Do the right thing

Between Angelina Jolie's shoulders are tattooed the words, 'know your rights'. On reading this, I thought what a perfect mantra for expats embarking on a new life in a new country.

And I'm not the only one who's been dwelling on the importance of expats knowing their rights. One of the most important aspects of British Honorary Consul Deborah Hellyer's work in Menorca is to signpost expatriates towards those places on the island where they can find out about their rights via the regular briefings and pamphlets readily available from host country's government departments.

Why is this so important? Because spurning such rights can leave an expat high and dry when emergency situations strike - think in terms of the assistance you'd need if a partner dies or if an injury or illness necessitates hospitalisation.

Ms Hellyer estimates the size of the British expatriate population in her neck of the Spanish woods to be 6,000. But the official figure records only 4,700, which means there are more than 1,000 Brits living in Menorca who have chosen not to register their presence. Why they prefer to remain incognito is something of a mystery. Whatever their reasons they are almost certainly missing out on significant rights and benefits available to them especially in the areas of health and social security. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FC) back in Whitehall confirms a similar scenario is repeated in other popular expatriate locations around the world.

By formally registering in a new country, an expatriate and his or her family can become full members of the community with all the entitlements to local health and education systems as well as the other facilities that membership brings. In Spain (and other EU countries with reciprocal arrangements with the UK) expats registering on arrival become classified as 'resident' and find themselves with the same rights and obligations as a Spaniard or other local inhabitant. In the case of Spain, the FCO now has Spanish civil servants working alongside its Embassy colleagues advising on property issues, accessing local health facilities and registering with local authorities.

Of course, there's a flip side to the rights' thing. When you strike out as an expatriate the more you know about the rights of others that happenstance may bring directly in your path, the better. Sadly, far too many expatriate related stories have made headline news because other people's rights have taken precedence - no matter how much actual hard-earned cash has been paid out by an expatriate to own such rights.

Nowadays few expats can be unaware of the land-grab laws which regulate compulsory property purchases in certain regions of Spain - but how many found out exactly how such legalities impinge on the property they paid market-fuelled prices for in the first place? Researching titles before handing over money is the only way to acquaint yourself with the rights of others and so protect your own.

Further east along the Mediterranean Basin there's another island, Cyprus, where many Brits have fallen foul by parting with large sums of money to purchase property only to discover that what they think they own wasn't actually an asset that belonged to the seller in the first place. The rights turn out to belong to locals in another part of the island who were caught up in the north/south divide that occurred during the Turkish invasion way back in 1974. Any Brit entangled in such a purchase hasn't got a legal leg to stand on.

FCO Consular Officer Phil Lord confirms there are currently a hundred thousand disputes involving property deeds in northern Cyprus, some concerning British expats. Many of these have followed the same sorry outcome as that of Linda and David Orams. Back in 2002, this British couple bought a villa in the Turkish northern side of the island. A Greek family, forced into exile, claimed ownership of the land on which the villa was situated. At the start of this year, a British Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the Greek family claim which meant Mr and Mrs Oram were not only required to demolish the villa they paid for but also faced having to pay out a not insubstantial sum in compensation.

Today's property market crisis has also added to the woes of purchases in Cyprus, as Mr Lord confirms, seeing cases where construction companies holding the deeds to a number of expatriates' properties have gone into liquidation leaving the hapless purchasers high and dry with no rights to appeal or receive compensation. What's more, purchasers have fallen foul of mis-selling, bad advertising, double selling, and local corruption. It remains imperative that foreign buyers becoming resident and buying property carry out adequate research to ensure what they are buying is indeed being sold by the rightful owner and that they themselves are legitimate as new owners. Knowing your rights, the sellers' rights and checking out previous owners' rights are all essential practices. As Mr Lord stresses, the key to securing rights is to do your research, much more than you would ever believe necessary to undertake back in the UK, as anywhere overseas means you are operating in an alien environment.

Expats everywhere need to take on board the particular legalities surrounding property deeds and land titles in their host country. In Thailand, for example, property purchasers must include a local person's name on the deeds, whereas in Bulgaria buyers are required to set up a local company before bidding for any property.

You can find out more about relocation rights by watching Deborah Hellyer talk on film here and you can listen to Phil Lord on this podcast.

And a website every expatriate should have bookmarked is the FCO's information pages and country-specific sites accessible via www.fco.gov.uk