JOSEPH Moretti and his wife Fi are aiming to raise £40,000 to support numerous charity causes, namely donating £12,500 each to RSPCA and National Autistic Society by raffling their Cyprus villa situated in the Paphos village of Kathikas reports somersetlive.
The pair also aim to raise £15,000 from the raffle’s funds to Freddy’s Fight for Life, a charity set up to support a four-year-old with a rare cardiac tumour.
The appeal aims to raise £100,000 to fund Freddy’s surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital in the United States to remove a fibroma from his heart.
Freddy’s father Andy Vallender believes this is “the only opportunity we have to give Freddy a fighting chance at a full life”.
While discussing his incredible charitable act, Joseph Moretti said: “We bought our villa in Cyprus in 2012 and have enjoyed every summer in it since, but the time has come for us to reluctantly let it go in order to raise funds for an exciting new murder-mystery based business venture.
“Instead of selling it the traditional way, we thought we would do something a bit different, and allow anyone the opportunity to own their own property in this beautiful country – whilst helping some worthy causes in the process.”
The competition is set to run until February 1, 2018 but the closing date will be moved forward if their £40,000 goal is not met.
Situated in the Paphos village of Kathikas, the villa has three double bedrooms (two of which overlook the villa’s private pool), three bathrooms and a large, open plan ground floor with living area, dining area and kitchen. The raffle includes all indoor and outdoor furniture and furnishings, all kitchen appliances and equipment, entertainment items, bedding, crockery and glassware – in fact everything you need to start using your villa straight away.
The property is fully air conditioned, and there is also a log burner for cosy winter visits.
Despite some scepticism, Mr Moretti was quick to reassure that this a legitimate charity raffle and used the advice of multiple solicitors.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, Antonis Loizou FRICS said that it is not possible to raffle a house in Cyprus if the raffle was being set up in Cyprus, as a licence would not be given out. He said one person had tried it before – there was a case in 2015 – and he was simply not given a licence to do it.
Mr Loizou noted that since raffling houses is relatively new phenomenon there is not a lot of expertise on the ins and outs. “It’s a grey area,” he said. “No one has touched it yet.”
In this case, he said the raffle is being organised in the UK under British law so he did not see implications if someone in Cyprus won the villa. “I imagine it would be OK,” he said, adding that the transfer of property would probably be made as usual at the land registry as in any property transaction as long as the required fees were paid.
For a chance to win a villa and support a number of charitable causes can visit their website at: http://www.winacyprusvilla.co.uk/.
Alternatively, entrants can send a letter or postcard with the answer to: Win a Cyprus Villa, 2 Hector Stones, Woolavington, Somerset, TA7 8EG.
Thought it would be timely to respond to some of the questions raised here. Any costs to the winner, in Cyprus, or otherwise would be paid by ourselves. There will be no costs to the winner, either stamp duty, transfer fees, land registry fees etc
The deeds will indeed be provided. We’re visiting Cyprus in September to tie up the paperwork for this.
There are no mortgages on the land.
The questions raised below are entirely valid and we are happy to answer them and any further questions (via the winacyprusvilla.co.uk website). Our intention is to enable anyone to win our villa for the price of a prize draw ticket. There will be no hidden costs for the winner.
Ed: Thanks for your explanation Joe.
Also will the “lucky winner” be liable for the Title Deeds Transfer Tax, as & when the these Title Deeds are available and ready to be transferred into the winner’s ownership / name + likewise the previous Immovable Property Taxes, Local Village Taxes etc?
Being classed as a “luxury villa” with all its facilities, reckon that the L. R. Department in Paphos might arbitrarily deem its value to be say, circa, 400,000 Euros?.
So perchance for a start there will not be much change out of say 12,000 Euros to be paid in transfer tax for these Title Deeds?
So see what happens. RB.
Ed: Based on a market value of €400,000 the Property Transfer Fees will be €12,600. And the raffle winner will also have to pay the local property tax and sewerage tax – (Immovable Property Tax payable to the Tax Department has been abolished). The present ‘owner’ of the villa will have to pay any unpaid taxes before the transfer takes place.
This is a typical comment from a Cypriot solicitor Mr Loizou states:
In this case, he said the raffle is being organised in the UK under British law so he did not see implications if someone in Cyprus won the villa. “I imagine it would be OK,†he said, adding that the transfer of property would probably be made as usual at the land registry as in any property transaction as long as the required fees were paid.
There is a lot of:
He did not see implication if somebody in Cyprus won it.
I imagine it would be OK
Transfer of the property would PROBABLY be made as usual.
Clear as mud as usual.
@ Ed: come on Nigel, you perninently know that the “problem” is not knowing (through a lawyer’s search) if there are title deeds or not (which obviously, as I’ve mentioned, is not the case).
The problem is GETTING those title deeds.
You may end up with a property which you can’t sell, and which you will have to maintain for years.
So even you’ve got it with a few bucks, expecting to make a huge profit from your small investment, you may end up spending a lot of money (hoping that you’ve got that money) before seeing the hope of a potential financial return.
Well, of course, if you would love to spend your last days on earth on this remote village, your opinion may differ…:)
Nonetheless, the idea is good should be extended to the rest of the island properties. :) but not sure the locals would allow for a very long time this breach on their real estate monopoly.
Ed: If the Title Deed for the property exists the you should apply under the provisions of the ‘trapped buyers’ law to get the property registered in your name. Although there are problems in a number of cases the vast majority of applicants are successful.
But it is taking a very long time to get Title Deeds issued (EC reports it will take 10 years to clear the backlog).
@ “Sky” Thanks for your e: regarding this matter
Much appreciated. RB.
Two things irritate me:
I haven’t seen any mention of the title deeds anywhere on their website, so I guess they haven’t any…It would have been “honest” to mention it, to say the least.
Besides that, I hate the “do it for a charitable cause” environment of the raffle.
@Ed : “the winner will instruct their lawyers to request a title search”… If it’s british humor, I love it.
Ed: I really don’t see what the problem is with instructing a lawyer request a title search. That’s precisely what lawyers in the UK do when someone acquires a property.
With all respect, has this Property being raffled, obtained full & clean Title Deeds without any problem, upon possession by the winner of this raffle?
Please inform at your soonest convenience. RB.
Ed: The winner of the raffle will need to instruct their lawyer to request a title search. But if it only cost them a few pounds are they really going to be worried?