Dear Customer,

New legislation has been introduced in TRNC which you need to be aware of. You may have already been contacted by your legal advisor in TRNC regarding this legislation. If not, please read the information below and contact your Solicitor URGENTLY.
         
A new law has been passed recently with a supporting Regulation which affects new sales as well as the sales that have already been completed. The new Estate Agency Law, which has been passed to monitor and keep under strict regulation all those who are involved in the selling and marketing of properties in North Cyprus is aimed at safeguarding and securing your interests in the property which you have purchased until the time that you are able to register the Title Deeds of the property into your name. It will further ensure that no bank charges or mortgages can be placed on the land without your written consent as the purchaser. The process requires that:

1 - All Sales Agreements are stamped at the Tax Office within one month of execution by the parties (currently the stamp duty is 0.5% of the purchase price plus 0.2% penalty for Contracts not stamped within one month of execution) and then deposited with the Land Registry Office within 21 days of signing by the Vendor & Purchaser ( All Sales Agreements signed before the passing of this new law have 3 months from the date the Law was passed (until 4th April 2008) in which to complete this procedure). The Land Registry Office charges £32.00 fee to register the Agreements and Solicitors charge somewhere between £200 and £250 to attend to this work.

2 - All purchasers are legally required to fulfill this obligation, and currently The Land Registry Office has advised that the legal representative of the purchasers may complete this procedure on their behalf. In the event that your Sales Agreement is not deposited with the Land Registry Office within the specified time period, it will cause you problems when you come to transferring the title deeds of the property into your name, as the Land Registry will not permit you to transfer the deeds into your name unless a new sales agreement is drawn up, signed and re-stamped and deposited. Thus incurring higher taxes.

3 - All Contracts deposited with the Land Registry Office  from the passing of the new Regulation must be in Turkish- So all new Contracts will have to be prepared in both English (so that the customers know what they are signing) and Turkish in  compliance with the new Regulation. Of course this may mean £100-£200 extra cost to the customer in translation charges.

How does this concern you?

Basically this affects everyone who has not had their contract stamped and lodged with the Land Registry Office. You need to speak with your solicitor ASAP to see if you have/have not paid your stamp duty. This is very important; your lawyer will advise you on this and how to get it paid. You need to provide your solicitor with your stamped contract ASAP to register this at the Land Registry Office. Please note that it is your responsibility to do this, however your lawyer may be willing to assist with getting the contracts stamped at the Tax Office but some Solicitors charge extra fees to do this. Any sales not registered before 4th April 2008 will be classed as new sales and 3% commission must then be paid to an Estate Agent to complete the sale, so this is in the interest of all customers to organize this immediately or you will end up paying more money. Without this being done the Title Deeds cannot be transferred in your name.

Kind Regards,

North Cyprus Property Consultants Ltd.