New Member - Sheila

[slwright]

Hello there my name is Sheila :D and I am living in Bishops Stortford Hertfordshire with my husband and three grown up children. (One due to marry in March this year). I am so pleased that I found these forums because firstly I am finding them very interesting and by just looking through have had some of my questions answered and secondly it is comforting to know that loads of people are or will be buying in Cyprus too.
My husband and I are buying a property in Paphos, Konia Village. We are buying from Aristo Developers and the property is due to be built by January 2009. Is there anyone else who is buying from these Developers if so it would be great to hear your views on them.

All the best, hope to hear from someone soon.

Sheila

[Nigel Howarth]

Hello Sheila & welcome,

So you're a year away from living in Cyprus. I remember my last holiday here - a year before we moved here permanently. I almost phoned my company up to tell them I wasn't coming back!

I hope everything works out and if you have any specific questions feel free to ask.

Regards,

[slwright]

Hello Nigel, :D

Thank you for your welcome. I do know what you mean, we can't wait to be able to call Cyprus our home but unfortunately our other two children haven't qualified from their courses yet so it could be a couple of years yet. We intend to spend as much holiday time as possible over there though.

I wish I had found your forum a long time ago. I thought I was pretty clued up but now realise that I was nowhere near. No disasters as yet but some potential ones I reaslise now. I went cold when I read your article about the case where a person received a letter from the developer saying the title deeds were ready and gave them a bill for almost half of what they paid the property for. Thankfully it has been found to be a scam and only through these forums do people really get to know. I have read with interest your advice on buying a property in Cyprus which made me look at our Contract for Sale. Unfortunately now (I know its too late) but I feel on looking at the Contract a little more closely that it is slightly in favour of the developer and have emailed my lawyer to review and explain certain clauses (which I feel he should have done right at the beginning - and we should have insisted). I really do not like surprises so if we do have to pay extra then I would like to know about it now so I can budget for it. We fell into the trap of letting the agent take us to a solicitor as you have probably guessed.

Anyway hopefully we will be lucky with our developer and lawyer - I feel they are genuine though but you can never be sure.

All the best
Kind regards
Sheila

[Nigel Howarth]

We fell into the trap of letting the agent take us to a solicitor as you have probably guessed.

I wish I had a pound for everyone that did this - I'd be a millionaire!! It has to be the second most common mistake people make.

My wife & I had dinner the other evening with an archaeologist and her husband - a litigation lawyer. He was telling me that there are around 150,000 litigation cases every year in Cyprus - and there's only about 500,000 people living here. It has to be the 'ambulance chasers' paradise.

Regards,

[slwright]

Hi Nigel

Whats the first mistake? Could it be buying in Cyprus in the first place????? Watch this space for any news on my lawyer coming back to us within the next day or so!!

[Nigel Howarth]

Hello Sheila,

The first mistake is - Not doing enough (or any) independent research. Some people get taken in by the marketing hype and buy property off the Internet without even visiting the island let alone seeing what they're getting for their money or where it's located.

Cheers,

[slwright]

Hello again

Thankfully we didn't buy our property off the internet. We did visit several times and we knew on our first visit that it was the place for us. Our second was to look for suitable accommodation for ourselves and our family to enjoy for holidays (we are at least 10-15 years away from retiring) and we thought we had looked into everything for the buying process of Cyprus but our first fundamental mistake, it would seem, was in believing that the conveyancing was the same as back in Britain and our second mistake was letting the agent take us to a lawyer he knew. The advice given on certain websites are conflicting though and it is difficult to see past your hopes and dreams. One good thing, I do have the "right to sell" clause in my Contract so perhaps the lawyer is working for me on that part at least.

I am assuming we have made a mistake but of course I will not know for sure for some time yet. I am just hoping that its not all "doom and gloom" and that there are still some decent people around.

Because of these forums though people will know what to look out for and will hopefully take the advice of some very knowledgeable people before they take the step and save themselves some heartache.

All the best
Kind regards
Sheila

[Nigel Howarth]

Hello Sheila,

No, it isn't all "doom and gloom" - I didn't have a problem and I know many other people who've not had problems.

We all face the same situation when we buy here - finding someone we can trust. I bought here in 1992, when things were much quieter and the buying frenzy hadn't really started. I could have easily made a mistake, but I was fortunate enough to have an introduction to a company here who gave me much good advice!

