BRITONS occupying Greek Cypriot properties in the north may again experience a twinge of discomfort as Greek Cypriot lawyer Contantis Candounas launches a fresh legal assault on a couple from Canterbury in Kent.
Bruce and Barbara Wedon are Candounas’ latest target. The Wedons, like thousands of other Britons, purchased a Greek Cypriot property in the north at knockdown price, believing the original owners would never return to claim their losses.
But if Candounas gets his way, the Wedons, and fellow victims Linda and David Orams, whose case has been ongoing since 2005, will rue the day they decided to invest in Greek Cypriot property in north Cyprus.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday, Candounas said his latest property case involving the north would seek to regain ownership of a house in the Kyrenia district village of Karmi for his client Vasiliki Zehchiri, who was forced out of the village when Turkish troops invaded in 1974.
According to the lawyer, the Wedons have been served with a writ, and are now legally obliged to “file an appearance” at the Nicosia District Court.
“We obtained leave from the [Cypriot] court to serve the writ in the UK. It was sent to the British government via the [Cypriot] Ministry of Justice to the competent authorities in the UK. After some time, we obtained notice from the High Court of Justice via our Ministry of Justice that the writ had been served,” Candounas said.
Candounas added that the writ, having been served at the end of November 2007, gave the Wedons 30 days in which to appear at the Nicosia district court. That they have not so far appeared indicates that the Wedons are unlikely to do so.
But Candounas warned yesterday that “trying to avoid acknowledgement of receipt of the writ is perhaps not the best policy, especially when there is a certificate from the UK authorities confirming service”.
According to information gleaned by Candounas about the Wedons, the couple have resided in the Karmi property since 1999 and were, in 2003, visited by Zehchiri.
Candounas told the Mail that when Zehchiri attempted to enter her former home she was “verbally attacked” by Bruce Wedon, who told her that Turkey would prevent her from returning, and that she had “no rights whatsoever” to the property.
However, a former British Karmi resident speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday warned Candounas that his case against the Wedons might not be as clear cut as the one against the Orams.
“They can always say to the court that they did not buy the property but are leasing it from the Turkish Cypriot government”.
Indeed, Karmi is an anomaly in the north in that all the Greek Cypriot properties in the village were expropriated by the authorities after the invasion and leased out exclusively to foreigners who, at their own cost, restored the properties.
“In short, what the Wedons purchased was a lease, and not a title deed,” the former resident said.
Zehchiri is claiming £49,000, plus “special damages” for the use of the property until April, 2007. She is also seeking £13,227 as interest on that figure and a further £605 per month as “mean profit”.
The extent of punitive damages for violation of right to property will be decided by the court, if she wins.
