Property owners lobby for their rights

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Property owners lobby for their rights

By Jean Christou (Sunday Mail, June 10, 2007)

HOME owners have announced the launch of the Cyprus Property Action Group (CPAG), the first-ever organised pressure group set up to lobby for their rights.

Dennis O’Hare, one of the founders of the CPAG, which also launched its own website earlier in the week, said the idea kicked off in Peyia in discussions with the local council, which in December saw the election of its first foreign-born representative.

"Most of the expats who came to us had property problems. We had a meeting and we decided to start up an action group and to give them some help," said O’Hare.

"We are reasonable people and polite and do not want to cause a fuss. We want to work courteously and constructively. We do not want to be seen as a bunch of moaners."

O’Hare said the CPAG would not be limited to Peyia and that the group had already been contacted by thousands of people.

"The more people we talked to, the more contacts we got so, we decided to get organised. We are not here to scream and shout. We want to work with the industry. We are all in this together," he added. He said there were massive problems related to buying property in Cyprus and that people’s lives have been ruined.

"Anyone can be a developer here, and we know of someone who sold a house to a couple and decided not to finish it. Now, they are being threatened by these people when they say they want to do something about it. These people come here to retire and this is not an isolated example.

"There are many, many more people really suffering and they have no clue where to turn," he said. The situation was particularly tough on retirees, O’Hare said. He said many of them came here after being made to believe the law was the same as in the UK.

"But it’s not, and some people get into trouble through no fault of their own. We even know some people who have been trying to get their title deeds since 1968."

Leading CPAG are O’Hare, elected Peyia councillor Linda Leblanc, businessman David Ball, and Nigel Howarth, a business consultant.

The group has already talked to the Minister of the Interior and been contacted by people in the industry who say they want to work with them. "Our first task is to quantify the problems and build up a database of several thousand people," said O’Hare. "There were people who were petrified to talk but now we have given them the strength to do that."

The CPAG can be contacted at http://www.cyprus-property-action-group.net, but because some retirees in Cyprus might not be internet savvy, O’Hare said, they can also send their written statements to PO Box 62427, Paphos 8064

One couple’s nightmare

THE NIGHTMARE for Diana and Andy Brannan, who built a house in Peyia in 1990, began in June 2004 when a developer started to dig out much of the hillside immediately below and adjacent to their property, causing extensive damage to their boundary walls. Their garden also started to collapse into a hole, but all complaints to the authorities fell on deaf ears so they had the house valued at £200,000 and put it on the market without success.

"We even dropped the price to £140,000 at one stage we were so desperate. The stress and worry over the next year when we didn't know whether our garden and pool would slip into the abyss is hard to describe," the couple said in a written statement to the CPAG. They said the developer then started to build three-storey apartment blocks adjacent to their property.

"Both in our seventies, we have now decided to cut our losses and move from this nightmare," they said. However, an estate agent told them no foreigner would buy the house, an opinion that proved correct. They are now considering an offer of offer of £135,000 from a Cypriot couple.

"In 2004, three years ago, our house was valued at £200,000, which should equate to around at least £235,000 at today's prices," they said.

"Yet we are now forced to accept £100,000 less to escape this nightmare and our solicitor tells us that we have no one to blame, as under the Cyprus laws and system everything is legal! Needless to say, we have been through a very upsetting and stressful time and had our retirement ruined by what has happened to us."