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Offer made on Property in Cyprus

Posted: 22 Sep 2019 10:48
by holidayhome107
Hi, thank you for allowing us to join your forum.

My husband and I have a question. We have received had an offer for the purchase of our property in Paphos. The offer is a fair one and we were thinking of accepting. We went to see our solicitor, the same one we used when buying the property 12 years ago and signed a Power of Attorney. It now appears that the purchaser wanted to pay to our solicitor a 'cash' deposit to which he could not accept (understandably). The solicitor has not told us not to go ahead with this sale as we think he would of if he thought it was a dodgy transaction. The deposit money is sitting with the agent and we are back now back in the UK. We are nervous of this sale now because it doesn't feel right to us. We were told by the agent that the buyer took all of his money out of the Bank (when the Banks were having problems in Cyprus because he didn't trust them) and when he tried to put his money back into another Bank so he could buy property the Banks would not accept it. We have told the agent that we would not accept cash in this way and want the proceeds to be paid in the normal way through Bank to Bank from a Solicitor's client account. They are going to see what they can do. Does this sound very suspicious to anyone and can we pick the brains of other members on the forum who have sold a property in Cyprus and what the procedure is for paying over the proceeds. Your help and advice would be very appreciated. All procedures and a step by step selling advice would be really helpful.
Thanking you in advance

Re: Offer made on Property in Cyprus

Posted: 22 Sep 2019 14:26
by Pantheman
Do not accept this, due to strict anti money laundering laws you will have massive problems and no bank will accept it from you.
That is a classic excuse about drawing due to not trusting the banks, but if he has ALL the withdrawal slips then he can rebank it.
Unless the money comes via a bank walk away you will get yourselves into major problems.
In addition there is a due diligence that needs to be done for both buyer and seller to prove source of funds, i doubt he’ll qualify!!!

Personally i would not do it.

Re: Offer made on Property in Cyprus

Posted: 22 Sep 2019 17:28
by Nigel Howarth
I agree with Pan

It smacks of money laundering which, as Pan has said, will get you (and possibly your lawyer) in a heap of trouble.

Regards,

Re: Offer made on Property in Cyprus

Posted: 23 Sep 2019 11:15
by holidayhome107
Dear Pan and Nigel,

Thank you it’s what we thought would be said. I think we all have to trust our gut feeling at all times. Our guts were telling us not to trust this transaction. We will not be entertaining this sale.

It would be really helpful though (I have been on Google and tried to get info) how, if we manage to sell again, this time to legitimate buyers, what the procedure would be.

Thank you again for all your support
S

Re: Offer made on Property in Cyprus

Posted: 23 Sep 2019 16:27
by Pantheman
Once a buyer is found, these are the steps.

1. A reservation fee (usually 3k-5k) is given to YOUR lawyer to remove the property from sale (assuming you have it with agents)
2. A contract of sale is drawn up, usually by your lawyer and signed by both parties. (if you don't have the deeds an assignment contract is drawn up)
3. The Buyer pays the revenue stamps to place on the contract and your lawyer deposits it at the tax office to obtain a tax clearance certificate for you.
4. You settle all of your utilities and local taxes (municipality, sewerage etc if any apply) and you give the receipts to your lawyer.
5. Your lawyer arranges with the buyers lawyer to go to the Land Registry. If you don't have a PoA with your lawyer you need to be present.
6. If there is a title deed, the buyer will pay the transfer fees.
7. If no title deeds and an assignment contract has been drawn up, then the registration charge is usually paid in equal share between the seller and the buyer unless otherwise agreed differently.
8. The buyer can present to your lawyer a bankers draft for the balance of the monies. Or if agreed the buyer can send to your lawyers client account the money BEFORE you complete.
9. If you are being paid in any other currency in say the UK, you need to have cleared funds in your account a day before completing.
10. Somewhere along the line you have to do a due diligence (your lawyer will provide the forms) for the money laundering laws.

Hope this helps.

Pan

Re: Offer made on Property in Cyprus

Posted: 24 Sep 2019 00:41
by holidayhome107
Dear Pantheman

We can’t thank you enough. We will email both agent and solicitor to let them know we will not be going ahead with this sale. Your step by step information is really helpful and we will make sure that if we manage to sell that we use this as our guide.
Many thanks
Kind regards
S

Re: Offer made on Property in Cyprus

Posted: 24 Sep 2019 11:52
by Pantheman
You're welcome.