Search Search Engine Optimization Greece – SEO in Greece

jorjevio.com – Search Engine Optimization Greece – SEO in Greece
I have been In the practice of optimizing web pages for the search engines [SEO] for the past 3 years. Both Private and commissioned projects

Thereby been threw lots of testing , tweaking , analyzing , reading , discussing & debating.

With all that in mind I have come up with a formula that works and proves it’s self over and over again, with the main objective, top placements in Google.com & Yahoo.com, long lasting postitions, PR building , ect.

Along with the search engine optimization Social media is of much importance to support your brand in getting those quality links & hits in and turning up your ROI .

Other services by trust worth and renown web developers in Athens Greece
include

Web Development Technologies .php .asp
Open Source joomla technology
Web 2.0
Content management system

jorjevio proudly does

Search engine optimization (web promotion)
Social media optimization
Social media
Social bookmarking
And blogging

in Athens Greece

SEO Mistakes

Top 10 Most Egregious SEO Mistakes

David Letterman Style, here it is:

#10. You’re optimizing your website around really common (probably really popular) keywords that you’ll never be able to rank for. In the last week, I’ve had two people tell me they wanted to optimize their site around “leadership”. I said, good luck competing with Wikipedia and About.com.

#9. Everyone of your title tags has the same keyword phrase in it. And it’s your company name. The title tag on a page is probably the most important On-Page SEO factor to consider when creating new pages. You probably already rank well for a search on your company name, so you can safely leave that out and still get that traffic. So, make sure you pick appropriate keyword phrases for each page that are phrases that someone is going to type into a search engine in order to find a product or service like yours.

#8. Dynamic URLs without your keywords in it. You bought a fancy shopping cart or content management system (CMS) that uses dynamic urls with all kinds of random numbers and random letters in the url. Your URLs should be readable by humans because search engines read words like humans too. The words in your URLs is another very important signal to search engines what that page is about. So, get yourself a CMS that allows you to control your urls or get yourself a URL rewriter. Include your keywords in your URLs.

#7. You used images as headings. Headings are usually the big bold letters right above the content at the top of a page usually below your navigation. See “HubSpot Inbound Internet Marketing Blog”. That’s a heading. If these are “words built with images” (designers do this to control the font of the text), search engines aren’t reading them. These should be text. Pick a web safe font that’s close to what you want. Go with that.

#6. Number 6 is equally egregious, but a little less common nowadays unless your website is circa 1997… If your navigation is built using image buttons instead of text, you’re giving search engine one less signal about what that page is about. See #7 for a fix: Use text.

#5. All of the above. I’ve seen it happen. I’ve seen sites with all of the above mistakes. Really. Honest.

#4. Doing SEO after the website is designed and built. For some reason, people think SEO should start afterwards. I’ve been racking my brain for an analogy, but it’s really pretty simple: Do you go on a trip before you pack? Do you launch a business before writing some sort of business plan? Do you visit to a friend’s new house without printing out driving directions?

SEO done right allows you to determine what content to write in order to get traffic from search engines. And you shouldn’t design a site before you know what content will be on it. I’m not saying that you should change your business model or product name based on what keywords will be easiest to rank for, but you should consider it. I guarrantee you that your competitors or smart internet marketers are doing this homework. Why not claim the search traffic for your business? It only takes a little bit of planning.

Plus, if you go to a designer or web developer that isn’t an expert at SEO (Most aren’t – even though they say they are), they may not implement a system that allows you to publish new pages and optimize your site around your keywords without paying them $100/hour to make the changes and additions for you. Someone that knows SEO will launch your website in a system that allows you to easily do SEO on a continous basis.

Which brings us to…

#3. Our design firm “DID” SEO for us. This one is probably the most common. There is no such thing as “BEING DONE” with SEO. It’s an ongoing thing. Just the other night, I logged into HubSpot’s Keyword Grader tool and found 2 new keywords that we should target. We rank not-quite-on-the-first-page for both of them and both of them could deliver several several hundred visitors/month once we get to the first page. That’s hundreds more visitors we could attract to our site – with a bit of effort. And we already rank for “internet marketing”, “internet marketing software” and a bunch of other great phrases that are relevant to our business. Doing SEO once is like doing prospecting once. If your salesperson said “I called prospects last month” as a reason for not calling any new prospects this month, what would you say to them right before you fired them?

