Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

I have a property on a complex and received the keys to the newly build apartment 5 years ago. The contract has not been fulfilled still, no mains water, communal areas not finished, tennis court and kiddies swings etc not built. In the UK according to the contract and the terms the builder would be owing us thousands and thousands of pounds but we are not there, we are in North Cyprus

The land has not been pacelised (if this is the right phrase) so are nowhere near getting kocan etc. Haven't paid any other taxes

The builder is asking everyone for the VAT and our Solicitor is away at the moment

The builder is also asking us to form an association and to start maintenance costs without a lot of things being finished

Can anyone please give us some guidance

Thank you
Ian

scarlets,

We bought our property in the spring of 2006 over 8 years ago, we had to pay our VAT to the developer before receiving our keys. We also bought on a complex that was finished apart from the landscaping which we were promised would be done. It never was despite numerous complaints. In the end we formed an association and the owners did the landscaping themselves. We are still not parcelised so still no kocans 8 years later. However we live in hope that eventually we will get them.

The question you need to ask, is why is the builder asking for VAT now, is it because the tax office are on to him, or is he just short of money? Is he going to pay this over to the tax office or is he offsetting this against something else? Are you going to receive an official fatura?

The butlers wife

If it were me I wouldn't under any circumstance pay the builder without you solicitor getting involved.

I paid my VAT or KDV as it is here directly to the tax office taking my contract along. Its a government tax not payable to the builder.

You should not have to pay vat until your deeds are transferred , certainly would not pay anything direct to the builder or you will be shafted, normally on a complex there is no individual partialization where appartments are involved you own one part of what ever numbers of properties are on the the site. The reason he may want you to form an owners committee is so he can pass all the unfinished site communal areas to you to sort out under maintenance payments, so insists it's all sorted to contact before taking over.
All in all the developer sounds like a chancer, just make sure your solicitor and builder are not in the scam together(as it happens often) insist on him honouring your contract ( a job for your solicitor and probably the reason why he's on holiday.) hope all goes well, it usually doesn't

I think you will find that the rules on VAT changed in 2006 and builders and developers were allowed to charge for this before handing out keys. Also some complexes are not entirely made up of apartments but are of mixed properties like ours. We own a detached bungalow, there are detached villas and blocks of apartments on our complex. We know that our VAT was not handed over to the tax office as we do not have an official fatura. Our developer says there is nothing to worry about as he has offset this against building materials. This is how it works in the UK but do the same rules apply here, nobody can tell us?



The butlers wife

Thank you all so much for your replies it is greatly appreciated

You should always receive a KDV receipt from your builder when handing the money over. If you are ever lucky enough to transfer into your name this receipt must be produced before the transfer can take place.
As said above you can receive a shared title which is certainly much better than none at all, insist on this before you pay the VAT.

Thanks again that is great. We have a meeting with the builder tonight and are looking forward to the drama and emotion

scarlets, as I have said on different threads on the forum lately, if I were you, I would go and have a chat with Pembe (who is a trained solicitor) at the Citizens Advice services in Karakum, just along from Erdener, by Molly's Cafe. She was extremely helpful to us when we were re-doing our wills, advised us how to do it ourselves. She does not charge as such, but asks if you would like to make a small donation for her time. You can also pay an annual fee for as much advice as you want. I think this was 50tl, but don't hold me to that. She is out to show that the Solicitors over here do not work for their clients, and can advise you on the best way to approach things within the legal system. BTW we paid our share of VAT to our builder once our build was completed. He gave us a receipt for it, but of course that was just saying we had paid him, not that he had passed it on. We were fortunate and had an honest builder, so when we went for the Kocan, yes it had been paid, and he paid his share too, even though he had long since gone back to the UK. They do exist......but few and far between I fear. Good luck anyway.

thanks mrsgee, appreciated

Hi Mrsgee,

Yes we have a stamped receipt from our developer but it is not the official receipt from the tax office. We just hope when the time comes for us to get our kocans we are not asked for it again.




The butlers wife

You do not get a stamped receipt from the tax office when you pay KDV the builder gives you one from his printed pad, it is then up to him whether he hands the money over or not. So do not worry butlers wife you have the neccessary document to produce when you need to!

Well, have to say we were concerned as to whether or not our builder had/would pass it on, and whether he would actually pay his share when the time came for us to get the kocan. We were very fortunate, as our builder/site manager came from the uk and came with us to the land registry, and all monies were paid and we got proper receipts. Unfortunately, the land owner (robber) was dishonest when the time came and refused to sign over the kocan unless we paid £5,000 to him, even though it was not in the contract. We consulted sols, not a thing we could do about it if we wanted the Kocan so, money paid to theiving TC rogue who lives next door. A lesson learnt there.......it is not always the builder that rips you off. He did the same with 2 other foreign families on the small development......so now he has to live with us all!!! Hope he never needs any help cos he wont be getting it!

The joys of buying a property in t.r.n.c.

indeed thornaby, although we still love it here, just think, well, what goes around comes around, sooner or later the robber will suffer.........

Mrsgee.

Pembe Ibrihim is a lovely person and gives very good advice, she is extremely helpful.
She has worked for solicitors both here and in the UK and she is very knowlegeable about the law but she is not
a trained solicitor. When we went to her for advice. this is the first thing she said to us. She will however, recommend
a lawyer who will not rip you off and will charge you the same price as a TC.


The butlers wife

Thank you for correcting my error butlers wife. I really would not wish to mislead anyone and honestly thought that she had been a solicitor in uk. Apologies for my error. She is very helpful though as you say, and will point you in the right direction.