Who made the Land Registry judge and jury?

I refer to the letter published on January 9. ‘Ripped off by the actions of the Paphos Land Office’ from Mike Christodoulou. He claimed the property was purchased for €130,000 but the Land Office valued it at €250,000, hence he paid €10,500 instead of €4,000 in transfer fees.

This is not an unusual case. I have heard of many others, although not so extreme. It is because the Land Office doesn’t believe you paid what it says on the sales contract. In other words they are accusing you of fraud in order to avoid transfer fees.

Although no doubt this kind of dishonesty is very common in Cyprus it is absurd that the Land Office should be judge and jury in this matter. If they believe something illegal has happened they should prosecute the offenders in the courts.

The price of a property is what it sells for not what the Land Office thinks it sold for.

What happens when the property is next sold? Will the Inland Revenue department take the original purchase price €130,000 or the €250,000 the Land Office said you paid, for the purpose of calculating 20 per cent capital gains tax?

You can’t have it both ways. Oh yes you can in Cyprus.

 

Chris Solomon, Peyia

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