Buying Abroad:Get independent legal advice, a top lawyer tells Carol Coulter, Legal Affairs Correspondent

A leading solicitor has warned people to ensure they have local, independent legal advice when buying property in Turkey, and, indeed, foreign destinations generally.

Investing abroad has become increasingly popular for Irish people in recent years, but there is no corresponding understanding of the legal systems in the countries involved, which can differ widely from the Irish system. While contracts are mutually enforceable now across the EU (though not necessarily without difficulty) this may not be the case with non-EU states.

Former Law Society president Geraldine Clarke is also a notary public, and discovered from clients who had attended a property show that they were being asked to sign a power of attorney and a contract for an apartment they were interested in.

"The documents were in Turkish with an English translation, but no independent verification of the translation," she said. "They were asked to give power of attorney to a lawyer or an individual in Turkey to act on their behalf. I told them to get independent legal advice and they contacted a lawyer in Istanbul."

She said that contracts involving foreigners buying property in Turkey have no force or effect of law at the moment, following a decision of the constitutional court in Turkey last April setting aside the law permitting such contracts.

"I am not an expert in Turkish law," she stressed. "However, there is a hiatus in the law at present as a result of the constitutional court decision, and pending the introduction of new legislation, no one knows when. There is a procedure that can be gone through in the meantime, but absolutely not this system being proposed (of power of attorney).

"Power of attorney is often given to the lawyer for the developer who clearly has a conflict of interest. You should not give power of attorney to anybody acting for the developer."

Asked whom a person could go to in Turkey, she said: "There is a well-recognised Turkish bar. The Law Society would have contacts in Ankara. There are Turkish lawyers who have acted for Irish people and who speak English.

"You should not blindly sign documents in a language you don't understand," she added. Nor should a prospective buyer accept the translation of the document being offered by the person selling the property.

Caution also applied to other countries, she pointed out. "You wouldn't buy a new property here without getting independent advice," she said. "What happens if the planning is not in order? What happens if the builder goes bust?

"No matter where you're buying, you have to have your lawyer working for you. Even in France, where the transaction is carried out by notaires, will they tell you if there is likely to be a planning problem? A lot of people will still get their own advice in France."

In these newly-popular property destinations, she asked who an Irish person was going to go to if things went wrong. "The management company?"

There were also issues around the selection of a management company, she said. "Does the purchaser have a say?"

People might be daunted by the prospect of looking for a lawyer in a foreign country where they did not speak the language, and may also hope to avoid the expense of legal advice. But this could be a false economy if things go wrong, and either an Irish solicitor or the Law Society should be able to put Irish people in touch with lawyers' organisations in these countries, who will keep a register of members in good standing.

Geraldine Clarke summed up: "An investment is only an investment if you can sell the property when you want to."