But there are so many people here jumping on the property bandwagon, finding trustworthy people today has become more difficult. You're right - there is a lot of conflicting information out there, which makes it all the more difficult.

Regards,

[MC]

Sheila
Hopefully you will have had the assurances you need by now & that you will be able to look forward to many happy years of visits before you retire. You are obviously giving yourself the best of chances by asking the pertinant questions early. Please ensure you get satisfactory answers to each & every one of them.
There is hopefully nothing to be alarmed about in your case but I must admit that I had one hell of a job getting to the stage I am now, since 2005, and I can speak the language. It must be an almost impossible situation for anyone who cannot, should a problem arise.
Mike

[slwright]

Hi Mc,

We have managed to get answers (at last) from our solicitor. Very reassuring, very apologetic for taking so long etc. I have to say though I was relieved, I just wanted to get everything down on paper. We are going to Cyprus in June, so hopefully we will see big changes in the development at that time.

Has everything sorted itself out for you?

All the very best.
Sheila

[MC]

Shiela

Apologies for the delay in responding but I am very pleased to hear you are now sorted. I guess like anyone else all you needed was re-assurance that everything was bona fide, legal & above board. Not too much to ask is it.

Thank you, I have managed to sort my problems out, however not in the gentlemanly manner I would have wished for, but I was not the one trying to deceive & commit the fraud. I now expect my deeds in a couple of months. At least that is what the officials at land registry told me.

All the best

[Nigel Howarth]

Hi Sheila & Mike,

Pleased to hear that you've managed to get things sorted (although, Mike, not in the way that you may have wished).

Trying to communicate with many organisation/companies here by e-mail and telephone is generally pretty hopeless. I don't know if it's something in the local psyche or whether people are reluctant to commit themselves?

Regards,

[pippin]

Hi Sheila,
Has your contract got a clause which states the maximum cancellation fee is if you decided to sell?
Some developers (especially the bigger ones)will charge £10k just for signing the cancellation papers.
It only costs about £500 in land registry fees so the developers make thousands of pounds just for putting their signature on the papers.
The solicitor that we use makes sure that the most that can charged for cancellation is £1k.
The mamximum anyone should ever have to pay is £2k and even that is too much in my opinion.
If you do not have a clause you could find yourself with exorbitant cancellation fees unless you try to get that clause put into your contract now.
By the way my husband and I live in Konia, just up the road from the new Aristo Development.
You are welcome to look us up when you come over in June if you wish. We might be able to give some tips and advice.

Regards Veronica(pippin)

[slwright]

Hi Veronica,

I'm not sure if my post got through or not, it doesn't seem to have so I am sending another in answer to your question.

The Cancellation clause I have in my contract states that there will be a fee equal to the tranfer tax fee (which I believe to be around 3% as my husband and I are buying in joint names) - we are not planning on selling the property for a long time so we are not too worried about this. We are told that these developers do not delay the production of separate title deeds (we shall have to wait and see). We are just looking forward to having lots and lots of family holidays and once we have our title deeds then we may think about settling in Cyprus permanently.

Its good to know that you know of the development and it would be nice to meet with you when we come over in June so if you want to email me it will be nice to hear from you.

All the best.
Sheila

[RayGun]

Hello there my name is Sheila :D and I am living in Bishops Stortford Hertfordshire with my husband and three grown up children. (One due to marry in March this year). I am so pleased that I found these forums because firstly I am finding them very interesting and by just looking through have had some of my questions answered and secondly it is comforting to know that loads of people are or will be buying in Cyprus too.
My husband and I are buying a property in Paphos, Konia Village. We are buying from Aristo Developers and the property is due to be built by January 2009. Is there anyone else who is buying from these Developers if so it would be great to hear your views on them.

All the best, hope to hear from someone soon.

Sheila

Hi Sheila,

Yes l bought from Aristo at Secret Valley, has not been a great experience, they are very amateur, there finish isnt great, and if you upgrade anything they really rip you off with the price.
They have been bought out by Dolphin Capital Group who have signed up Tony Jacklin to build 2 new Golf Courses but that was a year ago and nothing has happened, could be die to the critical water shortage in Cyprus. There is ZERO infrastructure built at Secret Valley nad nothing is moving in that direction at all.

Aristo are a very average company, we were tricked by the salesman, who lied through his teeth about a number of things.

Anyway l wont go on just check everything several times, TRUST NOBODY and you wont be dissappointed.

Good luck

Freddie