Tuesday, 27 May 2008

Greek Property Owners: Beware! You do NOT really OWN your property...

...unless you can prove otherwise.
If you thought the house you purchased in Greece is yours to use & dispose of at will, think again. The house may soon become the property of the Greek State by default. In other words, it is in the running to be transformed into the next local politician's daughter's wedding present.
How?
The national cadastre, a triviality that much of Greece did not have and whose absence allowed some flexibility in defining what is mine and what is yours in my favour, of course.
The national cadastre was defined in a law published in 1995 and is finally being implemented. So far so good, and better late than never.
However, the closely guarded secret of this enterprise is... just that: that it is a closely guarded secret. If you do NOT declare your ownership, through the customary for Greece convoluted, complex, and expensive process, the property reverts to the Greek State.

In fact, the wording of this law is such that all property is presumed to belong to the Greek state unless proven otherwise -- proven otherwise by you, of course. Never mind your precious declarations made in your tax returns, etc; here we go again as if your declarations and subsequent tax levied on your property never has been and never happened.You need to provide and present "clear" claims and titles.

Far be it from me to present the declaration procedure. Suffice it to say, it is complex and expensive: by the way, a duty is levied per declaration, not per piece of property. So if you own 1% of 100 pieces of property, you will have to pay 100 times to validate your claims... Accordingly, of course, if you own 100% of one property, you are in luck.

Anyway, for those who are not in the know, get talking to a certified local accountant immediately. Or you may just find out that the house you paid for and lived in for a while, is now officially labelled a "forest"*: officially the house no longer exists. You may think you are looking at it, but it just isn't there. It's a forest. Worse, it's not your forest.

Do you think that this is the view from your house in Greece? Think again. This is a forest and it is in the public domain in Greece. What? It doesn't look like a forest? What counts is, it is officially labelled as a forest. Later on, the local authorities will declassify this forest, and sell the property, now a house again, to a local dignitary. So, either become a dignitary or run -- don;t walk -- to declare your property. And make sure you have proff of your declaration; mistakes are human.

*:Reference to an actual case. A man, living in a house with a small garden for the past 40(?) years and who failed miserably to follow the correct declaration procedure has seen his house + land officially labelled a "forest"... My goodness!

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