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Income Tax in Cuprus |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| Last year we purchased a house in the Paphos area. The house is valued at considerably less than £100,000 and is over 15 years old. The title deeds (now in our names) show the 1980 value as £16,915.15. We were under the impression that property had to be valued at over £100,000 at a certain date for property tax to be levied. This is the second time this has happened to us - our previous property was in Limassol, so we need some clarification on the legal position.
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| 12/10/2008 |
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Cost of building an ordinary house in Cyprus |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| Q.: What is the building cost for building an ordinary house Mr Loizou? We are informed of all sorts of prices, that we do not dare prepare plans and seek tenders, if from the outset the cost is outside our budget.
James & Jannett Hilton |
| 05/10/2008 |
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Bank guarantee |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| What is the cost of a Bank guarantee Mr Loizou? We are buying a home and because of many reasons, we have requested the developer to provide us with a Bank guarantee, guaranteeing the building’s stability. We have asked around and we are told all sorts of charges, ranging from .5% to 1.80% p.a. on the amount of the guarantee. The seller refuses to cover this cost.
J&K Iangton |
| 28/09/2008 |
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VAT Refund |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| Our hats are down for your great advise and information in related to property issues. With thank you anticipation, please, can you give advise/information for the following:
1. We bought this small detached house in 2006 through bank housing loan in Engomi Nicosia, it is built on a plot with three houses on it. All three of us have the titles of their land with housing plans by contractor's architect, but no final approval for the houses.
What are the benefit of the final approval ? as we bought the house through bank housing loan and no body had asked us for the final approval of the house.
One of our friend said "no benefits" while you have the land title. By taking this house final approval "a paper" we will have to pay more tax (now on land and house). Please, advise.
2. This is about the sewage system charges we pay, while we don't have any one. Do we have the right to refuse to pay these charges ?
3. The last one is about VAT, our present house had no VAT to pay as built before the law passed. Now we are planning to buy another bigger house with VAT to live-in but to keep the old house for our daughter.
One contractor told us that as we will be living in the new house, our VAT will be refunded, is it true |
| 21/09/2008 |
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Town Planning Zones |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| Mr Silikiotis, the Minister of the Interior has announced in the press that local authorities will have the major say in the change of the town planning zones. Is this a good idea Mr Loizou?
Stelios Christou – ex Lands Officer |
| 14/09/2008 |
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Tranfer fees on shares |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| Q.: We own a house and we are going to have it transferred on our own name in two ½ shares. We are aware that the transfer fees are paid on an increasing scale. Will the transfer fees be calculated separately thus having reduced transfer fees or as a total?
Larry & Phidis Good |
| 07/09/2008 |
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Transfer of Title Deeds |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| At long last our title deeds are ready and we have been invited to attend for the transfer. We are told by our next door neighbor that notwithstanding the fact that she bought the property 10 years ago, the Lands Office demand transfer fees as on the date of transfer. Our solicitors gave us all sort of explanations, which confused us more, than giving us a clear down to earth answer. Please can you help us?
Alley Ireston (Mr & Mrs) |
| 31/08/2008 |
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Global economic situation |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| I have watched you in two t.v. interviews regarding the global economic situation and its affects on the Cyprus property market. Why don’t you publish your thoughts Mr Loizou in this paper. I am sure many people would like to know since your opinion is valued. |
| 24/08/2008 |
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Convertion |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| We are permanent residents in Cyprus now and we have just bought a property. We do not yet have the title deeds (yet). We have a covered carport which comes into the build allowance on the plans. We were considering as this is already classed as covered living space, would there be anything stopping us from converting and making it into a kitchen |
| 17/08/2008 |
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Title Deeds - Contract of Sales |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| Six years ago our landlord (of 4 years) bought a triangular plot of land in our area for which he obtained planning permission for 3 very different houses.
• Each house sold and we were advised to have a separate land contract and house contract, not knowing at the time that the other two buyers had just one contract (no separation for land/house).
• When our builder finished the properties he created a road between our property and the other two which is now the only (dangerous) access into our area, therefore:
• The plot now comprises: Two houses, one road, and our house.
• There have been inspections, followed by letters (to our builder) with varying reasons as to why each of our houses have failed.
• We decided to pursue the title deeds to our plot of land (we discovered that the other two houses did not have this option). My husband and I felt we would be more secure if we at least had the title to our individual piece of land as per our land contract.. |
| 10/08/2008 |
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Possidonos Avenue (Paphos) |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| I am a shop keeper on Possidonos Avenue and I must say that, on the whole, the upgrading of the road and the construction of the “shades” along the shops is a well done job. What I am asking you Mr Loizou is whether the closing to vehicular traffic of the avenue will harm or will it help the passing pedestrian traffic flow. I am in the jewellery business and I need to hear an independent and expert’s opinion on this, since I am called upon, by the opposing sides to take a stand, one way or another. |
| 03/08/2008 |
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Community Bill |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| My husband & I are avid readers of your column and greatly respect your informed answers to readers’ questions.
I eagerly await the next edition of the paper – I always head straight for your column.
Hopefully you will now be able to help us.
We moved to Avgorou in May 2007. In July we received a Community Bill for £186 cyp – as law abiding citizens we duly paid this amount on the due date (December). We did not question that the bill maybe should have been pro rata. We have now received our bill for 2008 = £186 cyp
We have now made many friends both Cypriot and English within Avgorou and neighbouring villages. . .. |
| 26/07/2008 |
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Refuge collection tax |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| Like everybody we are called upon to pay a refuge collection tax every year. Our home is charged £130 p.a. and just a few yards away a friend of ours with a similar size house is charged at £82 p.a. I have been trying to find out how this is calculated, but I get all sorts of confused answers – Any idea how this tax is calculated Mr Loizou? |
| 19/07/2008 |
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Rising damp |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| We have rising damp in our home and we demanded from the contractor who has just finished and delivered the house to us to make good. He came up with all sorts of excuses including that “our sprinklers are too close to the walls and the walls get wet and you should remove the sprinklers”. For us, that means digging up the grassed garden which will spoil it as well as a cost of around £800. We do not find this excuse Mr Loizou as being an acceptable one. What do you think we can do on this count alone? |
| 12/07/2008 |
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Swimming Pool Tax |
| Antonis Loizou & Associates |
| It appears from Mr Loizou articles that the Government is to go ahead with the plan to tax swimming pools. So having killed tourism through greed we are now using the housing market as the next cash cow. Greed is behind the idea that taxation helps the environment. Taxation raises money for the Government it does not rectify an environmental mistake. Or is it that most pools are owned by expats, and this is a discrimination tax |
| 05/07/2008 |
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