Cyprus-Forum.com

[Oracle]

Perhaps, looking at the legal property ownership issues, which are causing us all nightmares (albeit for different reasons), from this more-familiar to Brits' angle, might help put things into perspective ...

In the UK, Leasehold properties are very common. Effectively you "own" a flat or house, might have a mortgage on it, and pay a small rent or lease to the Freehold owner. The Freehold owner is obviously free to remortgage the property or sell the Freehold on to a third party.

Isn't this basically what the moaning Brits are doing with living/holidaying in a property which they assume is "Freehold", but in actual fact is "Leasehold" (by a different name?) from the Developers which still own the land?


(Re-posted by encouragement from BigDutch )

[Jerry]

The freehold of a property that has been sold with long lease flats is worth bugger all unless of course the leaseholders are paying huge ground rents (unlikely).I've seen such freeholds go for a few thousand £s because the returns are so low. There are circumstances in the UK where leaseholders have a right to buy. The costs of applying for mortgages on such freeholds could even equate to the value of the loan - not worth doing. Obviously if the lease has only a few years left the freehold is worth much more.

[Get Real!]

Isn't this basically what the moaning Brits are doing with living/holidaying in a property which they assume is "Freehold", but in actual fact is "Leasehold" (by a different name?) from the Developers which still own the land?

You’d think all Brits would rush to post their say here…

[Oracle]

Isn't this basically what the moaning Brits are doing with living/holidaying in a property which they assume is "Freehold", but in actual fact is "Leasehold" (by a different name?) from the Developers which still own the land?

You’d think all Brits would rush to post their say here…

Their silence would indicate it is far too sensible to digest ....

[BigDutch]

(Re-posted by encouragement from BigDutch )

bah you took all the juicy bits from the original post !!

I have dug out my contract of sale, it doesn't mention free or lease. it says that vendor 1 selling land to vendor 2 who is selling land and building to buyer 1. Is this the 'different name' you talk of ? The legal speak that deservedly suckers us naive moaning Brits ? (pushtiangeleso eh; ) If so then i will have to get onto my Cypriot legal rep. who I paid to look after me during this and ask why he didn't translate from Greek-English into British-English so i was able to understand that i was being screwed over by the cool calm collected developer

You’d think all Brits would rush to post their say here…

Their silence would indicate it is far too sensible to digest ....

Honestly, ladies, i had to read it through a couple of times to try and work out what you mean. Are you saying that an orange is in fact an apple, and more fool the buyer for getting the juicer plugged in before opening the bag?

[Lee A Kada]

I bought the freehold of the property I own in the UK 3 years ago.

The lease is for 999 years and the ground rent is £6 per annum. Does this mean I now owe myself £18 - if so I may have to add some interest on

[Gasman]

The Freehold owner is obviously free to remortgage the property or sell the Freehold on to a third party.

I think you will find they have to offer it to you first. If Cypriot sellers want their buyers to be treated as buyers who bought leasehold, they should sell the property on a leasehold basis.

[eleni]

I am sorry but I dont understand what you are saying here O.. If you buy a freehold land/property, & your name is on the Land registery, then you own that land/ property. If you buy a flat leasehold, you are then registered as a leaseholder, you do not own the freehold, on the other hand I wasn't aware that in the UK you could have a mortgage on a property that was already mortgaged & owned in someone elses name. That is one of the reasons a land registry searches are carried out.

[Oracle]

(Re-posted by encouragement from BigDutch )

bah you took all the juicy bits from the original post !!

I have dug out my contract of sale, it doesn't mention free or lease. it says that vendor 1 selling land to vendor 2 who is selling land and building to buyer 1. Is this the 'different name' you talk of ? The legal speak that deservedly suckers us naive moaning Brits ? (pushtiangeleso eh; ) If so then i will have to get onto my Cypriot legal rep. who I paid to look after me during this and ask why he didn't translate from Greek-English into British-English so i was able to understand that i was being screwed over by the cool calm collected developer

You’d think all Brits would rush to post their say here…

Their silence would indicate it is far too sensible to digest ....

Honestly, ladies, i had to read it through a couple of times to try and work out what you mean. Are you saying that an orange is in fact an apple, and more fool the buyer for getting the juicer plugged in before opening the bag?

That's fine. You don' have a problem with a Developer having taken out a mortgage, do you?
Presumably, you don't have any communal areas, like a shared swimming pool either.

[Oracle]

I am sorry but I dont understand what you are saying here O.. If you buy a freehold land/property, & your name is on the Land registery, then you own that land/ property. If you buy a flat leasehold, you are then registered as a leaseholder, you do not own the freehold, on the other hand I wasn't aware that in the UK you could have a mortgage on a property that was already mortgaged & owned in someone elses name. That is one of the reasons a land registry searches are carried out.

The Freehold owner(s) can Auction off the ground rents to companies or individuals. This is equivalent to Developers taking out loans on properties and the charges being passed on to the buyers, I presume.

Looking at some of these Brit-favoured developments, an awful lot of them have shared gardens, drives or swimming pools. In the UK, such sharing of Communal areas invariably makes your property subject to some kind of Lease and payment of ground rents and/or maintenance. Quite a lot of Brits have been on here complaining about these charges in Cyprus and so that would indicate they were buying the equivalent of what back in the UK is a Leasehold. So they don't own the land, only the dwelling areas.