Pauline Read’s court case against Akfinans Bank

Friday, January 29, 2010
By Pauline Read

When the TRNC High Court threw out my case against Akfinans Bank, because I had won the case against my builder, I thought that was the end of the matter. You can imagine my surprise when at the end of last week I received an e mail from my Advocate which read:

‘In relation to the recent High Court Case, the defendant’s lawyer has submitted the invoice for costs in the amount £1000.  We will need to make this payment to *********************** urgently. I would be grateful if you could bring this money to the office on Monday so that we can make this payment.’

Not unnaturally I queried this and was informed in writing that the High Court had ordered that I pay the defendant’s Advocate’s legal costs. I was also told that the amount was not stipulated and that if I objected the Court Registrar would calculate the amount based on court guidelines.

My Advocate checked the guidelines and felt the costs would be around 3400TL  and since Akfinans Bank Limited Advocate was asking for less than this, it would not be in my best interest to dispute this.  I realised that I had no choice but to pay and so emailed back to say that I would pay this amount but that when I brought the money to the office I would expect to receive a copy of the invoice and court order before parting with my money.

I went in on Monday with the money but was informed that Akfinans Bank’s Advocate had not supplied a fatura and therefore they would not take the money from me. I most certainly would not have parted with it unless I saw and obtained a copy of the Court  Order.  I was told I would be phoned when they had the required paperwork.

On Tuesday morning I received a phone call from my Advocate’s office telling me that my Advocate had been talking with someone in Lefkoşa at the court and that if I withdrew the case then I would not have to pay the £1000 costs. If I did not withdraw the case, the High Court would throw it out and I would have to pay the £1000 costs. Now, I thought they had already thrown it out but as it looked like I had no choice I decided to withdraw the case but my words were I WITHDRAW THE APPEAL UNDER DURESS.

What is worrying is that on the 11th January 2010 the TAPU  VE  KADASTRO  DAIRESI posted a notice on the Koop and the Coffee Shop in our village regarding our properties in mortgage to Akfinans Bank Ltd.  I am told this is the first step in  the process that leads to an auction – 13 properties are involved, 10 of which have British Purchasers,  2 are occupied by the families of the landowner who took out the mortgage and 1 is empty.  The site has been abandoned by the builder, Kulaksiz Construction Limited,  there are no roads, no street lights and we are still on builder’s electric four years after the first purchaser moved in.   The building is of such poor quality that I will be surprised if any are still standing ten years from now.

What this space.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 8:54 am and is filed under Property. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.