North Cyprus Property | Poorly Regulated TRNC Construction Industry

You would be forgiven if you felt an unqualified hairdresser can do less harm than an unregulated TRNC Construction Industry could do to North Cyprus property purchasers.

I agree, but in the TRNC of course, builder’s can buy anything, allegedly even citizenship if the case of Gary Robb is to be believed. However if you have a successful hairdressing business, oodles of satisfied clients and are doing a very good job, but happen to be British – beware the green eye.

The very worst thing a hairdresser can do is give you a bad haircut/perm/colour and in the fullness of time, your hair will grow and reverse the damage. A builder however can do so much more damage, he could build an unsafe house that will implode on you and has the potential to kill you. He could as in K5, Boyut, Sercem, Santa Fe, Aga, Armacon and so many more, cause you financial harm so severe you may never recover from it. It could exacerbate health conditions and end up causing premature death, indeed it has already done that. What happens to these errant builders? So far very little. Gary Robb was eventually shipped back to the UK but not before he wreaked havoc in the lives of his hapless purchasers.

Maybe Mortgage Law 11/78 section 21 is about to reverse the trend.

The hairdresser however, was accused of fake qualifications and deported. So why such an arbitrary action. Some think it may have a lot to do with a home-grown hairdresser eyeing up a successful business and thinking, “I’ll have some of that”. Then phoning Uncle, Aunt, Cousin, Friend and ensuring the premises become available to them. Of course I would not be so cynical to even imply that. Strange though that shortly after this particular hairdresser was deported a home-grown hairdresser took over the premises. Coincidence, I personally do not believe in coincidences.

Qualifications needed to cut hair but not to build?

Wednesday, August 19, 2009 – by Malcolm Channing

The recent case of a British hairdresser being thrown in jail for allegedly forging a Level 3 City and Guilds Hairdressing certificate he had been told was necessary to run a salon in the TRNC highlights the strange hurdles which foreigners are being asked to overcome whilst a blind eye appears to be turned in the case of locals. Mrs Oral, a hairdresser who runs level 3 C&G courses for hairdressers in the TRNC seems to think that these do more than qualify the recipient to cut and style hair. Not according to the C&G exam board or EU requirements, where they require the Level 4 Salon Management certificate. Oops, it seems very few hairdressing salon owners have this, so they better see Mrs Oral about getting one and in the process have to pay her 7000 TL for it.

Which brings us to the case of unqualified builders. You would think that it would be more important for the TRNC to demand level 3 and 4 qualifications for builders (not in hairdressing, they probably already have that) because the worse you can get from an unqualified hairdresser is a bad haircut and a couple of hundred lira bill, An unqualified builder however could cost you your life savings and even your life.

n many EU countries craftspeople who have been in their trade for many years are often given “grandfather rights” to continue practicing despite not having the level 2 or 3 qualifications currently required to do the job. In the UK workers need a CSCS card to be able to a building job and those new to the industry need to complete relevant course to be given this. There is a strong debate against allowing old-timers to be given these cards without at least a health and safety test.

If the TRNC is serious about harmonising its practices in case there is a settlement and they become responsible for following EU laws then the current ad hoc system will not do. The bulk of the €259 million given by the EU to the TRNC was supposed to be for this harmonisation process but this does not seem to have been applied to the construction industry yet although there seems to be a suggestion that there have been attempts to do so for the all important hairdressing industry.

Even then, I ask myself, are local barbers capable of giving their customers an Afro haircut? I doubt it. Should this 70′s hairstyle return to fashion I feel the TRNC will be ill equipped and will turn to the British hairdressers only to find that they have been excluded and have moved elsewhere in the EU – or have used their skills to become builders.

The twist in the tail of this tale is, the hairdresser in this story is now a stylist in a top hairdressing salon in London.

You Couldn’t Make It Up.

Anon

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