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British property buyer brutally beaten

Jean Christou
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Scam AlertA BRITISH property buyer was hospitalised on Monday after allegedly being badly beaten by the Cyprus property developers with whom he is in dispute, his lawyer said yesterday.

Conor O’Dwyer, 38, who has widely publicised his case on YouTube and on the website lyingbuilder.com, was kicked in the kidneys and had his head stomped on, according to his lawyer Yiannos Georgiades.

Conor O’Dwyer in hospital bed

O’Dwyer had already pressed charges over another alleged beating by the father and son developers in March 2006 while fighting his ongoing property case at court. They were later charged over the assault.

According to Georgiades, on Monday at around 11am O’Dwyer went to the disputed property in the Famagusta district to take pictures of changes to the area around the house to produce as evidence in the land wrangle.

“He thought the photos might prove important later,” said Georgiades.

Upon his arrival, the woman to whom the developers re-sold the house after unilaterally cancelling O’Dwyer’s contract and keeping £75,000 of his money, allegedly “made a phone call” and two men appeared shortly afterwards that O’Dwyer identified as the developers.

“Conor was forced out of his car. One stepped on his head and the other kicked him in the kidneys,” said Georgiades, adding that they also took his camera.

“He was bleeding and there was a crowd of mostly women screaming and shouting for them to stop. He was crying out for help and no one helped him.”

Georgiades said someone eventually called 112 and police showed up with an ambulance. A British woman also took pictures of what was going on, he said.

O’Dwyer was taken to Paralimni hospital and from there sent to Larnaca.

“He has head injuries, external bruising, internal pain in the kidney region and he is badly shaken,” said Georgiades.

Doctors decided to keep him in until today to run tests and X-rays.

Georgiades said he had spoken to police about the incident. “They said they were investigating the ‘accident’,” said Georgiades. “I told them it wasn’t an accident. They didn’t arrest anyone but they did take statements.”

Georgiades said he spoke yesterday with a senior officer at Famagusta CID who said they were dealing with the case. O’Dwyer gave a statement to police yesterday afternoon from his hospital bed.

The senior officer dealing with the case, George Economou, told the Cyprus Mail yesterday police would take statements from all concerned and decide if there was a case to press charges.

“Conor is just giving his statement now,” said Economou. Asked if there would be any arrests, he said he would know more today. “It depends on the investigation,” he said.

Georgiades said he has also informed the British High Commission.

With regard to the previous assault case against the developers, Georgiades said the charges had been dropped by the Attorney-general ostensibly because O’Dwyer had not shown up for a hearing.

But the lawyer said when the last hearing was due, O’Dwyer, who lives in the UK, had been told by prosecutors not to bother coming to Cyprus because the hearing would likely be adjourned.

“He didn’t come and on the day of the court case, the prosecutor said the judge wouldn’t give an adjournment so the proceedings against the two men would be stayed“.

O’Dwyer is now entering the third year of his property saga.

He and his wife were going to buy a house on a development in Frenaros village. However when they viewed the construction area when the project was coming along, they realised the surrounding homes were not those specified in the original plan.

This would have resulted in a total lack of privacy as two balconies on other properties would have been looking into their garden. O’Dwyer has said the reason they had chosen the site in the first place was for the privacy that was promised.

After several run-ins with the developers over the changes to the surrounding area, and although the house is registered to them at the Land Registry given they had paid for most of it, the O’Dwyers subsequently discovered that the developers had sold it to another British family, who now reside there. The O’Dwyers have not received their money back.

When O’Dwyer launched his story on YouTube video, backed up by documents and taped conversations with the developers and their lawyers, Interior Minister Christos Patsalides ordered an investigation in August last year, but no results have been forthcoming.

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007

Cyprus property boost may promise good times ahead

Editorial
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Since joining the European Union (EU) in 2004, Cyprus has been enjoying a major boom in its property market. Despite the unresolved issue of the division of the island between the Greek south and the self-declared Turkish northern republic, the island’s myriad appeals have helped draw the investors in by their thousands.

Low prices, lots of new locations to be discovered, plenty of sun, sand and surf, history and culture, all allied to a familiarity with British customs and traditions which has helped generate a large ex-pat community, have been cited as reasons that southern Cyprus has enjoyed such success since 2004. Now, with the country having just adopted the euro, many expect that even greater monetary and fiscal stability could lead to further growth. Paul Collins, overseas property editor of BuyAssociation, said as much last week.

Yet there is also an internal factor in the growth. Outside investors may see the climatic, scenic and cultural appeals of Cyprus as a good reason to invest, either as a place to emigrate to or as a holiday destination in which to invest in property for the buy-to-let market. But there is also evidence that the government of Cyprus has a very good reason to keep on encouraging investment.

This comes in the shape of new figures from the Cyprus Inland Revenue today which show just how lucrative overseas investors are to the government. The tax revenues in the first eleven months of 2007 were up 43.3 per cent on a year before, a figure the Cypriot Financial Mirror attributed to the property boom. This resulted in an extra €549 million (£409 million) ending up in the coffers of the Cypriot treasury.

With such economic benefits from overseas investment, it may seem reasonable that the policies of the government will continue to seek to encourage investors, with the populace at large also having good reason to be happy about the incomers given their potential gain in terms of schools and hospitals, not to mention the potential growth in tourism which can go hand-in-hand with such a property boom.

