Court Summons received from Cyprus Bank

[melwil]

Just to let everyone on here know that I have had a summons served on me in the uk by a large Cyprus bank raising a court action against me in Cyprus Court for non-payment of mortage payments on a Cyprus property. I am lodging my defences to the action. I lost my job due to redundancy in the uk and had to stop repayments.

The power of attorney under which the mortage documents were signed is invalid/illegal ie it was not signed in front of a commissioner nor witnessed, nor did I see the mortage documents that I was being signed up to until a year after the mortgage started. The developer has also mortaged the land on which the property was built prior to the contract of purchase, which was not disclosed to me by my lawyer (a reknowned lawyer in Paphos), nor the developer, nor the bank, prior to purchase or the loan being agreed.

[Nigel Howarth]

Hi melwil and welcome to the forum,

I'm sorry to hear that you have lost your job & that a bank in Cyprus is taking action against you for non-payment of your mortgage.

There have been a couple of cases recently that may help you.

In April last year, the Supreme Court found Paphos lawyer Nicos Papacleovoulou to be professionally negligent in his dealings with a British couple who bought property here - you can read about this case at http://www.news.cyprus-property-buyers. ... /id=004686

Also, my mole in Nicosia tells me that another Paphos lawyer was recently disciplined and fined by the Cyprus Bar Association's Disciplinary Committee for signing a mortgage agreement under Power of Attorney without sending the client details of the agreement or providing and details of the mortgage.

Can I ask when and where your case is being heard?

Regards,

[melwil]

Nigel,

The District Court of Paphos. The date for a hearing has not yet been set.

When I originally defualted on the loan due to being made redundant I kept the bank informed of what was happening all the way, and asked If I could amend the terms of the loan to be more favourable (bearing in mind I had not seen the terms of the original loan until approx a year after they were signed) until the situation remedied itself, at which point the bank committee demanded that I pay them 70,000 euros of the loan for them to amend its terms. Clearly if I had 70,000 euros sitting in my account I would be paying the loan.

Next thing I get a call from the bank saying the wished to discuss taking back the property and cancelling the loan, to which I got no response when I followed it up with phones calls/email. Shortly thereafter, I received the court summons. The bank seems to be very callous in messing its customers about who are in financial difficulties and dont seem to want to do anything to help remedy the situation. I have kept the bank informed of my situation at all times and feel they have just messed me about and been very un-reasonable. I have also repeatedly told them I have no assets in the uk for them to come after so by raising the court action I have no idea what they are trying to acheive here.

Is the Paphos lawyer you refer to a certain lady lawyer known for being convicted and jailed of serious traffic violations and being pardoned by the prime minister? Did you mole, say whether the person who did not see the terms of the loan they were signed up to was nevertheless bound by them.

[Nigel Howarth]

melwil,

I received a number of emails from people telling me that they had been telephoned with similar offers by a Greek bank operating in Cyprus. Here's a transcript of one of the messages:

"This is ****** calling from ***** Bank in Cyprus regarding your Cyprus property, the bank is willing to discuss with your developer the return of it, so if you would like to speak with me in regards to releasing you from your obligations to the bank you have to call me on 0035726******."

I was never able to get to the bottom of this.

Regarding the Paphos lawyer, you may believe it was the same one who was sentenced to jail for serious traffic offences, but I can't confirm or deny. As you may appreciate, I have to be very careful what I say in an open forum.

As for being bound by the terms and conditions of a mortgage about which you had no knowledge, you'll need to take legal opinion on the matter.

Regards,