Marian has asked me to share my experiences with you but first of all I would like to say thank you to Marian and the HBPG for all their help and support.
Without their encouragement I probably would have given up and gone home a long time ago.
I am the least likely campaigner and I didn’t think that when I decided to take early retirement through ill health 3 years ago that, I would end up joining any sort of pressure group. I came here like most people for a quiet and stress free retirement.
Three and a half years ago I decided to buy a villa in Esentepe. My contract is with Mustafa Baykan the landowner and Uz and Bay Investments Ltd but I have always dealt with and paid money to, Alpan Uz. The development consists of 21 villas and I thought I had done my research and found a reputable and professional estate agent and lawyer. I knew all about the different sorts of land.
Unfortunately like a lot of other people, I soon found out that this was not the case and my first mistake was to buy through Unwin Estate Agents.
I signed a contract on 3 May 2005 and returned home thinking I had 15 days before I had to pay any money and feeling safe in the knowledge that I had a £500 penalty clause should anything go wrong. Does this sound familiar?
I duly paid my £22,000 deposit including £1000 lawyers fees and eventually received a signed copy of the contract. I received monthly photographs of the progress as promised.
I next came out to the TRNC in September 2005 and I visited my lawyer Akan Gurkan. He told me he had drawn up my contract template for Unwins and that he had done some searches and I also made a will.
Building work progressed rapidly at this stage and I knew I would soon have to make a second stage payment. What I hadn’t banked on was being asked for 2 stage payments at once, just before Christmas 2005 but I duly paid £38,000 to Unwins as I did not want to be in breach of contract.
I later found out from the photographs that I received from Unwins that, only one stage payment had in fact been due. Alpan Uz had requested this extra payment and Unwins had not checked to see that the work had been carried out. When I later challenged Mark Unwin about this he told me he acted for the developer and that it was not his responsibility to check building work when, providing the photographs. This was contrary to what I had been led to believe when he was trying to sell me a house. Does this also sound familiar?
At the beginning of May 2006 I received an e-mail from Gurkan and Gurkan. This e-mail informed me that the developer Alpan Uz and Mustafa Baykan were experiencing problems and they were offering to re-site buyers. I rang Unwins who explained that it was a mistake and that Alpan Uz had now bought the land from Mustafa Baykan and that it applied to another development. There was no mention of the court injunction that had been placed on the land a month earlier. I rang Gurkan and Gurkan and they confirmed that I had received the e-mail in error and they did not mention a court injunction either.
At the end of May 2006 I visited the TRNC and was relieved to see work being carried out on the site at a great but a month later in June, I was shocked to see that work had stopped. I went to see Unwins and they eventually arranged a meeting with Alpan Uz who told me that all the work had stopped because he had sent the workforce back to Turkey for a holiday. I was not alarmed at this point because the previous August all the Turkish workers had returned home because of problems with work permits.
By the end of July 2006 I was starting to get worried that no work was being carried out and when I finally did get through to Akan Gurkan he said he would look into it and get back to me. My heart sank when he told me that the building work had stopped because of a court injunction on the land and that the landowner and developer had fallen out and that they were going to court.
So through no fault of our own, the other 17 buyers and I now found that we were dependent on the legal system of Northern Cyprus.
It was at this time that Gurkan and Gurkan applied for my Permission to Purchase, July 2006.
I rang Alpan Uz and was told that he had bought the land from Mustafa Baykan and that Mustafa Baykan was now demanding more money but he was 100% certain that he would be vindicated and that Alpan would win the case. The case went from court in Kyrenia to court in Lefkosa and back and this waiting game carried on for the next year. During this time I was dissuaded from contacting Mustafa Baykan by Alpan but I was fortunate to be in contact with 2 of the other buyers from this site. In the meantime I was advised to start litigation procedures and papers were served.
