Purchase Contracts

djm17456



Joined: 05/08/2007
Posts: 3

Message Posted:
05/08/2007 10:46

Hi There,



As most people purchasing a property in the Girne region seem to use the services of Naomi Mehmet, (through referral by the selling agents I hasten to add) how did you find her service?



I personally spent a long time reviewing and amending the contracts as they were poorly written and did not have significant enough penalty clauses for late delivery by the developer or for poor workmanship? I felt if I did not take the time to implement the changes, the contracts would just have been signed as written?



Best Regards

lovelife


Joined: 07/07/2007
Posts: 231

Message Posted:
05/08/2007 12:56

djm



Although we did not use Naomi Mehmet, we too had had to review and amend our contract several times as it too was poorly written and did not reflect our interests. My husband felt the contract was actually written by the estate agents, he is used to reading contracts and felt it was appalling ( although those was not the words he used, could not print those)it took us aprox 3 months of emails backwards and forwards before we were satisfied.

Notsoboredhw


Joined: 15/03/2007
Posts: 1254

Message Posted:
05/08/2007 13:08

I have worked for solicitors for the last 21 years (in commercial and residential property departments) and I read the contract thoroughly and was happy with it. This was drawn up by Naomi and her team. We did use a lawyer before her who we let go because she made several big mistakes with us and I lost confidence in her but once we had swapped to Naomi she seemed so much better and me being fussy would have picked up on anything we weren't happy with. The only thing I dont think that is in our contract and which possibly should have been is shoddy workmanship - although we have not taken possession yet from hearing from other owners on our complex the paint job and a few other things have been a bit slap hazard.



Nevertheless as I said Naomi was very good. We had great communications with her and she replies within what I would say for lawyers is a reasonable period of time and trust me English lawyers can be bad!!!!



Also you might want to note that although you have a contract in place who is to say the builders would honour anything in it!!! At the end of the day you are in a foreign country and they could just ignore any requests from you and you could end up taking them to Court with no real results!!! But that's the chances we all are taking so I think if you want to start getting picky with contracts that's down to personal choice but at the end of the day they may be worth nothing! I might be wrong but trying to enforce something in a foreign country can sometimes be very hard!



We also used Donaghy & Beyler agents - who were excellent. Would definitely recommend them - they werent pushy at all but took great care of us.

Bradus


Joined: 25/02/2007
Posts: 2641

Message Posted:
05/08/2007 13:43

It is difficult to recommend solicitors even if we have had a very positive experience. Basically the problem lies with the fact that we class them as doing the same job as English solicitors when in reality they have a much more limited role. They do not automatically do searches, investigate further planning permission granted around the property you have purchased or many of the other things we would except. This is why they are referred to as advocates rather than lawyers. Naomi has some excellent recommendations but on other sites people views do not support the recommendations. Agree with BHW that there is no certainty that contracts will be adhered too but at the end of the day they are your bargaining stick and if you needed to go to court they are your only evidence so should not be dismissed so easily. A good solicitor will include a clause regarding workmanship and maintenance for a set period afterwards. They will include plans for collecting of title deeds from registry, agree that the whole construction work of the property internally and externally will be complete and specify exactly what tha entails. Read your contract and do not be worried about making amends. Took 3 draughts before we felt happy. Do not use a contract drawn up by the builder which appears common on some of the big developments. HBPG give some useful tips.

djm17456



Joined: 05/08/2007
Posts: 3

Message Posted:
11/08/2007 20:46

The contracts we received were written by the selling agents and not Naomi. My understanding was that the selling agents issue their standard contracts of sale to the legal representatives of the purchasers. Who else but the selling agents can prepare and issue the contracts as they have all the property details?



The contracts are then reviewed by the legal representatives of the purchasers and supposedly revised to protect their interests, before being sent to the purchasers for signature. I know this to be the case because after I reviewed the contract issued to us, and challenged a lot of significant points (not just being picky) the selling agent told me they have never had their standard contracts challenged so much. These standard contracts are written and issued by the girls in the office of the selling agents and are not the best. They are no better in the UK.



Naomi did do a good job for us, and her staff are excellent. The point I made was why pay a lot of money for a service if you have to do a lot of the work yourself. She responded as quickly as her intrantet provider would allow her, and in the end agreed with most of my concerns and amendments, which I had implemented. Why was it down to me to raise these issues???

stusimpson


Joined: 06/08/2007
Posts: 178

Message Posted:
12/08/2007 13:09

Very poor in my opinion,I had to chase up loads of things and communication seemed non existant.Maybe its one of those things but not impressed.

breezyboy


Joined: 14/05/2007
Posts: 1179

Message Posted:
13/08/2007 14:47

Naomi wrote my contract and did a very good job of it. I find her service excellent. However if you have a developer who decides to ignore it , like mine does,you have to decide when to take action which like anywhere else can get expensive.

bb