Beware of Fraudulent Estate Agents!!!

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ck
Posts: 21
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:54 pm
Location: Bodrum, Turkey
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Beware of Fraudulent Estate Agents!!!

Post by ck »

Hi,
I have'nt posted for a while but feel duty bound to report my findings in Bodrum just recentley.
We bought our apartment in Bodrum two and half years ago and understood at the time that the military checks, ( a requirement for foreigners buying in Turkey), would take some time. Over an extended period of e-mails to and from the estate agent carrying out the transaction we were assured everything was on track.
We needed to go to Bodrum this March as our household insurance was running out and I wanted to be in control of the renewal hopefully finding an English speaking insurance we could renew in future via e-mail or telephone from the UK. On finding an English speaking agent we were told that the earthquake insurance (a legal requirement again in Turkey) we had was fraudulently obtained as the title deed was not in our name. On further investigation at the Title Deeds office we found that the apartment we thought we had purchased was incorrecley listed on the register and was a completley different property. We went to estate agents office to find it closed down. It later transpired that the company had changed hands and the new "owner" had washed his hands of all previous transactions. Over the week we were there we also found out that a military re-zoning of the area our apartment was located in had taken place and the only way now to get the property in our name was to form a Turkish company with my wife and I as the two share-holders and have the apartment as an asset of that company. £3500 later we have completed what we were waiting for for two and half years!
We chose the estate agent we used by virtue of a number of factors (1)They had been operational in Turkey for a great many years (2)We had seen the company featured on the overseas property channel on sky which featured Amanda Lamb. I figured it would be as pretty safe bet, boy was I wrong!
As I stated at the start of this post I feel duty bound to let others know of our experiece and feel no remorse in naming and shaming the company Turkish-Homes.com or the company "taking over" from them namely 'Invest in Overseas'. I would recomend that they are given a wide berth when considering investing in Turkey.
I would be interested to hear from anybody having had similar experiences in Turkey.
Please don't be put off by this nightmare story, we both love Bodrum and generally the people there are warm, friendly and helpfull, but be on your guard!
Regards to all.
p.s I could really do with a holiday!!!
A-two
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Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 10:05 am
Location: USA

Post by A-two »

Wow, how horrible. "Buyer Beware" is everywhere it seems. Was there no lawyer involved?
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ck
Posts: 21
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:54 pm
Location: Bodrum, Turkey
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Post by ck »

Yes, there was a solicitor involved, he was under instruction from the estate agent and after the initial contract signing he did'nt hear from the estate agent again.
TIP NO. 2 ALWAYS use an independant solicitor and rely on personal recomendations from people you trust!!!

Regards,
ck

I still need a holiday!!!
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