax record and they can send you an IPT notice (I expect you'll receive one for last year also).

If the information the tax office has on you is out of date, you should complete and send Form 163A as well.

You'll find links to the forms at http://www.news.cyprus-property-buyers. ... id=0039392

As for getting a Final Completion Certificate, the most straightforward way to do this is to get your architect to re-draw the plans so they reflect the property 'as built'. Assuming you've not overbuilt on the land this should get you the Certificate and then you (or your architect) can apply to have the house added to the deed.

There's a good change that the LR may have picked up on your house. You can check by following the guide at http://www.news.cyprus-property-buyers. ... id=0018025 where you can find its 2013 valuation - and details of the site coverage etc.

Where is the property exactly? I live in Erimi and we have quite a few MOD hirings in the area.

Regards,

[Sodyllt]

Morning Nigel,

Our bungalow is in Vrysoulles, our tenants are govt workers at Ayias Nicolaus, we had the bungalow up for sale in 2012 without a bite then,they spotted the sign and asked could they rent it. Their secondment finishes in April next year, but his replacement wants to rent it, we've been lucky to find good tenants and tbh very good gardeners! The garden is fully landscaped. It's covered plot is still the 10% allowed on that size of plot ( once agricultural ) so it should be within the requirement, but the plans changed, and we assumed that the architect would hold those changed plans! Apparently not....and she asked for €600 to redo them.

The bungalow is 4 bed 4 bath, the garden is partly covered in stamped concrete, 30 tons of gravel and many trees and shrubs lol.....it's a difficult one to sell on...

Maybe I should get in touch with the developer, who actually used to work part time at Larnaca Land registry! We have nearby nieghbours who all keep a watch on it, they all have bungalows and large plots too, and OH flies over to check every so often. Our tenants also Skype us every so often and ' walk' us around the property, we are lucky.

My OH may have to move back in to sell in future as the place cannot be left alone, but that's how it has to be.

Thanks for the links, I will get onto that this week, I have no probs with paying IPT bills, but I'm not prepared to pay to have plans redrawn when we've already paid for that in the €12,000 extra we paid for the covered veranda! I do have that extra invoice, BUT it doesn't mention altered architects plans on it of course.

Anyway I will plough on with the links you gave and get back to you if we get somewhere with that at least, it may help others if I post what happened.

Thanks again, I hope you're keeping well.