[Anonymous]

Thousands of British investors who were mis-sold property in Cyprus face devastating losses. The Wilkinsons’ repayments went from £300 to £800

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/borrowing/mortgages/10516732/My-Cyprus-mortgage-repayments-went-up-by-166pc.html

[angie]

We had a lucky escape nearly buying in Cyprus but got out because developer reneged on what was supposed to have been built for us and we ended up 100 Cypriot pounds down although we’d had a lovely meal at his restaurant anyway which compensated.

You generally don’t hear much about property problems there, it seemed more trustworthy because of similar English legal system, banking system, English spoken by most Cypriots etc, similar property conveyancing, but many problems there make Spain’s look not too bad.

This article says the agent was MRI though 😡

[zenkarma]

@angie wrote:

You generally don’t hear much about property problems there…

I don’t view this as a ‘property problem’ as such, neither do I consider it to be mortgage misselling.

The couple featured in the article are (obviously) unhappy that their investment in property is going down the toilet citing ‘we wern’t told about currency fluctuations’ as a reason they were missold their mortgage. Tough luck. Investing in anything where you intend to make gains, whether it be stocks, shares, bonds, currency, gold, property or whatever generally have risks attached. If you’re not sufficiently savvy to know or understand what those risks are you have no business investing in anything in the first place. Anyone with half a brain cell knows that currencies fluctuate—what made these numbskulls think differently? So they got some bad advice from the bank (no surprises there) it’s still not misselling.

No doubt had the currency fluctuation gone in their favour and their property had doubled in value they wouldn’t be bleating and whineing about mortgage misselling.

Harsh maybe but there will always be winners and losers in life. The better informed, intelligent ones tend to be the former.

I wonder if I should complain about misselling because my lottery ticket didn’t win anything this weekend because no-one told me the odds of winning anything were very small?

[angie]

I meant property problems in general there ZK, I agree they were investing speculatively and should have known about currency fluctuations which I doubt they could use as an excuse in Court. The mis-selling though in this case probably came via the now defunct agent well known to many, and they will get nowhere chasing him/them, it’s after the horse has bolted.

General problems in Cyprus involved large family owned developers and their henchmen, we met 2 developers, 1 now in jail through massive fraud and 1 on the run for GBH, very plausible when you 1st meet them but a ruthless underbelly, Cypriot mafia. Some of them nip over to their pads in Lebanon as it’s a hop away to launder proceeds and buy the odd firearm or two. Complain about mis-selling in Cyprus to some developers (they’re nice people with their own Tavernas you think) and get done over for your troubles. Just as in Spain though, corrupt lawyers and planning offices, town halls etc. 🙄

[Author]

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