Cyprus Property Forum for Buyers, Sellers & Investors

Hi Nigel,
How would you advise paying a deposit for your property when you have agreed a price with the seller through an agent?
Would you advise sending the funds to a cypriot account,then say writing a cheque out to your chosen Lawyer and asking the lawyer to hand over the money and make the offer through your Lawyer?
I was told by one Estate Agent, who I know is not a licensed Estate agent but has many outlets on the island, would accept a deposit using payment via credit card if and when a price had been agreed with the seller.
Do you advise paying the Estate agent directly and if so in what form of payment?
I have put in an offer on two properties and have a further few we would like to purchase if the offers are not accepted and would like to know whats steps to protect myself if an offer is accepted.
Regards Cliffyamo

Hi Cliffyamo

What I suggest you do is make the payment via a lawyer - and ask him/her to check out that everything's OK with the property (title, mortgage, etc) before handing it over to the vendor/agent.

You should also consider having the property professionally inspected (to make sure there are no problems with it) and valued (to make sure that you're not paying over the odds).

Many agents ask for a 'non-refundable' holding deposit/reservation fee - and when they get this they take the property off the market. But you need to have an agreement which states the circumstances under which your deposit will be refunded - otherwise you have no chance of getting it back if there are problems with the property.

Getting the money here from the UK is another 'problem'. It can take around 15 working days for a cheque to clear and the banks here also charge depositing money in an account. So you may think your sending over €2,000 but only €1950 appears in your account.

You should use an independent lawyer to handle the purchase on your behalf.

Regards,

"What I suggest you do is make the payment via a lawyer - and ask him/her to check out that everything's OK with the property (title, mortgage, etc) before handing it over to the vendor/agent."

"Getting the money here from the UK is another 'problem'. It can take around 15 working days for a cheque to clear and the banks here also charge depositing money in an account. So you may think your sending over €2,000 but only €1950 appears in your account."

"You should use an independent lawyer to handle the purchase on your behalf." quote

Thanks Nigel,
So the deposit should be issued via your lawyer along with conditions as above.

If you have a Cyprus Account and deposit say 2000 Euro into your Cyprus Account (over the counter of your Cypriot Bank ) while over in Cyprus and have a Cyprus chequebook and write out a cheque to your lawyer for your deposit on the property, does it normally take around 15 working days and will they still charge such a high fee for depositing? 0.5%

I could easily get a flight out along with a cash deposit payable to my lawyer to make the offer of the deposit on the property.
But what about the final payment, to avoid deposit charges payable to your bank for the property purchase, do you recommend sending the final whole amount payable direct to your lawyers bank account through a currency specialist and then ask your Independant Lawyer to pay for the property purchase.
Wont the Lawyer also be charged for having had deposited such a large transaction ie 170000 euro into their bank account?
I would like to have a complete track back facility for the handing over of any money in my purchase of a property.
Regards

As far as I'm aware, there are no charges for depositing € in cash in a Cyprus bank account. The Bank of Cyprus has a list of its charges on its website at http://www.bankofcyprus.com/main/Files/ ... es_eng.pdf - I expect the other banks make similar charges.

It takes around 15 days for foreign cheques to clear (and I believe it can take longer if the cheque is over a certain amount). I've been told this is because the banks in Cyprus contact the issuing bank in the UK. I know this seems a long time, but it can take up to 6 weeks for a cheque issued in the US to clear in the UK.

Normally, your lawyer will set up a client account for you into which your money will be paid. This is a non-interest bearing account - and I'm sure that any decent lawyer will provide you with invoices, receipts, etc to track back payments on the property.

There are a million and one currency specialists that will help get your money from the UK to Cyprus. You need to check these out and see which one offers the best rate/service for your particular situation.

I think the only way you can avoid paying bank charges on depositing €170,000 is to bring it over in cash - but the chances are you'll need to prove that it's from a reputable source and you're not trying to launder it.

PS There is a thriving 'rubber cheque' industry in Cyprus. According to a report in the local papers a couple of days ago, the value of cheques that bounced in the first five months of 2008 was €1,82 million.

Cheers,

Hi there, we usually send the money via a currency bank, we use Hifx or Smart Currency depending on the rate they give. They are very quick and efficient, always let you know when the money has been transferred and usually give a better rate than any high street bank. We are charged usually something in the region of e12.50 receiving charge but as far as I know you can claim this back from the currency bank. So far so good we haven't had any problems in this regard.

Regards
Sheila