North Cyprus Property | 3% Transfer Fee Reinstated

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

I have just been sent the following which is said to have appeared on the Citizens Advice Cyprus FaceBook page yesterday. I am no longer allowed even to see it. I am reproducing as accurately as possible, no changes made:

“LATEST GOVERNMENT NEWS…..

After our last few close meetings with the Interior Ministry we have had some great positive news with regards to changes of laws where foreign nationals are concerned.

A group of us representing the Stop the Blackmail facebook group and Citizens Advice Cyprus attended a meeting with Government Officials and were told about the new changes they are awaiting to be passed…

Approx time span being between 3 to 5 month this is what we were told… So what are their new proposals?

1) we were told that after consideration the once in a life time transfer fee 3% which the rights were taken from all foreign nationals we be reinstated..So anyone wishing to transfer the price of the transfer will be coming down!!! from now 6% to 3% Thank you government!

2) An amnesty will be out very shortly enabling people who have not registered their contracts with the Land registry, which by law should be done within 28 days of the date of the contract, you will soon be able to stamp and now register your contracts of sale!

The government official from the Interior Ministry has said he will in future be working with us for the needs of property victims in North Cyprus …WHAT A RESULT.

Please keep watching this page for the latest updates WE WILL KEEP YOU INFORMED…”

So to summarise, the long existing status quo where you were given a 3% discount on transfer of title has been reinstated. But you might have to wait 3 to 5 months. You will recall this was arbitrarily removed for all foreign nationals but left in place for Turkish Cypriots. Well I remember the Finance Minister being dropped off outside a bar of a friend of Pembe’s in Girne one evening where Pembe had arranged an impromptu meeting between the three of us. I remember it well. Mr Tatar was at pains to tell me he was disgusted with the Bank, he had resigned his Directorship of that Bank when he became a member of Parliament, that in fact he hated the Bank. When I also challenged Mr Tatar about taking the once only discount from foreign nationals. his reply was ‘you bought cheaply’. I then told him that the action was racist, that we all paid the same prices. Of course at the time of the meeting I had not realised that Mr Tatar had undergone a ‘grilling’ in Parliament that very day about his Directorship of Akfinans Bank Limited, I only became aware when I read it in Afrika Newspaper (front page) the next day.

Number 2 is interesting and would be entirely unnecessary if the Advocates employed in such cases had done their job properly. I, of course, would have pointed this out which is why I never would have made it in the diplomatic service.

Two other things that would have been different if I had attended this meeting and written this report. The date and time would have been published. The names of all those present would have been published. I can see no reason why that would compromise anyone acting in good faith.

The second occasion I met with Mr. Tatar was also interesting. He spent a good deal of the time losing his temper and shouting at me and Pembe sitting by and saying not one word. I have been accused of being unfair to Mr Tatar because he shouted at me. Not true, I was exposing his little gaffes long before he shouted at me and frankly I have been shouted at by better. It was amusing really because when he finished his ranting at me about the Directorship, I asked him just one question. “Was it a lie?” At this point he left the room. You can read all about this in a previous article on NCFP.

I know we all want to see change, but this has been going on for many years, with little concessions being made and then taken back. We all remember the Property Complaints Office opened as a sweetener to stop a demonstration outside the the new Parliament building on its opening day. We all remember taking our cases in (dressed appropriately) and then nothing happening. We all remember it being changed to the Property Advice Office and then quietly disappearing. We remember the 5 wise men committee, the three man committee, the Relief of Mafeking (sorry getting carried away). So many rumours that a K5 solution had been found. Action, not words is what we need.

Some will benefit from the about face on the transfer fee, but those who have paid the 6% on a valuation that bears no resemblance to market conditions will feel well shafted.

As usual it is a question of too little and, for those who have already paid their 6%, too late. If the Government were serious about helping, they would have started the process years ago. Tinkering around the edges is just not enough.

Never give in never give up.

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