Last week I told you about the €70,000 developer trap. This one's from our own life, and it's the closest we ever came to a very expensive mistake.
We had an offer accepted on a house in Cyprus. Five hundred and fifteen thousand euros. Our dream home, up in the mountains, and we were properly excited.
The sellers told us the house had full title deeds, all clean, no issues at all. They showed us the title, they showed us the building permits, and it all looked fine. So we made the offer, it was accepted, and we let ourselves picture living there.
Then during closer due diligence, we found something that wasn’t right.
The plans didn't match the house standing in front of us.
The previous owners had extended it. None of that work was on the title, and there didn't seem to be a permit for any of it. So on paper we'd have been buying one house. In real life we'd have been living in a bigger, different one, with rooms that officially didn't exist.
Which sounds like a technicality, until you try to sell it, or insure it, or get a proper title issued for what's actually there. Building work that doesn't match the paperwork is one of the main reasons people out here end up stuck. I've got close friends who've been waiting two and three years for land registry approval. People on my videos have told me they waited twenty years. Some still haven't got theirs.
So we walked away from a house we loved. And after hearing those stories, I'm glad we did.
Here's what I'd take from it, whether you're buying in Cyprus or anywhere abroad.
Asking "is there a title deed" isn't enough. Ask whether the title matches the building that's actually standing, every extension, every alteration, and ask to see the permits for all of it.
And use your own lawyer. Not the seller's. Not a developer's. Yours, that you found and you pay for. That's the bit that saved us.
I'm not a lawyer, and this isn't advice. It's just the kinds of things our lawyer finds, and what I'd check every time from now on.
If you're weighing up a place abroad and you're stuck on something, hit reply and tell me. I read every one.
Talk soon,
James Hopkins