new legislation - district lands office

nivek


Joined: 21/11/2007
Posts: 21

Message Posted:
22/01/2008 00:25

just got back from TRNC early today and have recieved e-mail from my solicitor stating that the goverment have passed a new law which apparently gives security to all purchases of property in northern cyprus by putting a charge on the property and therefore the purchases rights including the money they have paid will be protected.The contract then needs lodging with the District Lands Office,has anyone else heard of this new law ? and the costs involved.

lovingcyprus


Joined: 02/03/2007
Posts: 1272

Message Posted:
22/01/2008 00:48

Take a look at the following:-



http://www.cyprus44.com/forums/1210.asp

nivek


Joined: 21/11/2007
Posts: 21

Message Posted:
22/01/2008 01:14

stamp duty already paid at time of purchase in November 2007.

Pipie


Joined: 05/01/2008
Posts: 5499

Message Posted:
22/01/2008 10:44

Totaly confused on this sramp duty , what does it mean for those who have paid for there property , still waiting for permission /deeds .? What do we do ?as up to now we have had no E-mail from our solicitor informing us of anything .

Bowman


Joined: 02/05/2007
Posts: 256

Message Posted:
22/01/2008 13:27

Your contract has to be lodged at the tax office, this is not new legislation. Kibtek will not issue meters now, without evidence of stamp duty having been paid. If your contract is more than a month old then you pay 1.5% of the contract price and .5% if the contract is lodged within 21 days of signing. It makes no difference if you have paid in full for your property or not, you still have to lodge your contracts and get them stamped.

lovingcyprus


Joined: 02/03/2007
Posts: 1272

Message Posted:
22/01/2008 15:44

nivek



You probably paid your stamp duty to your solicitor.



It cannot be paid officially until you have received your permission to purchase so I guess your solicitor will pay it eventually for you.

Bowman


Joined: 02/05/2007
Posts: 256

Message Posted:
22/01/2008 17:06

Lovingcyprus, stamp duty is supposed to be paid within 21 days of signing contracts at a rate of .5% of the sale price. If it is not then the % rate rises to 1.5%. You can definately "officially" pay the stamp duty as I did it last week at the tax office and I am nowhere near having my permission to buy. My contract however, is lodged with the tax office and it has been stamped. Furthermore, I now have it safeguarded as the builder can not place a loan or mortgage on the land as I am a registered interested party.

orangekazzie



Joined: 31/07/2007
Posts: 1091

Message Posted:
22/01/2008 17:24

Wow the land registry must be rubbing their hands in glee now then because before you had to wait for the tapu man to go out and value the property before stamp duty was to be paid and that could take months. He often valued it for a lot less than the price you paid, especially if he was on friendly terms with your solicitor! Now all kinds of corruption could be going on. Lets hope the Land Registry don't issue targets to their staff. I can just see it now. Builder goes to LR with plans, builder and LR work out how much commission they'll get if they sell properties for £xxx. Mind boggling really.

Karen

breezyboy


Joined: 14/05/2007
Posts: 1179

Message Posted:
22/01/2008 18:12

Catch 22. They are only giving you 3 months to do this if you already have your contract signed. They have more than 3 months work on now and so are not accepting any new applications at the moment.

In addition vendors/builders are very upset because it will affect the amount of CGT they have to pay so a lot of people are upset with the government on this one. The head of the bar in TRNC has told them it isnt going to work. As usual watch this space.

BB

whitemad


Joined: 26/05/2007
Posts: 44

Message Posted:
22/01/2008 21:12

Just experienced this. Our solicitor told us our Builder is refusing to pay his 6.25% tax due to transfer the deeds as it will now be based on the value of the property and not the Land Registry Valuation. He says he had not budgeted for this. Result - we must pay it or sue him! All has gone well up to now. TRNC Govt needs to sort the mess out as apparently there are lots of these cases appearing now.

millzer


Joined: 12/04/2007
Posts: 978

Message Posted:
22/01/2008 21:27

I'm getting a little confused now as you seem to be talking about two different things. Some appear to be talking about the stamp duty, whereas others appear to be talking about valuations, and the impact this will have due to it now being assessed on the contract price and not as previously, on the valuation.



As far as the stamp duty goes, I know from some of my neighbours that their solicitor never told them that they had to pay stamp duty, thus because they didn't know they now have to pay 1.5%, as opposed to having the option to pay at 0.5% if they had been told when they signed their contracts.

jmg171


Joined: 19/05/2007
Posts: 183

Message Posted:
22/01/2008 23:19

We paid our stamp duty just after signing contract 2007.