Cyprus Property Action Group

Navigation

Developers and their Role as Inland Revenue Agents

Here’s story that may sound familiar to some of you. It concerns a property developer in Paralimni by the name of Karma, who appears to be acting as an agent for the Cyprus Inland Revenue Department.

Alex Clark has written to us. He, and a number of other people, bought from Karma Developers at Kapparis, near Paralimni. This is his story.

Three year ago I bought a property at Kapparis, which is near Protaras. It was built by Karma Developers who have offices in Paralimni. My lawyer was George Mintis, who also has offices in Paralimni.

According to their website, Karma Developers has a "firm commitment to provide a high quality service regarding the acquisition of residential and holiday property on the East Coast of Cyprus. The philosophy from the start has been "quality not quantity" and an unfaltering promise to honour all obligations to clients".

The property cost me CYP 62,000 and in the three years since I bought it, the site has never been completed; there is no mains electricity, there is no mains water, and the roads have not been built.

I was so frustrated and disillusioned by the situation I decided to sell; fortunately I found a buyer. This is when my problems really started!

Even though I'd paid for the property in full, Karma Developers demanded CYP 2,500 to allow me to sell the property. They then demanded a further CYP 1,100 for sewerage charges and land tax and CYP 4,000 for Capital Gains Tax!

Not once did Karma give me a receipt (official or otherwise) for any of the CYP 7,600 I gave them - did they pay any of this to the Inland Revenue? What do you think !!

My total selling costs were more that £12,000 (sterling). My lawyer, George Mintis, did nothing to assist me in any way and the sale took nine months to go through!

In three years I made just CYP 3,000 on my investment.

Buying a property in Cyprus was not one of my best investment decisions – quite possibly my worst!!

I’ve learnt my lesson and I hope others will learn from my experience. Never, ever again will I buy property in Cyprus!

Alex Clark