#2. You built your website entirely in flash. You might as well put an invisible shield up between you and the search engines because they don’t see you.

#1. And the number one most egregious mistake. Drumroll, please… Your site is built entirely in flash, you’re a web design firm and you advertise that you do SEO. I’ve run into two of these people recently. I won’t link to them even though they deserve to be called out.

That about covers it. I hope this was a fun way for you to learn HOW TO DO SEO and not just HOW NOT TO DO SEO. I recently wrote a more detailed post on my blog about how to continuously identify new keywords for your content creation and link building efforts which details the few things that you need to know besides content creation to do SEO effectively. It should dispel any misconception that SEO is some mysterious science not comprehensible by mere business mortals.

Jason Calacanis in Athens – opencoffee.gr xv

Jason Calacanis  The serial internet entrepreneur
Grace us with his presence and advise here in  Athens  at the opencoffee xv meeting, held on Tuesday the 7th.

Jason Calacanis shared his experiences, thoughts, comments up’s & downs whilst developing some of his companies in the past. evangelizing the spirit of entrepreneurship here in Greece, and the pity of fear stopping us to do so.

So lets together and start sharing what we know, develop teams & work groups to develop something and make Greece proud online. 

Jason Calacanis we thank you your time and advice.
we sincerely hope to see you again.

Among  Jason Calacanis where other speakers like Elias Politakis, founder, will demo (right in our mobiles) the innovative wireless services of MobileFX, taking the IT marketing in grland to new heights. Cheers to you Elia

others where M. Rizos from mtv.  shaming the greek youth. and Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, trying to make a difference for entrepreneurs on the political front.

