InTouch Magazine Articles Archive

Issue 20, July 2008

The Cyprus Oracle

By Nigel Howarth.

In the last issue, I read the question about the developer who promised a couple buying a buy to let holiday apartment in Kapparis that they would get between 15% and 20% annual return on their investment. Isn’t this illegal? Are there no laws in Cyprus to stop this kind of thing?

I guess this is a question that if the promise was made verbally, then I’m afraid the case would be very difficult to prove in a court of law. It would be a matter of the couple’s word against that of the developer. But if the ‘promise’ was made in a sales brochure or in some other promotional material, it could be considered as ‘Illegal Advertising’.
There are laws in Cyprus about illegal advertising, but in my opinion, they are a waste of time! All they enable the court to do is to instruct the guilty party to change their advertising material, which is no consolation to the people who may have been duped out of tens of thousands of pounds on a useless investment. (Not to mention the fact that it can take two or three years before a case is heard in court).

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