Property showdown in northern Cyprus

Expats who own property in northern Cyprus are facing a potential legal challenge to their right of ownership.

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.

This could have meant the Orams having to sell their house in Hove in order to meet the payments needed for compensation.

The English High Court ruled that the judgment could not be enforced in England because EU law is suspended in northern Cyprus under Protocol 10 to the Act of Accession of Cyprus to the EU. Mr Apostolides then appealed to the English Court of Appeal.

The Court of Appeal used its power to refer specific questions of EU law to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling. The ECJ has ruled that none of those questions provide a basis for the English Court to refuse to recognise and enforce the judgment in England.

The case will now go back to the Court of Appeal for further consideration. The Orams will study the ECJ judgment and consider their next steps.

The Orams commented: “It is disappointing that the ECJ has ruled against us on the specific issues in the reference. We will study the ECJ judgment carefully and consider our next steps.

“However, we also call on the leaders of both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, the EU and the UK Government to find a solution to the property disputes between the two communities which allows ordinary citizens, who bought property in good faith, to avoid being caught up in litigation over the consequences of the conflict between the two communities in Cyprus.”

More than 5000 EU citizens own property in northern Cyprus. Many are from the UK, but there are also significant numbers from other states including Sweden, Germany and Bulgaria. There are also 220,000 people living in the UK who have direct or indirect family connections to property in northern Cyprus.

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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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