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Property showdown in northern Cyprus |
| Wednesday, 03 June 2009 11:00 | |||
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Expats who own property in northern Cyprus are facing a potential legal challenge to their right of ownership. In what as being widely perceived as a test case, the European Court of Justice (“ECJ”) gave judgment at the end of April on a preliminary reference in Apostolides v Orams C-420/07, which was referred to it by the Court of Appeal in the UK. The case concerned a judgment relating to a property in northern Cyprus, which David and Linda Orams, a retired English couple, purchased in 2002. The court has ruled against the Orams. The property was sold to them by a Turkish Cypriot under the laws of the administration in Northern Cyprus (the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus: TRNC). But – prior to the intercommunal conflict and the division of Cyprus in 1974, the property had been owned by the family of Mr Apostolides, a Greek Cypriot. When the restrictions on travel across the “Green Line” which divides Cyprus eased in 2004, Mr Apostolides served proceedings on the Orams in the courts of southern Cyprus claiming for return of the property and damages. Having obtained a default judgment from the courts in the Republic of Cyprus, he then sought to enforce the judgment in England when the Orams’ appeal on these orders was still pending. The Orams were placed in an impossible position because they could not, under the laws of the TRNC, return the property to Mr Apostolides as the judgment required. They therefore faced ongoing payments and potentially other sanctions such as contempt of court.
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"The Orams claim they bought the property in “good faith” What mushroom have they been living under that they seem to forget that the properties in question were illegally taken from the owners during the 1974 invasion and that this division of Cyprus has been an issue in the European, if not the World, community for the last 35 years. How can you claim you are buying it in good faith when the only country that acknowledges the validity of the TRNC is Turkey." N.K.
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