Swiss franc loan

General questions & discussions on Cyprus property related matters
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tquigs
Posts: 5
Joined: 07 Apr 2015 10:59

Swiss franc loan

Post by tquigs »

Hi all,

I'm considering my options in relation to selecting a lawyer to negotiate an ‘out of court’
settlement (of my Swiss franc loan) with Bank of Cyprus and would appreciate any thoughts
in relation to the following:

I have used a lawyer (Constantinos Kalavas) over the years and has been very helpful and
professional in any dealings that I've had with him and recently (due to me wanting shortly
to get negotiations underway with the bank) contacted Savvas Savvides from Michael Kyprianou
as wanted a comparison in terms of costs, experience in these matters etc.

Has anyone had dealings with these gentlemen in terms of negotiating a final settlement with
any of the banks?
Constantinos tells me that he has assisted clients (in settlement negotiations) of Alpha bank
only previously.

Savvas is a partner of the Michael Kyprianou firm and is their Swiss franc loan settlement
specialist apparently.

Their charges are similar but the required additional accounting analyses (for the financial
adviser to supply a report on their findings to show losses etc. for the client over the years)
are more expensive with the firm Michael Kyprianou as one of Savvas's colleagues will be undertaking
that work whereas Constantinos has recommended an independent financial adviser who will charge a lot
less.

So, if anyone has had any dealings (with either of the lawyers) to settle a swiss franc loan then it would
be good to get your view of them.

On a second point, the bank have said that they believe that my property's value is worth more than
the loan outstanding and yet I haven't seen any valuation report at all to confirm this.
The property is in the village of Prodromi (very close to Polis) so I was wondering if anyone could
recommend an independent surveyor in the Paphos district that I could approach to carry out this work?

Finally, my loan has expired (it's at the halfway point of a 30 year term and the bank have a clause
in the loan agreement that stipulates they will review the loan at that point) and I haven't taken any
of the options the bank have offered me so on the 6th (monthly payment would be due on 5th) of next month
then my account will be classed as being in 'arrears' and noticed on the loan statement that there is a comment
that the bank will apply additional interest of 2% on arrears.
I'm wondering if the arrears in my case will apply to the full balance as there has been no new agreement drawn up?
The predicament that I am in is that I don't want to make a monthly payment as it'll work against me in negotiations
as we know that the view in Cyprus is that if you're still paying then it means you can afford the loan terms!

Does anyone know how the arrears would be charged and how quickly any payment would be expected?

Once again, any assistance that can be provided on the points outlined above would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for your time.

Kind regards,

Tom
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