News service, CyprusExpat has been contacted by a British couple who have been victims of a property fraud in Cyprus.
There are many more victims of this fraud, and time is running out for all of them. Below is the first message received.
"Thousands of us bought property off plan from a Cyprus property developer and the mortgages were organised mainly though one of the large local Cyprus banks.
The solicitors, bank and developer have colluded by using falsified Power Of Attorneys, allowing the solicitor to sign the morgated documents on behalf of the purchaser without discussion and allowing drawdowns at the request of the developer and in some instances all monies have been taken but the properties either remain unfinished or not even started.
The bank are now issuing out writs to all and if undefended they are applying for an EEO and seizing our homes in the UK.
Its disgraceful given how corrupt this whole process is and yet they are just railroading through.
We urgently need help with this mess as a lot of us who cannot afford legal representation have only until 31st Dec 2014 to instigate this or we become time barred from taking any action whatsoever.
The level of debt for example has gone from borrowing £95,000 and now sits at £204,000, the bank are looking for payments of £1250 pcm, this is for a one bedroom apartment (unfinished)
If you require a more detailed account, please do not hesitate to contact me."
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CyprusExpat asked for more details, and this is the reply it received.
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"Here are the facts so far;
In my case I went over to see what was available off plan as I didn’t want an apartment in 2007 due to work commitments so 2010 suited me perfectly.
I met with the Cyprus developer and they showed me around various sites. I settled on a property in Paphos, a one bed apartment with partial sea view.
I reserved the property, the developer then gave me a list of local solicitors and took me to one of them. The lawyer informed me that the contract was fine for signing and that a Power of Attorney(POA) was required to make it easier for drawdown during the build process.
The lawyer confirmed the land had no encumbrances and also informed me that the POA did NOT require to be notarised. (This is completely untrue)
I returned home to the UK to my partner for both of us to sign both the contract of sale and POA then return them by post.
The solicitor then had the document notarised and proceeded to take out a mortgage for the property without discussing the terms of business.
The lawyer did not adhere to the part where the lawyer should have checked the build stage v the drawdown requests. The lawyer implied all was well and continued to allow developer drawdowns as did the bank.
I withdrew the POA when I got informed that there may be an issue, and the lawyer was not happy. Since then I have paid over nothing to the developer. I have since discovered that the contracts of sale were drawn up by my a member of my solicitors family, who is in the same firm.
In Sept 14 this year the CCPS deemed the contracts to be unjust and illegal due to several of the clauses being in favour of only the developer and affording no protection for the buyer.
I was taken to the branch of the bank by the developer and the only thing they asked for was passports and a letter stating that income wouldn’t likely change in the foreseeable future.
The bank broke several of their clauses within their contract, they did not follow the banking codes and yet they are hounding and trying to repossess peoples homes. It is the developer who has all the cash and incomplete properties and yet they pursue us.
To stop interest being charged I asked the bank to transfer the money in the Escrow account into the loan account and they refused until I paid the balance over to the developer. I refused so it still sits in the Escrow allowing the bank to charge more and more interest and yet they state that they have nothing to do with the developer.
The developer was due to have the properties complete in 2010 and to date they remain unfinished. They have harrassed, and even chased us off the site when we tried to get updates. There are other sites that have foundations only yet they have been allowed to take all the drawdowns from the accounts. Within the banks contract they state that an architect certificate or similar must be provided throughout the build, but I have requested this and still waiting on it being produced years down the line.
At the end of the day we will never be in a position to own the properties as the developer has a huge loan on the land issued by the bank, therefore getting title deeds will be nigh on impossible and we could be left liable for all the developers debts and taxes.
There are loads of other facts I could go on and on. We have people who have committed suicide due to the stress, others have moved to the other side of the world to try get away but the long and short of it is we are looking at losing our UK homes due to these corrupt and greedy people."
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CyprusExpat commented this eveing that questions are being asked in the European Parliament and are to be tabled in the House of Commons.
The legal mess in Spain over illegal property and town hall/developer scams finally is receiving some attention, rather than the authorities continuing to pretend nothing is wrong as Expats lose their property and will to live.
Swift action now is needed in Cyprus where corruption has been a part of life for so long that the bankers and lawyers in these cases are willing not only to collude in this large scale scam, but also to imagine they are behaving honourably while fleecing their customers.
These cases receive worldwide attention and deter people from investing their money in countries where the developer, and even the lawyers and the bankers all are at it.
The normal mantra trotted out in these cases is Caveat Emptor, 'buyer beware,' but in cases involving the mortgage lender, the legal team and the developer, the 'emptor' seems to have taken every possible precaution.
UPDATE
31 Oct 2014
British investors in Cyprus have been subjected to a massive fraud with the purchase of property in Cyprus. They have been subjected to the mis-selling of foreign currency mortgages, in a scam that could lead them losing their UK homes. We published an article earlier on this matter, see here
Following the publication of the article, CyprusExpat was contacted by one of the law firms based in the UK which are instigating collective actions against banks that have been selling these foreign exchange mortgages.
It writes:
Cyprus Property Scam
We are indeed instigating collective actions against most of the banks in Cyprus (Alpha Bank, Emporiki, Bank of Cyprus, Laiki, Hellenic and National Bank of Greece) for foreign currency (Swiss Franc/Japanese Yen) and Euro/GBP loans as foreign currency exchange losses are not the only losses these people have suffered.
We have also been defending EEOs in this country, the UK, but please do warn your readers that the longer they wait the costlier it will be to undo the action taken by the Bank, as we need to undo every step in the process which requires appearances in court both in the UK and in Cyprus.
They also need to be careful not to file a defence in Cyprus if they want to claim that their matter falls under English jurisdiction.
Finally, there is a deadline of 31/12/2014 to file but given that they would need to join a collective action in the UK first before they also file a protective action in Cyprus, they really have days rather than weeks to move.
If you are interested in joining the collective action, please contact us: http://www.cyprusexpat.co.uk/contact
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Article reproduced with kind permission of
Update 03 November:
The bank involved is offering to 'let off' clients who pay 45% of the outstanding debt. At that point it will cancel the contract and retain the property.
So, not only are its customers being asked to pay 45% when they all have paid deposits, the bank retians the property for resale if ever completed.