Cyprus has apparently enjoyed a smooth transition to the euro so far, with Dow Jones reporting this week that the European commission were happy that the island, along with Malta, was moving ahead well with the adjustment, which involves both the euro and the Cypriot pound being legal tender until the end of January. It stated the process was going “very smoothly and without any noteworthy incidents“. Barring any very noteworthy incidents, Cyprus should be set well for the future as a successful property market.

Assetz Property News Service

Cyprus government rakes in cash from property boom

Editorial
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STATE coffers enjoyed a 142 per cent increase in Capital Gains Tax in 2007, mainly as a result of the Cyprus property market boom.

According to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) website, the IRD collected in total €1.82 billion in the first 11 months of 2007; a 43% increase over the previous year, resulting in an extra half a billion euros. Almost half the increase was accounted for by the rise in revenue from Capital Gains Tax, reflecting last year’s heightened activity in the property market.

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Cyprus property statistics: building permits to Oct 2007

Nigel Howarth
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The Cyprus Statistical Service (CySTAT) has announced that the number of building permits authorised by the Municipal Authorities and the District Administration offices during October 2007 stood at 797.

The total value of these permits reached CYP 144.4 million and the total area 318.1 thousand square metres. These building permits provide for the construction of 1,775 dwelling units.

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Mortgaged property in Cyprus

Nigel Howarth
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Scam AlertI am in the process of buying an off-plan property in Cyprus and my lawyer has written advising me that:

“The bank which has a mortgage on the project will issue a declaration confirming that the separate Title Deed issued for the property will not be burdened with the existing mortgage which is currently filed on site.”

Is this OK? I have read accounts of people having their homes sold to pay back the bank and I’m concerned this may happen to me.

Answer

It’s a common practice for Cyprus property developers to mortgage the land on which they’re building to ‘kick start’ the development.

You need to proceed with caution.

As the bank will not issue a declaration until separate Title Deeds are issued, you are at risk if the developer goes bankrupt or if the bank calls in the loan in the meantime. Bear in mind that it can take many years to get your Title Deeds in Cyprus; I know of people who have been waiting more than 20!

There is also another problem inasmuch as you cannot force the developer to repay the mortgage. So you could end up in the situation of never being able to get Title to the property.

You need to instruct your lawyer to approach the developer and ask him to obtain a “release” from the financial institution that loaned the money stating that the part of the property you’re thinking of buying is free of a mortgage. In addition, you must ensure that the “release” is given when you sign of the Contract of Sale, or you may find it’s not issued.

If your lawyer is unable to obtain a “release”, do not proceed with the purchase. If you buy a mortgaged property, you risk losing everything!

(There’s a chap living a few miles from me who bought a mortgaged property and is currently facing the threat of losing it and his money).

Follow-up

I asked my lawyer to check things out and the whole of the building site is mortgaged to the Alpha bank. He spoke with the builder about getting a mortage release but the builder refused!

I’ve now pulled out and I’m looking for something else that does’nt have a mortgage. If you hear of anything, please let me know.

Thanks for your help.

Right the property wrongs

Nigel Howarth
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Property is a major contributor to the Cyprus economy. The Cyprus Land and Developers Association reported that the Cyprus construction industry has an annual turnover of EUR 1.73 billion. Revenues from property sales to non-Cypriots contribute some EUR 1.21 billion per annum of foreign exchange to the economy of the island.

However, this revenue and the islands’ financial well being are under threat. As many buyers (both expatriate and Cypriot) have found to their cost, buying property in Cyprus can be a risky business. For some, their dreams of owning property have turned into expensive nightmares.

There are many problems. Bureaucratic delays and other impediments result in Title Deeds taking ten, twenty, or even thirty years to be issued; planning and building applications can take two years or even longer to process. (If you missed Channel 4’s damning documentary about the Title Deed problems affecting thousands of Brits who have bought property in Cyprus, watch an 8 minute clip below.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLUDlI6CSCM&w=470&rel=0]

Unscrupulous property developers prey on unsuspecting property buyers. They build without planning and building permits, they sell property that is mortgaged, they introduce buyers to their friends in the legal profession who draw up contracts that give buyers little protection. They demand payment for work that hasn’t been done, and they extort money from buyers using the threat of withholding Title Deeds to elicit payment. They even take loans on property that they have sold and which buyers have paid for in full. Due to outstanding loans on property, planning irregularities and unscrupulous individuals and companies that exploit the system to maximise their income, some buyers may never receive the Deeds to their property.

Developers threaten violence and, in a case currently under Police investigation, two of them allegedly assaulted a British property buyer. So severe was the brutal beating dished out by these louts that the buyer, Conor O’Dwyer, spent several days in hospital recovering from his ordeal.

Cyprus is not isolated from the rest of the world; it cannot hide these failings or try to bury its head in the sand. Foreign media companies are showing an interest in the property issues. Research teams from BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have visited the island and have interviewed dissatisfied property buyers.

Reports from irate buyers are appearing in the foreign media and on the Internet. The British High Commission receives around 100 property-related queries per month. Many British nationals with property problems also write to their Member of Parliament or their Member of the European Parliament. A recently published book condemning the Cyprus property industry is widely available in British bookstores and can be obtained world-wide through Amazon and other multi-national organisations. Such reports and books tarnish the image and reputation of Cyprus.

The future of the Cyprus property industry has reached a crossroads. Unless Government acts quickly to remedy the situation, the damage caused to Cyprus’ good name and reputation could have far-reaching consequences. The financial repercussions resulting from the drop in foreign revenues from property sales and tourism could be catastrophic for the Cyprus economy.

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