Tearing my hair out it was at this time that I found Marian and the Home Buyers’ Pressure Group. I printed off a list of the documents I should have been given by my lawyer from their web site and armed with this information I again visited the TRNC in March 2007. I made an appointment with Gurkan and Gurkan and with my list asked for my Permission to Purchase Number and a copy of the Kocan. The copy of the Kocan was now in the name of Alpan Uz. He had succeeded in getting the Kocan transferred into his name and this is what, it now turns out, the court case was about but in the meantime he had still managed to sell several properties in his name alone. My lawyer had not told me that contrary to my contract the land had been transferred but asked for another £1000 to start litigation.
We waited all summer and heard nothing. In September 2007 Mustafa and Alpan’s court case was heard. I now know that we could have asked to be a party to this case as the other buyers and I had by now parted with a total of £568,000. At this point I lodged a complaint with the Property Complaints Office and I must say I always found Tugci very helpful. The court case finished and we were told that the Judge would make a decision as quickly as possible because of the implications for us, the buyers. It was also at this time that Alpan gave a verbal undertaking to the Property Complaints Office that if we had not had the Judges decision within 5 weeks then he would repay everyone his or her monies. To date we are still waiting.
By the New Year we were still awaiting the Judge’s decision but the question of registering contracts had reared its ugly head. I rang Akan Gurkan and was advised to pay my stamp duty but not to get my contract registered because of the court injunction. After speaking to Marian I decided to again visit and to pay my stamp duty and to register my contract myself. This I did in March 2008 but found that another buyer had succeeded in placing an injunction on the land as well as the original owner.
During March I again visited the Permission to Purchase Office. I had gone there twice the previous year to check on how my permission was progressing. I had been reading a lot on the bulletin board about police checks but had not been asked for one by Gurkan and Gurkan. The law changed at the beginning of 2006 and this was now a requirement. I asked at the Permission to Purchase Office a police check had been done by my lawyer and was told no. I asked if I needed one and was told yes and so I went home to get this done.
I was by now getting fed up with the whole sorry mess. I was fed up with being ignored and not being able to find out what was happening. No one answered my telephone calls or replied to my e-mails and I was fed up with kicking my heels at home. I had taken early retirement in order to lead a relaxed and stress free life in the TRNC and so I made the monumental decision to take a long-term rental to try make some head way with the dreams we had hoped to realise some 3 years earlier. We went back to the UK to pack up the house and put the furniture in storage and returned in May of this year. By now I had my police check and took this to the Permission to Purchase Office. The helpful lady placed it in my file but if I had not been made aware that I needed this then, my incomplete file would still be sitting there.
I then contacted a surveyor to determine the state of the unfinished buildings and to find out the cost of finishing the build our selves. The good news was that after sitting for 2 years the elements had not done too much damage and the cost to finish would be no more than the outstanding stage payments.
I also read an article in the newspaper that work had stopped on Alpan’s site at Discovery Bay because it did not have the required permits. Concerned that there might not be any permits on our site I visited the local Belediyesi in Esentepe and although they speak little English they were very helpful. They called the local schoolteacher in to translate and he informed me that building permits had been applied for but had been put on hold because of the court case. He invited me to the school to meet the children and to have coffee with him.
The next thing I did was to get the court case number. I then went to see the Judge in his chambers in Kyrenia Court. I explained that I was not a party to the case but asked when we could expect his decision as the outcome of the case had huge implications for the other buyers and myself. He said he was writing his decision and we could expect it within 15 days. I also managed to get a copy of the court injunction and had it translated. Warning bells started to ring. We had been kept in the dark and been fobbed off with excuses for 2 years. This is how all the deceit is able to continue because knowledge is power. The injunction was the first clue that not everything was as it seemed. I was still being re-assured by Alpan and now his sister Tugce (because they were now trading as NESA developments) that everything would be fine and that he was 100% certain he would win his case and carry on building. They were offering to re-site us to one of his other developments and he even gave his word that we could live in one of his other completed properties and store our furniture. To date we are still waiting.
By now I was in touch with several other buyers and they were being told exactly the same things. I found them by looking at bulletin boards and by speaking to Marian. At the end of June I again went to the Judge’s chambers but was told he would be on holiday until the 11 August 2008. On the 11 August at 9 am I went to see the Judge. This time he told me he had written his decision, that he had a meeting with the assistant judge that afternoon and that we could expect his decision within the week.