search engine optimization in Greece

search engine optimization in Greece

Social Media in Greece – social bookmarking

web promotion

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

Taxation on natural persons & Corporate tax

Income taxation on natural persons | top Law 2238/1994 (Income Tax Code) Article 1 Tax is imposed on the total net income generated in Greece or abroad that is derived by any natural person that fulfils the requirements of article 2. Article 2 Every natural person that derives income generated in Greece is subject to tax regardless of his nationality and his place of domicile. Every natural person that domiciles in Greece, regardless of nationality, is subject to tax for income derived outside Greece. Article 3 Tax is imposed in every financial year on income derived during the previous economic year. The duration of each financial year is from the 1st of January until the 31st of December of the same calendar year. Article 4 Income on which tax is imposed is the gross income derived from any source after deduction of the expenses incurred to produce it. Tax imposed according to the provisions of this law, penalties or additional taxes are not deducted from this income. Income is distinguished according to its source into the following categories: A-B Income from real property C Income from financial instruments D Income from commercial activities E Income from agricultural activities F Income from remunerated services G Income from the exercise of a liberal profession and from any other source. Income tax is computed on the aggregate income from all sources. Loss from any source is in principle offset against profit from another. Losses incurred in the exercise of commercial, agricultural, mining, industrial and hotel activities can be carried forward up to 5 tax years in order to be set off against profits. Losses incurred from sources outside Greece can only be set off against profits of the taxpayer made outside Greece. Income from the lease of real property or interest on loans that is deemed to have been derived but has not been collected by the taxpayer can be excluded from the computation of the total income provided that a) the taxpayer proves the non-collection of this deemed income and b) the debt is assigned (gifted) by the taxpayer to the State which latter acquires all the legal rights against the taxpayer’s debtor. Article 5 Married couples are obliged to fill in a common tax return but each spouse is taxed on his/her own income separately. Losses of one spouse cannot be set off against gains of the other. If the income of one spouse (A) comes from the exercise of a business / profession which is depended financially on the other spouse (B), this income is added up on the income of that other spouse (B) and is taxed on his/her (B’s) name. Article 8 Provides for certain deductions that are allowed from the net income of the taxpayer: – the annual rent paid for the principal residence of the taxpayer and his/her family – life insurance premiums and nursery fees – medical and hospital expenses – tuition fees for private lessons of foreign languages etc for the taxpayer’s children or for himself – money paid for the purchase of a personal computer, peripherals that constitute an integral part with the p.c. and money paid for gaining access to the Internet. Article 9 The net income remaining after deduction of the expenses (according to article is taxed according to the following tables: Income received between 1.1.2001 – 31.12.2001 (In Greek drachmas) Income scale Tax rate Tax Total income Total tax 2.100.000 0% 0 2.100.000 0 746.000 5% 37.300 2.846.000 37.300 1.706.000 15% 255.900 4.552.000 293.200 3.407.000 30% 1.022.100 7.959.000 1.315.300 9.088.000 40% 3.635.200 17.047.000 4.950.000 over 42,5% n/a n/a n/a Income received after 1.1.2002 (in Euros) Income scale Tax rate Tax Total income Total tax 6.163 0% 0 6.163 0 2.190 5% 110 8.352 110 5.006 15% 751 13.358 860 10.000 30% 3.000 23.357 3.860 26.670 40% 10.668 50.027 14.528 over 40% n/a n/a n/a 4. Corporate income tax | top Taxation of the “E.P.E.” (Limited Liability Company) An E.P.E. pays corporation tax on the profits which actually arise during its accounting period. The rate of the tax for the financial year (1 January to 31 of December) during which the profits arise is currently 29% and as of the 1st of January 2007 it will drop to 25%. With this taxation at 25% of the net profits of the E.P.E., the tax obligation is fulfilled both for the company and its members. This applies for all members of the E.P.E., whether Greek or foreign natural or legal persons regardless of whether there is a treaty for the avoidance of double taxation between Greece and the country of their permanent residence. Profits are considered to be acquired on the same day the meeting of the shareholders resolves on the balance sheets and profits distributed; otherwise they are presumed to be acquired on the last day of a three month period after the expiry of the fiscal year. Until the introduction of law 3190/2002 a so called “business or entrepreneur fee” was deducted from the profits of the EPE. After deduction, the remainder was taxable in the name of the legal entity. That business fee was considered as income of the managing members from commercial activities for which a withholding tax of 15% was imposed plus stamp duty @ 1,20%. By virtue of law 3190/2002 article 8 the business fee system was abolished so that the total income of the EPE is now taxed in its name at 29% (25% as of 1.1.2007). Taxation of the “A.E.” (Company limited by shares or “S.A.”) According to �1e of Law 2238/1994 (Greek income tax code) Greek S.A. companies, other than banks and insurance companies, are taxed based on their total net income or profit derived from their business activity in Greece or abroad. By the same article it is provided that the profits distributed are taken from the remainder of their profits left after the deduction of the corporate income tax payable. Consequently, corporate income tax on S.A. companies is calculated on their total taxable income before the deduction of any profits to be distributed. Of course, dividends distributed are free from any further taxation because they correspond to profits already taxed. An A.E. pays corporation tax @ 29% on the profits which actually arise during the fiscal year. The applicable rate for profits that will arise after 1.1.2007 is 25%.

Bilateral treaties for the avoidance of double taxation

Bilateral treaties for the avoidance of double taxation |  Greece has entered into such treaties with the following countries:

COUNTRIES

LAW / LEGISLATIVE DECREE / EMERGENCY LAW

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE ISSUE

SIGNED

DATE OF ENFORCEMENT

U.S.A

L.D.2548/53

231 & 333/1953

20/02/1950

30/12/1953

Constitutional Provisions

Article 4V
All Greek citizens contribute to public expenditures without distinction according to their financial ability.
Article 78

1. A tax may be imposed only by law passed in Parliament.
2. The Parliament may not delegate its legislative power to the Government or other authority concerning the object and the rate of taxation as well as the tax exemptions.
3. A tax may not be imposed by retroactive legislation extending beyond the previous economic year.

Article 28 I
Ratified International treaties constitute an integral part of the Greek legal system and prevail over any contrary statutory provision.

Six Tips for Corporate Bloggers

MAY 2, 2005

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Blogs Will Change Your Business

Table: Blogging: A Primer

Six Tips for Corporate Bloggers
You can’t afford to miss this wave — and even more important, you can’t afford to do it wrong

Blogs represent an explosion of information, from inside and outside companies. Those who figure out how to mine this treasure while protecting their own gems will fare just fine in the new world. But it’s a risky world, full of hazards. Here are six tips for companies setting out into the blogosphere:

No. 1: Train Your Bloggers
Who’s on your communications team? It used to be a small group, but now everyone who blogs at the company is spreading the message. And it’s important that these people be trained.

If a company blogger spills financial information, it can get you in hot water with regulators. Other leaks could help competitors or lead to embarrassing revelations about top executives or the workplace. No wonder many companies are worried about blogging. “They’re really scared of it,” says Giovanni Rodriguez, a vice-president at Silicon Valley’s Eastwick Communications. “They know what mistakes can be made.”

