Juristiction is key All the above good common sense which should generally be enough but most people I deal with would still involve a lawyer.
However, one of the points you raised opens up an issue that is being dealt with on a thread about Marsa Alam at the moment - the developer insisting that an English contract is sufficient and all the purchasers being recommended to make sure an Arabic contract is supplied.
Where is the legislative environment here. Does it make any difference that the actual object (apartment/house) is resident under Egyptian law. Can any arbitration of a contract which is not allowable in Egypt actually be applied to the property in any meaningful way. Sure the PPC is between 2 parties who can basically argue about the clauses in the contract till they meet mutual agreement. How are any resolutions/disputes then applied in an area which doesnt recognise the contract.
If a client objects, for example, to a clause which says if you dont pay by a certain date x amount then we automatically terminate the contract and client forfeits deposit and the developer removes that contract in an English only contract. What if he then does actually cancel the contract because of these circumstances.
Where is the clients redress. Would an English civil court be able to enforce any decisions?
The answer is I dont know but surely a simpler solution is to have a contract enforceable in the country in question and a lawyer who will act for the client to ensure that the contract meets practical and legislative restrictions.
Cheers
Rick
IF the law of the land states that contracts must be in the native language to be accepted, you have no choice.
I beleive in Egypt that there is a requirement for ALL contracts involving non-Egyptians to be either, be in the language of the buyer as well as Arabic, or someone who understands Arabic and your lanuage must sign that you have had everything explained in YOUR language to YOU before you are allowed to add your name to the registration book. This applies to all kinds of official documents, including POAs (power of Attorney). Only works if you are at the Registration office (now that is an experince in Hurghada).
In the UK we do not use POAs since we effectively accept (and so does everyone almost everyone else) that once you give "instructions" to a solicitor that he performs ONLY the tasks that you expect.
There is a potential danger in Egypt that the terms of many POAs give far reaching powers to lawyers who you may well never have met.
In my experience this is not because the lawyer wants or needs all this power but the registration office will often refuse a POA that seems to be too restrictive, and if it is not accepted it is a real pain if you're not there to sign a new one.
Anyway the basic of a contract - it MUST be in two languages for non Egyptians otherwise it has no value in a legal dispute in Egypt when you cannot understand what is stated.
My point about accepting that the English version has preferance lies in the belief that if both parties understand English, and not Arabic, then you can instruct your relative legal representative in EGYPT to use the ENGLISH words to determine the INTENT of a clause NOT the strange interpretations sometimes written in Arabic.
Biggest problem with this is that you will most likely not be able to get an English lawyer to represent you, so it will be sub-contracted to someone in Egypt who can speak both languages, at a substantial cost.
Far better to agree upfront about all the terms and conditions in ENGLISH, and get both parties to agree to ENGLISH version, not the transalation to Arabic.
You can usually tell an Egyptian contract translated to English, rather than the other way around, because you'll find some odd words that leave you wondering what is meant - this is when you'll have a problem if you do not get it re-translated by someone other than the seller, into English that you understand.
Some words do NOT translate well and often there can be a difference that you need to know about in order to be happy with the terms.
Contracts are as much about trust as they are about the words
If you do not trust the person you are buying rom then a wriiten contract is a poor way to give you confidence. Make the effort to find out who you are dealing with and if you believe that the will deal fairly with you in a dispute, WITHOUT having to go to court in a foreign country.
There are official translation services who must stamp there work and become responsible for the accuracy - you do NOT need an expensive lawyer to get this done, but you do need to know where to look, which often makes it impossible. An agent cpuld maybe help here and get you a new transaltion to check the original if you have any doubts.
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