Let's discuss property for a moment. I was under the impression that property ownership in the US was complicated and had many downsides. Now I think it is a positively simple thing!
At some point, either the 50s or 60s as my family tells it, rent controls were instituted. Anyone familiar with New York City will probably know about these, but for those who aren't, basically it keeps rents low by prohibiting raises above a certain amount, and allows existing tenants to retain their apartment if someone moves/dies. Here it has resulted in some ridiculously low rents--say 10LE/month or such (10LE is like $1.30). Families move in together so that when the older person who holds the apartment dies, their child is already living there and gets the same rent. This has led to all sorts of fun problems. For one, there is zero incentive to keep up the buildings, and even to keep them clean in many cases. This means a lot of property in Egypt is in poor condition. New apartments are either owned by the families or not rent controlled. This results in better buildings, as people then pay fees to keep up the building. Although even some of those are incredibly dirty and poorly kept. Oh, and one more thing--in the cities, basically everyone lives in apartments. Land is too expensive for houses.
Further, even though there are leases and rental agreements, it is nearly impossible to get someone out of an apartment. Unless they move of their own free will, you cannot evict or give notice. Eviction is a long process involving the courts, and if the renter pays the rent on the last day at the last minute, then the eviction does not go through. If you want someone to move out who pays their rent, you have to negotiate with them to do so, which will likely involve paying them to move. If you can't come to terms, then you are stuck with them.
The only other way to get them out seems to be to have the city condemn the building, but even that has its own set of pitfalls. First, you have to get the city interested, and pay something. Then, once they decide it is condemned, it is their job to move the person out--and they give them a ticket for a tent until they can be placed in some sort of housing. At least, this is what we are told is happening in Tanta (3rd largest Egyptian city where my father grew up). However, the renter can challenge this ruling--and if they do, the owner must be on site 24 hours a day for at least a week while several groups of people come through without warning to inspect. They then make a recommendation to the court. This, unlike most things in Egypt, apparently happens "fast" because it has a health and safety factor. If the court decides it is still condemned, then the person has to move. If they do not, then you are back to square one.
Sellers want buildings that are empty, or land, so they can build non-rent controlled apartments and actually make some money on them. Buildings with full apartments, which would be valuable in the US, are not valuable here as you pay more for the land and building than you can ever make back from the rents.
Why is all of this of interest to me? Well, the family (read my father and his 4 siblings) owns the building in Tanta, which has like 6 apartments, and a building in Alexandria, which were owned originally by their parents. My grandfather died when I was 7, and they've been trying to deal with all the property ever since. He also owned a lot of agricultural land, which has been sold. We are trying to get rid of the building in Tanta, which is actually a valuable piece of land because there is so little building space in Tanta. It has something like 6 apartments on it, some of which are empty. They have gotten to the point where everyone but one tenant will be out, but this one is being very stubborn, so we are currently working on the city condemnation process. Apparently my grandfather paid off the city to not condemn the building in the 50s! We have hopes that this will happen in the next few months. That still leaves us with a building in Alexandria, which is bigger and not in bad shape, and full...we have no solution for how to handle that one. I personally would really like to figure out how to get rid of that one too, because eventually it will be just my cousins and I dealing with it--that's 14 people, out of which 8 live in the US (6 of which have never lived in Egypt), and one is in a mental institution. But so far I can't see how that would happen without a major outlay of funds.
One other interesting legality. Power of Attorney documents are done and issued by a government office. They have them in various localities around the country. It is an interesting process where you have to be able to speak enough Arabic to show the people processing that you understand what you are doing. We got the nastiest lady ever, who refused to work with my Arabic, and was very nasty to my extremely charming uncle. Who was nasty right back and insulted her deeply so she shot him this glare--if looks could have killed, he would have been very dead! They then microfilm these documents, so if you want a copy, you have to go to the office where it was made. Lovely. It pays to think ahead in cases like this! Anyway, I got one, but it was possibly the most poorly organized system, which was illogical and not labeled, that I have ever noticed. Here's what you do:
--go into the office, and down a hall to a large room, where you go behind a bank of chairs and tell the guy what you want
--he then assigns you to one of the computer ladies, who call you (assuming you can hear over the din of people talking)
--these ladies ask you what the power of attorney is for, and name/address etc of the person for whom you are making it. We got a grouchy, nasty one. If they don't like you, they send you to the boss (who was nice as pie). These ladies are at a desk which is behind a row of chairs, so you have to squeeze in behind other people and the chairs. You wanted privacy? for what?
--Once you get past the lady, you go pay for the document. I can't remember how much, but not much. This office is back out the door and down the hall from where you came.
--you go back to the first office and show the receipt to a man at another desk, who then calls you when the documents are printed
--then it goes to the boss again for review
--at this point, you go to a separate office where they record that you want this for use at a bank, and sign lots of times (like 8) in a huge ledger book, and on the papers printed
--then you go back down the hall to the entrance, where there is a door to a tiny office with a lady sitting at a desk and a horde of people shouting around it. You pay this lady like 2LE and she takes the papers and gives it to someone to microfilm it
--now you are done, and you notice that this office has piles and stacks of papers shoved every which way in various rooms, not to mention many large ledgers, and you wonder how or if they find anything at all.
