No.194
Q.: My dear Mr Loizou. I study your writings in the Greek and English speaking press and I admire your courage for doing it so. Don’t you think that you will have problems with the Civil Service and others who will hold a grudge against you? On my part I wish to encourage you to go on, but noticing your activities and your business, I worry, because we do not have many people such as yourself Mr Loizou.
Dinos Costa.

A.: My dear Dinos I am touched by your concern, but as I have said before in this column, “we” as an office, have a mission regardless. We aim to give back to this country our experiences and hopefully contribute towards a better system of governance.
Regards,
A.P. Loizou
No.195
Q.: I am shocked by your article stating that short terms lets are not allowed, but, yet “everybody does it”. I live in a project where the residents are the tenants and not the owners. I wish this law was enforced Mr Loizou. I now have a reason to complain under the law (as you say).
Laila Michael

A.: In this country my dear Mrs Laila the laws are laxed. Take for example the 100 km speed limit. There is however an “understanding” that up to 120 km is OK. There are good and bad things on this laxed situation, but it can yet serious if one gets a report. So, if you have a problem with tenants, write a letter to the Income Tax Office. You will soon realize that your problem will be reduced.
Regards,
A.P. Loizou

3/29367-td (9.11.09)

No.196
Q.: Dear Mr. Loizou,
just to make sure that I get the figures right:
According to the table presented in the last issue of the Cyprus Weekly,
ALL Paphos sales have been made to foreigners?
Not one to Cypriots? Is this correct or do we have a mix-up of the figures?
Thanks for clearing.
Kind Regards

Peter Häussler


A.: How right you are Peter. We have made a mistake in our printout. The Paphos foreign sales are as follows (2009):

Thank you for noticing.

Regards,

A.P. Loizou

3/29369-td
9.11.09

No.197
Q.: Dear Mr Loizou,

I should appreciate it if you could advise me on a situation which has just arisen. My wife and I bought a new maisonette in a large development in Paphos from a well known developer in 1992 which we used as a holiday home. When we moved here permanently in 1999, we decided to purchase a new house and sold the maisonette back to the developers in November 2000 under a Cancellation Agreement in part exchange for our new house which we also purchased from them. We never received the Title Deeds for the maisonette before it was sold back to them. We have just been informed by the developers that the Cancellation Agreement should have been stamped and that the Income Tax office have demanded that the agreement should be stamped at a cost of €187.59 which they are passing on to us. My question is whether this is a reasonable charge for the developer to impose on us after nine years or should they have known back in November 2000 that the agreement needed stamping and undertaken the necessary procedure at that time. Also, does this sum represent the cost at 1992 values, ie C£109.19 or do you think a penalty has been added in which case is this a fair charge to us or not?

Secondly, although we paid only C£41,000 for the maisonette in 1992 which is way under the C£100,000 at 1980 prices threshold for Immovable Property Tax, we were charged a total of C£749.44 between 1992 and 1998 for IPT based on "C£3.5 per C£1000 of the 65% of the contract sale value". Was this a reasonable charge to us and why did the charge stop in 1998 and not 2000 when it was sold? As I understand it, and please correct me if I am wrong, if we had had Title Deeds for this property, we could have claimed at least part of this sum back from the government. However, as we never received the Title Deeds, I am not sure whether we have a justifiable claim and, if so, against whom. I should really appreciate your advice on this, Mr Loizou. Please keep up your excellent work. Your column is always the first thing I read on a Friday!

Kind Regards,

Tim Wheatley


A.: I suspect that the €187.59 is the cost o the stamps plus some form of penalty. I feel that it is fair that you pay 50%-50% although I must say that the stamps are usually covered by the buyer (is the case both of you).
You are responsible to pay the property tax get the receipt and ask for a refund from the Income Tax Office providing the relevant receipts. The formula adopted by the developer (65% of the sales price) is one way of approaching the issue, but since you will be getting a refund, this is not a major issue. The property tax ought to have stopped when you cancelled the first sales contract, I do not know why the developer did not charge you up to the cancellation date.
I appreciate what you say about the title deed non issue. Assuming that the developer has paid the property tax and you, your share, pay a visit at the Income Tax Office for a refund. I do not think however that it will be an easy job (not having the first deed) being civil service, but it is worth trying.
Regards,
A.P. Loizou


3/29371-td
10.11.09

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