Video interview on the subject of Cyprus title deeds with Mr. Giovannis Kouzalis.
Cyprus Title Deeds 27.07.2009 Part 1 – The Cyprus Title Deeds Video can be viewed here.
TRANSCRIPT By Angela Rees
GIOVANNIS KOUZALIS
It is an honour to be here with you again today.
As we clearly said on the first video our task and objective is to give people guidance and reassurance – and our feelings and our hopes as to how things are going. We have plenty of things to discuss today. The first thing is the letters, coming directly from the Minister Syliotis regarding the issues. Most of the issues we agree with – we would like to get people to know what is going on, as they are hearing different stories. We will continue pushing the Minister, trying to get what is best for our clients. At the same time we will safeguard the market – because our clients want to sell and buy, they want to safeguard the market and make it better. This is our task.
FC
“Ok you said you could PUSH the Minister! how do you PUSH the Minister?
Easily, we send him a letter almost on a weekly basis, stating our feelings, stating what we think is wrong and how he can correct this. We are advising a lot of the relevant bodies of the Republic of Cyprus. At the same time, we are informing the Members of the Parliament, locally. We think that every single client who is buying in Cyprus (as they have responsibilities and rights) should contact their Cyprus MP and push or put forward to that MP their worries, anxieties and issues. And going back to your question, we have been sending letters to Mr. Syliotis, quite a lot of them actually. (LAUGHS). The reason I am laughing is that two weeks ago he called me on my mobile whilst I was having a meeting with some people, we had a chat and he was wondering why I was sending him all those letters. Letters to criticise him, letters to contribute our feelings and ideas, and letters to let him know what people are doing on this matter and what steps they are taking. Because though we agree with everybody we are here to protect the market and support the clients. So if there is a movement which is going to destroy the market then my clients will not be able to sell or buy and we do not want that. We want to help him to correct the market.
FC
Did you make any recommendations to him?
Yes, plenty of them. Actually there was a very big letter we have sent out which we are trying to translate because it is in Greek, it was four pages long, giving him our feelings and our ideas. There is always a response to our letters, stating “yes but it is not that simple”. We think he is starting to understand that there is an office here – yes we criticise him but whenever he does something right we say: “Yes well done Sir, that is the right direction”. I have nothing personal against the Minister, nothing against the government. Every single government that is there or will be there they haven’t done what they are supposed to be doing, this is where we can support then or help them in order to help our clients.
FC
What has been happening regarding the legislation?
This is coming directly from the Minister – when he realised that I had nothing personal against him and that the reason I was sending the letters was to help him as well, he decided that we could have access through his PA to all the letters that are going out in order for us to help him to put the message to the public. I have three pieces of paper here – three press releases, these came out today on the 27th. Actually he is stating about the leglislation.
It is very important for people to understand – the leglislation wil be retrospective as well it will not only be for future cases. What we have here will be published on our website. The legislation will cover every single buyer who has bought a property even three, four or five years ago. This legislation will be there to act and support and assist… I am also happy to see certain other measure which I am sure you have read about Freddie and that you will be happy to comment on those.
FC
This is obviously a step in the right direction, but there is still a long way to go.
This is a personal view. OK, I have a feeling (it is my hope as well though) that there is a problem with the government when I am talking to the government and the civil servants. We have some exceptionally good civil servants and we have some civil servants which, because of their positioning because they were part of a specific party a long long time ago, there is no-one will come in and say “oh, you can not perform so you will lose your job”. In the private sector if a member of a team does not do well,, we say “ sorry, thank you very much, bye bye”. This is not the case with the government. So this means that he not only has to change the regulations and the legislation but he has to face a team of people who has been there for decades. There is nobody to tell them off and that is a big problem. Not only that but this same government that this Minister is trying to support and to do his job for, does not allow us to go forward. In the planning department of the Famagusta District there was only one administrator for every 160 – 180 applications Now they are taking ONE member OUT of this team so we are going to have even fewer people to deal with all these cases. So instead of supporting this person – the same government does not hep him. So instead of taking more people to Famagusta to help the situation they are making it worse.
FC
So the whole line of command is wrong
Yes, that is certain as well. The whole government must sit on this. We praise the Minister for this. Certain things we disagree on… but yes there are some good movements from the Minister which will produce a break for this industry.
FC
It seems we are moving in the right direction. It is more, I think a management and infrastructure problem, stopping the Minister from implementing his plans.
“In his presentation on 22nd July he clearly says he will publish the names of the sellers who are not co-operating with the authorities – a Black List of the Developers!. Well he could do the same with the Civil Servants! There must be a way to set up those Civil Servants that are doing their job properly “well done, you get a pay rise” – and to those Civil Servants who are not doing their job properly – to let everybody know about it! And if there is punishment, punish them! We do not want to punish people just for having a high work load, goodness me, we want to punish people who have the opportunity, the means, the facilities and who were not doing this. And the same thing must happen to those in the Mains? Office and the District Office. People must be publicly known how many cases they are doing in a monthly basis and if they are doing well and if they are not doing well. And if they are not doing their job properly then somebody should know about it.
FC But there should also be a reward system for performance!
Somebody must praise them and an say well done. There is nothing like that. Somebody who gets a government job gets this for ever, whether they are doing their job or not doing it!
FC
I think you have another letter to write to the Minister! Well thank you for all you are doing. – especially in getting communication with Minister. Making it known you are helping and supporting him. Adding ideas to the problems at hand and supporting him in getting to the situation where we have a solution for everything.
We want our distinguished clients to know that as an office here and as a team we are working very hard. We are putting pressure on the government. It is constructive criticism. We tell them “off” when they are doing something wrong. But we praise them and are happy to see that the the Minister is going to release 20,000 Title Deeds by the end of 2010. Already 1,000 have been issued since this Minister started. He is doing his best. My job here is to help my own clients and at this stage I feel it is the right thing to do to give him my feelings, the feelings of my associates and my colleagues. Push him. Push the members of the parliament because they have an important role to play and I want EVERYBODY to start doing the same. Our job is not to destroy the Cyprus economy. If this happens we will all face that music. We support the Ministers and support the government and help them all to take the right decisions and this is what we are doing as an office.
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