I would rearrange the office and the process, myself, but it seems to work for Egyptians. It was all very chaotic.
At some point, either the 50s or 60s as my family tells it, rent controls were instituted. Anyone familiar with New York City will probably know about these, but for those who aren't, basically it keeps rents low by prohibiting raises above a certain amount, and allows existing tenants to retain their apartment if someone moves/dies. Here it has resulted in some ridiculously low rents--say 10LE/month or such (10LE is like $1.30). Families move in together so that when the older person who holds the apartment dies, their child is already living there and gets the same rent. This has led to all sorts of fun problems. For one, there is zero incentive to keep up the buildings, and even to keep them clean in many cases. This means a lot of property in Egypt is in poor condition. New apartments are either owned by the families or not rent controlled. This results in better buildings, as people then pay fees to keep up the building. Although even some of those are incredibly dirty and poorly kept. Oh, and one more thing--in the cities, basically everyone lives in apartments. Land is too expensive for houses.
Further, even though there are leases and rental agreements, it is nearly impossible to get someone out of an apartment. Unless they move of their own free will, you cannot evict or give notice. Eviction is a long process involving the courts, and if the renter pays the rent on the last day at the last minute, then the eviction does not go through. If you want someone to move out who pays their rent, you have to negotiate with them to do so, which will likely involve paying them to move. If you can't come to terms, then you are stuck with them.
The only other way to get them out seems to be to have the city condemn the building, but even that has its own set of pitfalls. First, you have to get the city interested, and pay something. Then, once they decide it is condemned, it is their job to move the person out--and they give them a ticket for a tent until they can be placed in some sort of housing. At least, this is what we are told is happening in Tanta (3rd largest Egyptian city where my father grew up). However, the renter can challenge this ruling--and if they do, the owner must be on site 24 hours a day for at least a week while several groups of people come through without warning to inspect. They then make a recommendation to the court. This, unlike most things in Egypt, apparently happens "fast" because it has a health and safety factor. If the court decides it is still condemned, then the person has to move. If they do not, then you are back to square one.
Sellers want buildings that are empty, or land, so they can build non-rent controlled apartments and actually make some money on them. Buildings with full apartments, which would be valuable in the US, are not valuable here as you pay more for the land and building than you can ever make back from the rents.
Why is all of this of interest to me? Well, the family (read my father and his 4 siblings) owns the building in Tanta, which has like 6 apartments, and a building in Alexandria, which were owned originally by their parents. My grandfather died when I was 7, and they've been trying to deal with all the property ever since. He also owned a lot of agricultural land, which has been sold. We are trying to get rid of the building in Tanta, which is actually a valuable piece of land because there is so little building space in Tanta. It has something like 6 apartments on it, some of which are empty. They have gotten to the point where everyone but one tenant will be out, but this one is being very stubborn, so we are currently working on the city condemnation process. Apparently my grandfather paid off the city to not condemn the building in the 50s! We have hopes that this will happen in the next few months. That still leaves us with a building in Alexandria, which is bigger and not in bad shape, and full...we have no solution for how to handle that one. I personally would really like to figure out how to get rid of that one too, because eventually it will be just my cousins and I dealing with it--that's 14 people, out of which 8 live in the US (6 of which have never lived in Egypt), and one is in a mental institution. But so far I can't see how that would happen without a major outlay of funds.
One other interesting legality. Power of Attorney documents are done and issued by a government office. They have them in various localities around the country. It is an interesting process where you have to be able to speak enough Arabic to show the people processing that you understand what you are doing. We got the nastiest lady ever, who refused to work with my Arabic, and was very nasty to my extremely charming uncle. Who was nasty right back and insulted her deeply so she shot him this glare--if looks could have killed, he would have been very dead! They then microfilm these documents, so if you want a copy, you have to go to the office where it was made. Lovely. It pays to think ahead in cases like this! Anyway, I got one, but it was possibly the most poorly organized system, which was illogical and not labeled, that I have ever noticed. Here's what you do:
--go into the office, and down a hall to a large room, where you go behind a bank of chairs and tell the guy what you want
--he then assigns you to one of the computer ladies, who call you (assuming you can hear over the din of people talking)
--these ladies ask you what the power of attorney is for, and name/address etc of the person for whom you are making it. We got a grouchy, nasty one. If they don't like you, they send you to the boss (who was nice as pie). These ladies are at a desk which is behind a row of chairs, so you have to squeeze in behind other people and the chairs. You wanted privacy? for what?
--Once you get past the lady, you go pay for the document. I can't remember how much, but not much. This office is back out the door and down the hall from where you came.
--you go back to the first office and show the receipt to a man at another desk, who then calls you when the documents are printed
--then it goes to the boss again for review
--at this point, you go to a separate office where they record that you want this for use at a bank, and sign lots of times (like 8) in a huge ledger book, and on the papers printed
--then you go back down the hall to the entrance, where there is a door to a tiny office with a lady sitting at a desk and a horde of people shouting around it. You pay this lady like 2LE and she takes the papers and gives it to someone to microfilm it
--now you are done, and you notice that this office has piles and stacks of papers shoved every which way in various rooms, not to mention many large ledgers, and you wonder how or if they find anything at all.
I would rearrange the office and the process, myself, but it seems to work for Egyptians. It was all very chaotic.
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