14] Statements by British owner of usurped Greek Cypriot house in occupied Karmi on whether a writ was served
Under the title Lawyer says writ served, but family and court reject claim, Candounas targets Kent couple, Turkish Cypriot weekly Cyprus Today (12-18/1/08) reports the following:
A second British couple with a holiday home in North Cyprus have been targeted by Greek Cypriot lawyer Constantis Candounas with claims that their property belongs to one of his clients.
Mr Candounas, instigator of a similar claim involving the Lapta [occupied Lapithos] home of Linda and David Orams, said this week he had served a writ against Bruce and Barbara Weedon who eight years ago bought the lease of a house in Karaman [occupied Karmi], administered by the TRNC Tourism Ministry.
The couple, who live near Canterbury, Kent, say, however, they have not accepted any writs sent or brought to their home and are now seeking legal advice.
Speaking from the UK, Mr Weedon, a 67-year-old former insurance agent, told Cyprus Today he was aware of four attempts to serve the writ on behalf of Mr Candounas´s client, Vasiliki Zehchiri, who left Karaman in 1974.
We returned home in October, having been abroad for some time and in the post was a letter from the bailiff of Canterbury County Court, saying he would like to see us, said Mr Weedon. When he arrived he told us it was to do with property in Cyprus, so I declined to accept it as I was pretty sure what it was about.
Since then we have had three further attempts to serve the writ on us two by post and one by DHL courier. The most recent attempt was in a letter carrying Greek Cypriot postage stamps which arrived on Tuesday last week.
We have signed none of them and have no intention of doing so because we purchased our right to live in the Karaman house and have spent thousands of pounds on repairing and improving it.
Mr Weedon said his son had opened envelopes containing the writ while they were abroad and told them it was claiming around £60,000 in rent and damages plus return of the house.
I´m pretty sure the woman making the claim was among a group which asked if they could take stones from one of our walls in Karaman as a souvenir because their family had lived there, said Mr Weedon.
I declined to let them do that because the wall had been built since 1974 and therefore had nothing to do with anyone who had lived there before that.
Over the eight years we have had the house we have had several approaches from Greek Cypriots. They seem to have forgotten that Karaman now is nothing like the derelict and deserted place they left in 1974.
Leaseholders like us have made enormous improvements while respecting its original architecture and history.
Mr Candounas told Cyprus Today this week that he had a certificate from the Royal Court of Justice confirming the writ had been successfully served on Mr and Mrs Weedon.He said the Weedons were now legally obliged to appear before the South Cyprus Nicosia District Court within 30 days of November 23, when the writ was officially served.
However, when Cyprus Today contacted the UK court on Thursday seeking confirmation, we were referred to Canterbury Country Court, whose administrative officer, Rita Dobbyn, said: We only have a record of the bailiff´s visit in October, when the writ was refused. If it has been successfully served it must have been by another authority, or by another means. According to our records the writ has not been served.
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