The natural instinct is to restrict employee blogging. But that can be shortsighted. Every employee who blogs can be making contacts with potential customers and enhancing the company brand.

If bloggers become part of a company’s communications effort, what does the old PR department do? Increasingly, it’ll train and coordinate the bloggers.

No. 2: Be Careful with Fake Blogs
Companies are eager to establish one-to-one links with customers, but they’re often reluctant to plunge blindly into the blogosphere. So they set up fake blogs. These are blogs that are created by corporate marketing departments to promote a service, product, or brand using a fake character or name. McDonalds (MCD ) established one and linked it to a Super Bowl commercial featuring a peculiar French fry. Captain Morgan runs a rum blog.

These pseudo-blogs are risky because many of the most passionate bloggers view them as an affront to their community, and each one stands out like a billboard in Yosemite. When the blogosphere gets hold of a fake, it can turn it into a public roasting of the company.

So should companies avoid fake blogs altogether? That’s hard to say, because sometimes the buzz is welcome, even if it’s negative. Following the launch of the McDonald’s site, bloggers booed. Yet a McDonald’s spokesman says the blog, which received more than 2 million visits, “was keeping the ad alive. It generated a lot of great buzz.”

The upshot: Your choice on fakes, but the risks are high.

No. 3: Track Blogs
This is the easiest and most important step. First, poke around online and find the most influential bloggers following your company. Read them every day. Then do automated tracking of discussions. Companies ranging from startup PubSub to tech giant IBM (IBM ) can help, since they offer services that comb through this mountain of data, turning it into market research for customers.

Big Blue is testing advanced technology called Web Fountain, which analyzes billions of postings to see if they predict spikes in consumer behavior. Last year, Web Fountain plumbed the blog world for buzz on books and then compared it to sales data from Amazon.com (AMZN ). In about half the cases, researchers could predict the sales growth that would follow the buzz.

Why is it important to do different kinds of tracking? Postings even from small-time bloggers can get picked up by a search engine, amplified by a top blogger, and eventually break into the mainstream. Last summer, blogs picked up an anonymous post in an online discussion forum from someone who boasted he could break Kryptonite bike locks with a Bic pen. Within a week the story had bubbled up to The New York Times, and Kryptonite recalled the locks.

No. 4: PR Truly Means Public Relations
Blogs knock down the barriers between a company and its customers. Businesses need to take that into account and adapt.

Some companies, such as yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm, start blogs to build loyalty and address people’s comments and concerns. For businesses that don’t set up corporate blogs, pinpointing and developing relationships with the top 10 or so influential bloggers in their area is key.

Netflix (FLIX ) figured this lesson out after a rocky start. A fan named Mike Kaltschnee started a blog called Hacking Netflix that was full of news about online movie-rental company’s services. Kaltschnee asked for a closer relationship with Netflix, including access to executives and briefings on news releases. Netflix didn’t pay attention to him — until he wrote about his frustrations on his blog last June. The posting was picked up and spread madly through the blogosphere. Talk about bad PR.

At about the same time, Netflix hired Michele Turner as vice-president for product marketing. She promptly reached a working arrangement with Kaltschnee, whose blog attracts 100,000 visitors a month. The two speak regularly, and Kaltschnee provides Netflix with insights that he’s hearing from readers.

Kaltschnee’s suggestions have helped lead to a new service called Profiles. Launched in January, Profiles allows customers to create up to five separate lists of requested films per subscription. So, a family with a subscription could have separate lists for the children and the parents.

No. 5: Be Transparent
No hard and fast rules for navigating the worlds of blogging and marketing exist. Still, a few principles are emerging, including the importance of full disclosure. Being open about the kind of marketing you’re doing is critical.

Ask Stephen King, the president and CEO of Marqui, a Web-services marketing company. Late last year, King and consultant Marc Canter cooked up the notion of paying bloggers to market King’s company. The key to the venture’s success was being completely open about it.

In November, Marqui began paying some 20 bloggers $2,400 each to write about the company once a week for three months. “We’re a small company selling what we believe to be a creative marketing tool,” King says. “We wanted to take creative approaches to the market.”