On 18 August I went to the Court Office and was told that the Judge had in fact been true to his word and that he had made his decision but because I was not a party to the case I could not be told what it was. I went to see Gurkan and Gurkan and was told that the land had reverted to Mustafa Baykan and that Mustafa had been ordered to pay Salih Uz, Alpan’s father £186,000. It was a further 2 weeks before the decision was lodged with the Court Office and I asked for and received a copy of the Judge’s decision from Gurkan and Gurkan. This I had translated. All 16 pages but what a revelation. It was a bombshell and according to the Judge, fraud and undue pressure had been used to transfer the land from Mustafa Baykan to Alpan Uz. Unwin Estate Agents admitted that they had paid £568,000 to Alpan Uz. Our contracts were with Mustafa Baykan and Uz and Bay Investments Ltd. Furthermore the cheques had been paid into Alpan Uz’s personal bank account. No wonder he had no assets in his own name, they were now in his mother’s Nesa Pektas. Mustafa Baykan was also ordered to pay Salih Uz £186,000 for the building work he had carried out. There had been a contract between Mustafa Baykan and Salih Uz to build the houses at a cost of £42,500 each. I now went to see Mustafa’s lawyer to find out what he proposed to do.
Mustafa’s lawyer was very helpful and told me that Mustafa Baykan wanted to finish the houses but that the case would probably now go to appeal. This would mean the possibility of a further five years through the Courts. He also gave me the next enlightening piece of information, a copy of a document he had presented to Unwin Estate Agents on 7 April 2006. The day after the court injunction went on the land. This asked Unwins to provide him with copies of the contracts for the houses sold so far. It asked them not to sell any further houses and not to pay any more money to third parties. It was signed and dated as being received by a former employee of Unwins.
I contacted the buyers I was in touch with and found out that after the date of 7 April 2006, Unwin Estate Agents had collected a further £130,000 from unsuspecting buyers.
Ironically I then had a phone call from Tugci at the Property Complaints Office to tell me that my permission to purchase had been granted on 17 September 2008.
I went to see Unwin Estate Agents to try to get the details of the other buyers, I went to see Munir Akil who represents the buyers who have the court injunction on the land but neither would give me any contact details for the other buyers. This information is essential if we are to litigate and we are all to present our cases to court at the same time.
I sent Hasan Sungur a copy of the Judge’s decision and the letter to Unwin Estate Agents and I went with Marian to see him. He is a very nice and helpful man but he could not do anything regarding Unwins unless I have a court case against them.
I have been with Marian to see the Chief Justice, again a very nice and helpful man. I wanted to find out the implications of the Judge’s decision and the appeal. I wanted him to explain to me about a memorandum and the relevance of the £186,000 needed to be paid to Salih Uz. He advised that I start litigation proceedings.
I have sent a copy of the Judge’s decision and the copy of the letter to Unwin Estate Agents to the Property Complaints Office and I have asked them to set up meetings with the lawyers and the estate agent involved to see how we can move things forward. To date this has not materialised but I am still hopeful even though Tugce Uz is a best friend of someone in Government.
In November I went to see Akan Gurkan with a view to litigation proceedings against Unwin Estate Agents but he told me that he could not act for me because he represents Unwins. He did not tell me this in 2005 when I signed my contract.
Others I have spoken to on the other Uz and Nesa developments tell me that there are problems with title deeds. Some do not have wardrobes, air conditioning units or jacuzi baths as stated in their contracts. Some do not even know which is their plot because the plans have been altered so many times but I will not give up. They have £60,000 of my money and 3 and a half years later I have nothing to show for it. Everyone I talk to gives me another piece of information and that small piece of information fits into the jigsaw. I love this country it is beautiful. The majority of people here are warm, welcoming and honest and only too keen to help. I am pleased to say I have many Turkish Cypriot friends but after all they have been through they are embarrassed by what is now happening. One thing is for certain – these problems are not going to go away until, every homeowner in the TRNC takes their head out of the sand and joins together to protect their investments. These problems are causing everyone’s property to devalue because no one is going to want to buy here with all the uncertainty these problems are causing. I am not prepared to go away quietly.