Cyprus-Forum.com

[boomerang]

Foreigners sell houses in KuşadasıMonday, July 13, 2009

Many foreigners who bought property in the resort town of Kuşadası are selling up, according to official figures, while one real estate expert has said foreign-home owners feel helpless and deceived in Turkey.

The Kuşadası Land Registry Directorate has announced that of the 1,100 house sales since the beginning of the year, over 100 belonged to foreigners selling their houses to Turks. It is the fist time the town has such a high number of house sales by foreigners.

Müslüm Yıldırım, vice chairman of Kuşadası Real Estate Agents Association, or KUŞEMDER, told the Doğan news agency that foreigners who bought property in Turkey have lost their faith in the country. “Foreigners who bought property have been dealing with deed issues for years,” he said. “They do not have a place to apply when having problems. They want a Turk to help them with their problems, and that Turk sometimes doest not have good intentions.”

Bernie Glasgow, a British citizen who bought a house in Kuşadası last year, is one of several foreigners who think they have been deceived. “I still haven’t gotten my deed yet, and I hear everyday how some other foreigner is conned just like me,” he said. “I cannot sleep, that is why I have put my house on sale to get rid of the stress. I want to leave, and I don’t think I will be back in Kuşadası again, even for a vacation.”

Sue Emming’s had a similar experience, reported British paper the Western Morning News on its Web site. Emmings spent about 75,000 euros buying and furnishing a two-bedroom apartment in Güllük, Bodrum.

The 57-year-old went through all the proper legal channels to buy the ground-floor flat in the pristine new development. But she never received the deeds to the property and two weeks ago discovered a Turkish woman had "bought" her flat and was demanding rent for it.

“Two weeks ago this local Turkish woman said she had bought my apartment and she did have the deeds,” she was quoted by the Web site.

"She says she was sold my apartment in June last year. Well I bought it in September 2007 and I have made several trips out there to furnish it and take holidays.

"I cannot afford to spend thousands of pounds on legal fees to fight this. I feel so stupid but what has happened is totally criminal."

Yıldırım said property sales to foreigners is about to stop. “All foreigners I know want to sell their houses and leave,” he said. “If precautions are not taken and we don’t do something to address the problems, the situation could have negative effects even on tourism.”

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=burokratik-engeller-ve-dolandiricilik-olaylari-yabancilari-kaciriyor-2009-07-13

Things not doing so well in land of "the world is against us"....

[AWE]

Pot, kettle, black.

Legal stakes raised on title deeds issue
By Charles Charalambous
(archive article - Sunday, June 28, 2009)

THE legal stakes are about to be raised in the title deeds scandal, as a case will be brought before the High Court in London in the coming weeks by property-owners in Cyprus who are still without their title-deeds. All of them are facing additional – and in their view unjustified – financial demands and/or the risk of losing their property.

“We are not just aiming to help individual property-owners, we are pursuing the case in the High Court in order to open the road to create a healthy property system in Cyprus,” Dr Katherine Alexander-Theodotou, who chairs the Anglo-Hellenic & Cypriot Law Association (AHCLA), told the Sunday Mail.

[shahmaran]

The level of shameless hypocrisy is astonishing

Greek Cypriot government taken to European Court of Human Rights
05.06.2009


Turkish Cypriot Lawyer Ata Dayanc has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights against the Greek Cypriot Administration with regard to his family home in the Tahtakale region of South Nicosia. Ata Dayanc will demand at least 2 million euro compensation and the return of the house, which is used by the Greek Cypriots as an elementary school. The lawyer said: “If a citizen was residing in our house, which we had to leave in December 1963, maybe I would not sue but the house is occupied by the state. This state must both compensate for our damage and return our house. A poor British man built a house in the empty parcel of Meletis Apostolides. However, our house is occupied by the state and therefore our case is greater than the Orams case.”
Extensive land in South
Born in Nicosia in 1947, Lawyer Dayanc said that they had real estate in South Cyprus in Litrodonda, Astromerit, Periterona and Orunda villages, Buyuk Kaymakli, Ermu Street and Omerge regions of Nicosia and that so far they had not received anything in return for them. He said that his father, Fethi Ata Dayanc, was born in Larnaca in 1914 and died in 1987. His mother, Fatma Dayanc, was born in Nicosia in 1917 and died in 1984. He said: “Both of my parents and my estate clerkships are approved by the Greek Cypriot court in Larnaca.” Dayanc said that he is also a member of the Nicosia Greek Cypriot Bar Association.
Escaped in 1963
“We had to flee from our home in December 1963,” Dayanc said, “It was a house located next to the Tahtakale Mosque and was constructed by my merchant father in 1956 with two storeys, and six large shops on the floor level. Also there were 12 business sites, which are currently demolished, in the garden.” He said that in 1967, when free passage was allowed, his father went back to see the house: “I assume my father may have received a certain amount of rent between 1967 and 1972, but I am not sure.”
Unlawful occupation by State
The family never received a single penny of rent for the house since 1972, Dayanc said: “When the gates opened in 2003 and I travelled to the South, I learnt that our house had become an elementary school.” He adds: “My house was occupied without my permission. This is a much more severe case than the Orams couple’s case because it is the state that occupied my home.”
Dayanc said that in 2005 he went to the Larnaca court and became an official estate clerk adding: “I asked for an interview with the Greek Cypriot Ministry of Education. I wanted to talk about my damages. I sent a letter on August 6th 2008 stating my demands. On October 7th 2008, Greek Cypriot Ministry of Education Undersecretary Alexandros Kouratos replied with a letter saying that they were looking into the issue and they would inform me. I waited. When I received no more information, I sent another letter on January 12th 2009. I told once again that I was deprived of my right to live in my own house and I was aggrieved. On January 30th 2009, the same person Kouratos sent me the same letter again said: “We are looking into the issue and will inform you.” On 30th March 2009, I told them that I would seek a legal resolution and would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. I received no reply. Now that my file is ready, I will appeal to the court today.”

[boomerang]

just making sure some of us are awake...