Here’s how Marqui ensures openness. Everything about Marqui’s blog program is up on its site, including the contract, a list of the bloggers working for Marqui, and background material Marqui sends to bloggers. The bloggers have total control over what they write. They can criticize the software or write at length about it. The only requirement was they have to mention Marqui once a week.

The program stirred up a hornet’s nest online. But the discussion didn’t center on Marqui’s intentions. Instead, the bloggers debated whether this kind of program made sense and under what circumstances. Molly Holzschlag, a Web designer who was part of the program used her blog, www.molly.com, to discuss the issue as well as do the blogging. Holzschlag ultimately decided to stop blogging for Marqui because for her it felt forced.

Yet Marqui benefited from the buzz about the novelty of what it was attempting. King says the program was a success. The number of people who visited Marqui’s site rose from 2,000 in November to 150,000 in December. And the company decided to continue the program after the first three-month period ended.

No. 6: Rethink Your Corporate Secrets
Consider one secret you have under lock and key at your company. Maybe it’s a list of projects for next year or details of the scandalous bill from the latest software installation. There are all kinds of things you’re trained not to leak to competitors.

But what’s the value of a locked up secret? In the world of blogs, you may find more value in sharing what you used to think of as secrets. Blogs are certain to make you rethink what should be squirreled away, because companies are increasingly sharing such information to win new partners and harvest fresh ideas. This doesn’t mean they don’t keep secrets or that you shouldn’t — only that you should reevaluate whether you can get more out of sharing information or keeping a lock on it.

Take the example of San Francisco’s ThinkEquity, a boutique investment bank. In recent months, CEO Michael Moe launched a blog in which he shared information, including preliminary research, that used to be more hush-hush.

Moe now looks at the blogosphere as an enormous research tool for the nascent industries ThinkEquity focuses on. Whether he blogs about nano solar technology or an obscure niche in biotech, experts abound in the blogosphere, and they contribute their knowledge. “We’re in the experimentation phase,” says Moe. “But I’m convinced this is part of the future for research.”

ThinkEquity not only shares loads of information that used to be private but is figuring out how to cull insights from a wide range of bloggers — some unreliable, a few of them liars. But Moe says the extra work involved in writing and figuring out which blogs to follow is worth it. “I sure as hell didn’t want to wake up some morning and find out that some other investment bank was doing it,” he says.

ThinkEquity is just one of the companies finding that a few of its secrets are worth more in the open than gathering dust in a strongbox.

Things to do when Accepting your inheritance in Greece

1.Research property, verify shares of takers, verify property parameters (see above)
2.If and when property is identified your attorney may recommend hiring a local
surveyor to map out property that has a high value.
3.Calculate the property’s value (in some cases it has an objective value which is set by
the Tax Office, in other cases the value is set by the Tax Office + additional data and
is an estimated value). It is on this value that the inheritance taxes, Notarial fees and the Land Registry fees will be based.
4.Draft Power of Attorney (P.O.A.) giving the attorney power to act on behalf of the client for all the next steps.
5.After receiving the original P.O.A. fully notarized and sealed from the client, (and a copy of the clients’ passport or driver’s license) a Greek Tax Id needs to be issued for the clients (these are requirements of the Tax Office).
6.Gather necessary certificates (such as certificates verifying existing Wills, death certificates, filing of foreign Wills, if they have not been filed in Greece etc.)
7.Complete Inheritance Tax Declaration and filing it at the competent Tax Office on behalf of the client. In some cases there are no property taxes. This can happen if the Tax Office has given the land a small value (agricultural), or because of a death occurring before a certain date. If there is an inheritance tax it can be paid in installments. The inheritance tax declaration must be filed within a year of the death of the grantor. If this deadline passes, a small penalty may be set by the Tax Office.
8.Draft the Inheritance Deed
9.Submit all certificates and Tax Declarations to the Symvolografos or Notary (not the same as U.S. Notary) and sign the Inheritance Deed in their presence.
10.filing official copy of Notarial Deed with the Land Registry.
11.Some areas of Greece require additional steps.

Inheriting and owning Property in Greece

So you were left some property in Greece.

Converting what has been written and published in a Will, into a Deed in your name, can be a very involved process in Greece. Many factors come into play. How was the Will written? Is the property clearly identified?

Many old Greek Wills are vague in their bequests, for example: “I bequeath all my property to my siblings.” When some others do not clearly describe the property: “I bequeath my son the land between Yannis’ farm and Demetra’s rock wall.” Where is the property located, its square meters or standing boundaries?

