Property showdown in northern Cyprus

Wednesday, 03 June 2009 11:00

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.

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.

Got views on the above news?

Email your comments to the email address below, each week a selection of comments will be added to the news stories

Send your comment to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

To view other news click here

Have Your Say -

"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.