North Cyprus : Trevor’s Tips for July 2018

By Trevor Hughes……

TRNC Driving Licence

The Government’s requirement to obtain a TRNC driving licence permiting you to drive legally here, has been somewhat relaxed over the last few years, (to the advantage of foreign residents).

Well, the Police Authorities have been ordered to ‘’tighten up’’ (part of the safer driving campaign).

If you own a property here, [or intend to rent for more than 30 days at a time], the Law states that if you intend to drive you must hold a current and valid TRNC driving licence. This also applies if you are renting a car as well.

The time period in which you must make an application is within 1 month from the last date you entered the country.

Holiday makers who wish to drive here must obtain a full licence after they have spent more than 90 days collectively, in any one year.

If you do not own a valid TRNC driving licence and suffer a road traffic accident, your insurance policy may well be invalid  (check with your insurance provider for clarification). This also applies to car hire companies.

When the police turn up at the scene of an accident, and you do not own a valid TRNC driving licence, they will order you to pay the cost for repair of the third party’s vehicle, whether it is your fault or not, because you should not have been driving the vehicle in the first place. Your insurance company will not pay for the repair of your car either, it’s down to you!

The severity of the accident will determine the amount the police will fine you and the amount of points to be entered against you. If in their opinion, the accident requires you to attend a court hearing (e.g reckless or dangerous driving, and or failure of the alcohol/drugs tests), if found guilty, you could be given a custodial sentence and or deported because you were not legally permitted to drive the vehicle at the time of the accident!!

To help you focus your mind on whether to apply for a TRNC driving licence, or not, these statistics were released last week. One person died and 46 people were injured in 80 traffic accidents that took place between 11-17 June, according to police reports. Total damages to property amounted to 313,200TL

The causes of accidents were 21 cases of speeding, 19 not taking care at crossroads, 16 incidents of driving too close to the car in front, 14 cases of careless driving and 10 accidents due to other factors.

The highest number of accidents occurred in Kyrenia (31), in Nicosia (21), Famagusta, (16) Iskele (7) Guzelyurt (5). Do you really want to risk your bank balance paying out for not having an appropriate licence and/or a much more severe penalty dished out by the Authorities?

It’s not an arduous task to obtain a licence, all you need is a completed application form, which you can obtain from Capital Bank in Alsancak, or at your local tax office.

1. Copy of your current driving licence.
2. Copy of your passport.
3. Two recent passport size photographs.
4. The fee.
5. Muhtars letter, confirming you own property/rent in his area.

You must apply at the Office in Lefkoşa, because you cannot apply for a TRNC driving licence for the first time, at any other office. Thereafter, you can apply at your local Tax Office for its renewal, (same procedure, less the Muhtar’s letter).

Driving schools offer a processing service so that you are not having to go to the office in Lefkosa. BEWARE, this service is quite costly at 185TL per application. Some of them are justifying their exorbitant cost saying the fee is justified by having to pay tax on your driving lessons that you probably never had, or requested. They are also saying that the licence renewal is not needed for the hire of cars, which is completely untrue! Don’t fall for this scam.

For renewal, you can have  a 1 year – 2 year – 3 year – 5 year or 10 year duration. The choice is yours. However, by saying this, there have been several instances where some people have applied for their initial licence and been offered a up to ten years. If you don’t ask, you don’t get!!!

Don‘t forget, if you rent here for more than 90 days in any one year, you must have an up to date rental agreement.

The cost of renewing, or applying for a TRNC driving licence is: –

• 1 YEAR 185 TL
• 2 YEARS 270 TL
• 3 YEARS  365 TL
• 5 YEARS  555 TL
• 10 YEARS  920 TL
• STUDENTS  270 TL [1 year]
• REPLACEMENT/ DAMAGED OR LOST 120 TL.

If your licence has expired there’s no need to worry, you have up to 5 years to renew it without penalty and not back dated. I renewed one for a friend whose licence had expired two years before and renewed it without any problem.

Public Office Summertime Opening Hours

Summer working hours in the public sector will be as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 7.30am to 2pm. Thursday hours will be from 7.30am to 12.30pm with an afternoon shift from 1pm to 5pm.

These new working hours will remain in force until September 16.

Twenty-four-hour essential services are exempt from the above-mentioned hours. Healthcare staff will work between 8am and 3pm every day, with the exception of overnight carers and others who are exempt by law.

Why Do Banks Reject Defaced Foreign Currency?

Instruction from the Central Bank in Turkey is to reject foreign currency notes if there is any defacing evidence on them. This is most annoying when trying to change these notes into Turkish Lira. Even more annoying when an ATM has dispensed the notes, and then you go into the very same bank for staff there to refuse to exchange them even for the smallest of ink marks or tears.

Turkish Lira is not part of this ruling and that’s why they are accepted anywhere in Turkey and the TRNC, because they own the Lira and not any other currency.

The system is no different in the UK, if you try and exchange foreign notes which have been defaced they will also be rejected.

If only Banks would explain changes, the public would have a better understanding and stop the ‘CHINESE WHISPERS’ from people who think they know what they are talking about, but if truth were known, do not!

When the new £20.00 and £50.00 notes similar to the £5.00 and £10.00 notes arrive here, it will reduce the amount of notes being rejected.

Akin Motors

Occasionally there there are some really good special priced articles for sale. Well Akin Motors on the Bellapais traffic light junction are offering a really good deal on one of the cars he has for sale! It’s a Nissan Note, 2015, grey silver in colour, automatic, 1200 cc, 27000 km, reduced to 8950 sterling, a really nice car with the Nissan reliability.

Telephone 0533 887 8707

A further car is for sale for genuine reasons [private purchase] by one of our readers, it is a Renault Clio grand tour [saloon] 2011, serviced regularly, 100.068 km, insured third party paid last week, taxed until January 2019, one lady owner, 500 sterling. If interested call her,  Jen Giddard 0533 833 0124

Bayram Holidays

There is one Bayram holiday this month and it’s on Friday 20th July. For this day all Government and local Government offices, Banks, and some shops will be closed for the day.

For any further information please email me through the contact box below.

[contact-form-7 id=”605543″ title=”Contact form 2″]