Cyprus Property Forum for Buyers, Sellers & Investors

Hello Nigel

Since seeing your forum, it is reassuring that someone has taken the home ownership problem seriously.
I was relieved to find a site that gives a more practical approach to answering some problems that are encountered.

In addition to Buyer Beware I think you should add.

“You have to be a lawyer in order to know how to instruct your lawyer to do their job properly”

I have lived in Cyprus since 1998, for the first 18 months working as a consultant engineer for the EAC when Vasilikos power plant was first being constructed, with accommodation provided as part of my employment.
After the job finished I continued to live in Cyprus although working outside of Cyprus, I decided to continue living in Cyprus by renting.

I have since purchased in April 2006 a re-sale apartment in Cyprus, Limassol. And I have my Title Deeds received in Jan 2008 after much chasing and pushing.

I have been through the experience of using a Solicitor that was, and is, useless due to the following reason that I could well have been exploited, and lost my home.

If at any time, if the seller was intent on criminal dishonesty, I would have been left wide open to losing my home, and or spending money on a second solicitor, to sue the first solicitor for at the very least, incompetence, and possibly willful neglect of duty.

This was due to the solicitor’s relaxed attitude, also the inability to listen to my concerns about ambiguous laws and loopholes that were obvious to me.
The solicitor failed to respond with constructive plans or give me answers, to cover my concerns about those laws and loopholes.
I was never answered by the solicitor in writing to those issues that I had raised, just verbal reassurance and delay tactics, everything was being handled by an assistant.

For example “Our office will be closed between these dates due to an internal audit” You can contact in an emergency!!!
Also verbally by phone “the person that is dealing with your case is no longer working for us”
They couldn’t tell me the name of the person who had taken over my case!
They just wanted to bore me with the obvious, that people do sometimes change their employment.
I also had to do most of the leg work in order to obtain a final result.

Thank you for your web site

Mervyn

Hi Mervyn,

I too have been having so much trouble with my lawyer. Its almost like we are invisible and that as we are not in the country out of sight definitely out of mind. I can sense your frustration about it all because everything you had written is exactly how it is with ours. You made me laught when you said we had to be lawyers to know how to instruct your lawyer to work for you. That is so true.

Anyway at least you have your title deeds. I hope the lawyer I'm using is not the same as yours.

Best of Luck
Sheila

Welcome Mervyn,

The way their building here, they're going to need a few more Vasilikos before too long!

I'm afraid that the behaviour of some of lawyers here are part of the problem. My wife and I were out to dinner a couple of weeks ago with an archaeologist whose husband is a lawyer. He said that he did not know of a single case where one lawyer had acted against another in Cyprus. And I think he said that lawyers here deal with some 150,000 cases a year.

There are a few good lawyers about who will do things properly - but we all have the same problem - finding them.

Cheers,

Mervyn
Very well put, glad to hear you managed to get your title at last. What you describe so eloquently is, it would appear, too often the norm. For reasons best known to themselves some lawyers (& it appears to be a significant number) do not appear to have grasped the concept of the lawyer / client relationship. Like you I have all too often had to do the donkey work in obtaining signatures from individuals, securing forms from tax & land registry offices etc that any self respecting lawyer would have done as part & parcel of their job. One could be forgiven for thinking that their view perhaps is that the client is an irritating inconvenience. How in heavens name can we, the paying client, have any hope of choosing a lawyer who will listen to our general needs & take a proactive role in securing our best interests in good time.
I despair.