She lost dream home

A mother-of-three has told how she lost her dream home and nest egg after being caught up in a Turkish property fraud nightmare. Margaret Macdonald, from Whitehead, Co Antrim, flew out to Altinkum on Turkey’s Aegean coast as news broke that her three-bedroom apartment, along with 10 others owned by Britons and Europeans on the complex, had been auctioned off.

Mrs Macdonald (47) was featured on Turkish national TV demanding action from Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan. She was also filmed handing out leaflets highlighting her plight to mainly British tourists in the resort, and calling on the Turkish government for tighter property legislation and to offer more protection for foreign property investors.

Mrs Macdonald bought her apartment five years ago for £24,000, but was put off with excuses over the transfer of the property’s title deeds into her name by developer Altay Cetin. Debt-riddled Cetin, now in prison on separate fraud charges, rattled up more than £200,000 in loans by borrowing money by putting up the apartments’ title deeds as collateral.

When he defaulted his creditors, including the Turkish government’s social security department, seized the properties and auctioned them off for just £9,000 each on August 7. None of the property buyers were aware of the auction as they had not been issued with the title deeds so legally had no claims on the apartments which they bought in good faith.

Mrs Macdonald said she had been told by her solicitor in Turkey of the news. In a bitter twist she was given less than 15 days to clear her apartment of furniture. She said: “I am gutted. I flew to Turkey to try to find out what is happening and sell my furniture. But when I leave, I will never set foot back in the country as I feel so angry.

“I hold no grudge against the builder who made these very stupid decisions that put us all in this terrible position. I blame a system that enabled him to do it. “The Turkish authorities should take note and prevent other buyers falling into the same trap.”

She added: “It was my golden nest egg, something I had invested in after much research. But that has now turned into a nightmare. I feel stupid and angry, sad and full of tears because of the fact it has been taken off me.”

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national

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