Cyprus Property Forum for Buyers, Sellers & Investors

Is there any way of finding out whether my solicitor is working for my property developer as well as me. I have asked but he is ignoring my communication at the moment.

I purchased my property in 2005 and there is still no certificate of final approval which means that the deeds have not been applied for yet. I was not advised by my solicitor that this was not in place and believe it should have been in place before the sale went through - is this correct? I was also not informed of the risk involved in not having my deeds for so long.

Given the above is it likely that I would have a case for negligence at all and how pursuable would this be? Is there any pro bono arrangement in Cyprus that I may be able to take advantage of to pursue?

I am struggling with my mortgage at the moment and have read your posts about the debt travelling back to the UK. The builder has guaranteed the mortgage - how does this fit with your article? Naturally one of my usual routes to resolving this issue would be sale of the property which is not possible at the moment (certainly restricted due to no deeds). This has been caused in my view by all parties negligence - builder for not getting final certificate, sols for not making sure this was in place and bank for releasing funds in these circumstances. Would this be a defence/protection against reposession and all of the impacts following.

Thanks for your help.

cherrink wrote:Is there any way of finding out whether my solicitor is working for my property developer as well as me.

If you would send me a PM with the name of the lawyer and the name of the developer, I may be able to shed some light on this

cherrink wrote:...there is still no certificate of final approval which means that the deeds have not been applied for yet. I was not advised by my solicitor that this was not in place and believe it should have been in place before the sale went through - is this correct?

The lack of a Certificate of Final Approval does not prevent a sale.

cherrink wrote:Is there any pro bono arrangement in Cyprus that I may be able to take advantage of to pursue?

I do not know if Louise takes on Pro Bono work. You will need to contact her directly. You may be entitled to legal aid - see http://ec.europa.eu/civiljustice/legal_ ... cyp_en.htm for more information.

cherrink wrote:The builder has guaranteed the mortgage - how does this fit with your article?

The builder has acted as your guarantor - so basically if you fail to repay the mortgage, the bank will pursue him for payment.

When you buy a property in the UK, the property itself acts as your 'guarantor'. So if you fail to keep up the mortgage repayments your lender can repossess your house to recover the debt.

I suspect that the land on which your property is built was already mortgaged when you bought. As a consequence the property could not be used as collateral for a mortgage because there would have been insufficient value in it to recover your debt if you failed to make your repayments. To overcome this problem, your developer has acted as your guarantor.

If indeed your property was mortgaged when you purchased it and your lawyer failed to advise you of the fact, then he/she may have been negligent. There was a case recently in the Supreme Court on this very issue - you can read more about it at http://www.news.cyprus-property-buyers. ... /id=004686

Regards,