Hi Noushkey I have merged your thread into the Legal one here.

I recommend Zeiad who is a member here. He is mine and was recommened by another buyer to me. On my development at the last count ( last year ) he was representing 25 owners on the same development. He normally responds very quickly to emails ( unless he is out of the country or on holiday ) and acts in the very best interest of his clients. He certainly knows his stuff ( read his posts ).

Regards

Alison

Legal Question,

Whilst we were in the process of finalising the cost of “finishing” we were taken to Ideal Standard by our builder to choose the bathroom fittings. This we duly did, picking the shower trays, cubicles, shower taps and washbasin taps and then paid for them.

We had regular up-dates from our builder by e-mail, including photographs.
All looked well until we returned to inspect the completion last November when we found that he had not fitted the bathroom fittings of our choice.
In fact there was a cigarette burn in one of the shower trays and none of the fitting had the Ideal Standard brand mark on them.

It was not until we had paid him the balance that we noticed these anomalies (The rest of the work was/is good). There are still some items of furniture missing that we had agreed upon and he now refuses to :- 1) replace the fittings. 2) Provide the balance of the furniture. 3) Pay any money back. 4) Answer any e-mails.

Is there anything we can do (legally)?

Cheers

Dear Sir,

Thanks a lot for the nice words. Please read the answers below.


Q: 1. Above in this thread there was outlined procedure "get Residence Visa to give Power of Attorney to selected solicitor", quoting that a contract and passport are the only required prerequisites for this. May I ask if these are conditions for EU/UK citizens? What about people from the rest of world?

A: Same rules apply to every nationality. Being a 'foreigner' in laws does not distinguish between a certain nationality and another inrights and obligations, so it remains the same. However, and practically talking, procedures to obtain residency visa vary from a nationality to another. For U.K citizens for instance obtaining residency visa is way easier than for citizens from Russia and Ukraine, but eventually all nationalities have the same rights regardless of procedures. I personally would prefer that same procedures would be applied on every one as well.


Q: 2. Somewhere on the net, I read that to get Residence Visa, value of purchased estate must be above 50000USD. Does this (still) hold true? And, if this is true, I would assume that this applies only for the property officially registered in land/estate registry.

A: Regardles of what you read, which I "REALLY" have no idea at all where did they get this information from, but all what you need to do to obtain a 1 year residency visa is to go to the visa department, say that you want a 1 year residency visa, fill the application, pay the fees "around GBP 16", wait for 20 - 30 minutes, take the visa, and say bye to the gentleman there. Property value - or lack of property existence to begin with - has nothing to do with this. Please note that in case you have chosen to issue the power of attorney to your solicitor from the U.K "yes it can be easily done" then you wouldn't need the residency visa at all. In fact you -practically talking- can invest in Egypt and make profits without visiting it at all!


Q: 3. Is it possible to have ownership on one apartment for several people? For example, we want to to buy an apartment with my brother, and also include our spouses (the ultimate aim being able to get Residence Visa for all of us, though just having our names attached to property is not less important). Is it possible? For both land registry vs notary (aka "Signature validity" case) methods?

A: Yes sir it is possible and people do it all the time. It s actually the most common case, as in practice it is rare to find a sole purchser, but it is usually a couple. The purchaser "Second Party in sale / usufruct contract" can be more than an individual. Please note that if only one individual of the Second Party is adequate to issue the PoA to the solicitor, and subsequently a single 1 year residency visa for one member of the 'Purchaser' group is required, unless the other 'Purchaser' individuals need the residency visa for other purposes of course, but over this incident a single residency visa / PoA are adequate and valid.

I hope the foregoing answers were useful, but if you still have more questions please do not hesitate to enquire further.


All the best,

Zeiad Yehia
Solicitor

Dear Vix, Dear All,

Please not that the Power of Attorney issued to your lawyer does NOT allow them to sign on your behalf, but only to represent you in courts. If you chose to grant your solicitor a PoA to sign on your behalf then this is your choice.


Dear Vix the best solution in your case is to get the contract emailed to you, both you and your daughter sign it after you print it out, then you send it back to the developer by FEDEX or DHL, then you take one copy back signed by you, your daughter, and signed and stamped by the developer.

All the best,

Zeiad Yehia
Solicitor

Zeiad,

Can you please answer a couple of questions for me?

We have been living in Maadi, Cairo for 2 years in an apartment that has come up for sale. We have been talking to the owner (who built the
apartment block) about buying it from him. Apparently he still owns the building and is about to register all the apartments in the next six months. He has long since sold all the apartments, except the one that we are at present renting from him and the underground garage of which he intends to retain ownership .
We are aware that if we do buy, then we cannot sell the property within 5 years (if registered). What could the repercussions be if we did not register it and then decided to sell?

We thought that we might buy this apartment and rent it out long term to generate some income. However, I have read an article that states that if you are a foreigner, you cannot rent the property for 5 years also (if registered). Apart from not registering the property, is there any way round this?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Margaret

Hi Zeiad - sorry to be a pain - can you look at this thread http://www.totallyproperty.com/egypt...html#post42579

My residents and multi entry visa are completely different to the pic in the thread. Maybe you can read the posts and shed some light???

Thanks Alison

Hi Zeiad Yehia.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge on legal procedures. We are thinking about purchasing resale apartment in Sharm El Sheikh
Can you advsie us on any traps we need to look out before we going down this route?

How do we ensure the Lawyers representing you are actually acting in your best Interests?

How long the procedure takes from you say agreeing the price with a seller and you getting the keys to apartment?

How the exchange of funds for ownership of the property takes place?

Thank you

Neville

Dear Zeiad,

Thanks for your comprehensive answers (post #140 of this thread), they make those aspects more clear. I'd ask couple more questions, if you allow:

1. What is time required to perform formalities - both land registry vs "Signature validity" case? Regarding official registration, I spotted terms like 6 month, 1 year, 2 years quoted on the net. I know that it's unwise to be too optimistic about speed of such bureaucratic matters, but on the other hand 2 years is way too long either!

2. This question was recently sounded by another forum member too: does official registration impose extra constraints besides 5-year resale moratorium? For example, some additional conditions on rent?

3. This is more applied question, but maybe you can suggest something. As far as I understand, typical PoA already includes clauses regarding representation of customer for installation of electric and water meters - without them, an apartment of course hardly can be called finished, but their installation apparently must be done on owner's behalf.

Well, what about a telephone connection (I mostly concerned with Internet of course)? I guess, in Egypt underlying cabling infrastructure is maintained by the state telecom, and also requires strict paperwork? So, can - and should - provisions of telephone connection be added to purchase contract/PoA to avoid long delays with Internet connectivity after an apartment is otherwise ready for use, but goes thru registration procedures?


Thanks!

you have had good comments from others,so would like you to quote for work that is needed.we are buying a three bed apartment at the sierra resort completed very soon.we have signed contracts both in english and arabic.
what else do we now need to do,we would prefer to obtain any visa in the uk,
so can you help

Hi Zeiad - could I ask if you are representing anyone from El Hayat?? I am in contact with a buyer that is having nightmares. He has paid United Lawyers and not heard anything from them, the agent or developer and the handover date is over 14 months overdue. I suggested that he asks for a refund from the lawyers and goes elsewhere but again they have ignored his emails. Can you please advise the best cause of action is for him

Thanks for your time

Alison xx