To legally accept property (transfer the Deed into your name), or even filing a declaratory tax form (E9/E1), you must have a clear description of the land you are attempting to claim, even if it is only the square meters within a given area. Of course not all Wills are ambiguous. Many clearly describe the land, any structures on the land and state who is to inherit.

Regardless, if a Will is clear or vague, the single most important first step is to research the chain of title. Competent research is the cornerstone of tracking land in Greece. If the research is not done correctly problems may surface later when developing or selling the land.

The Framework
In Greece there is no centralized/computerized National Land Registry system. While in some areas Land Registries have been created, they are few and far between. In most areas only Mortgage Offices exist. As attorneys we often refer to the Land Registry for clarity, but in fact we are talking about the Mortgage Offices here, because in other countries the meaning of the Office is different. The primary difference is that the Mortgage Office records titles by name and the Land Registry uses many more parameters.

Only Lawyers are qualified and permitted to research in the Land Registries and Mortgage Offices in Greece. In any land transaction the title to the land must be researched. Sometimes this involves more than one Mortgage Office. For example, in Athens, there used to be only one Mortgage Office. Over the years more than 30 new Mortgage Offices have been created. These Offices cover different time periods as well as areas; therefore, the researcher may have to search in several Offices to track down a property. In some island locations there is no Mortgage Office at all and the Office covering that island’s land may be located on a larger neighboring island.

In almost every case a lawyer must travel to the Mortgage Office or Land Registry if one exists, which covers the area where the land is located. If the land has recently been sold or accepted (covered below), the documentation may be clear enough for some other transactions. However, if the documentation is an old Will, or an even older acceptance deed, then it is imperative that the research is current to protect your interests. Changes may have occurred to the land or ownership rights over time. For example town boundaries may have changed which effects zoning or parts of the supposed inheritance may have been sold off without the claimants’ knowledge.

So what needs to be done?
1. The present owners (claimants) have to be identified by your attorney after studying:
a) Any existing Wills (inheritance occurs either through a Will or intestate (w/out a Will));
b) A detailed family tree in order to determine who can claim a share in light of Greece’s
inheritance laws and identifying individual deaths which may impact the claims, and;
c) In cases of intestate succession the heirs’ nationality will impact their share.

2. The properties must be identified by your lawyer. This can sometimes be the harder of the
two endeavors depending on the documents provided, the information logged at the
Mortgage Office, and if there are individuals locally who can actually identify the property.

For example, when trying to identify property, if there is no Will describing the property or if the existing Will is unclear and no documentation exists at any of the Mortgage Offices or Land Registries then you may have a serious problem. If there are no living relatives/friends residing near the property, to help with identification of the land, then there are limited ways to identify the land. In some cases, property has been trespassed on and if there is no written proof at the Land Registry, i.e. an adverse possession lawsuit, the only way to determine if trespass has occurred is by actually visiting the property.

Another way of looking at these steps required under Greek Civil Law, both the necessary documentation and the legal steps to clear title to your land, is that the Greek Government is trying to protect your property claims and those of your children. If anyone could walk into a Mortgage Office or Land Registry and claim a parcel of land, your ancestor’s land probably would have disappeared long ago. The reason to only allow licensed Attorneys to research at these offices is to create another level of protection for these irreplaceable documents.

There are real dangers to letting land “sit” without claiming it through these legal steps. It is your responsibility to establish clear title or you can leave the door open for trespassers. (see Hellenic News of America, “Think you own Property in Greece”). In addition, with the Greek Government’s attempts to reorganize the Countries Land Registries into a truly functioning property database, failure to assure current and clear title could mean the loss of your land. If you value your land in Greece, it is imperative that you act to protect your interests.

The Documentation
In order to avoid further delays and also help your attorneys better understand your case, you should provide them with the following:

1. Copies of any and all documentation describing the land (bills of sale, acceptance of inheritance documentation, acceptance of gifting, Wills) you have on hand and;
2. Draft out the family tree listing full names of family members including maiden and married names, if possible two generations before the grantor (drafter of the Will) down to you and your siblings. The attorney should search back through these family names to make sure you are aware of all your property claims, as well as, the share of the property you may claim.

The reason to have so many generations, apart from following the property in cases where there are no recent titles is that the Mortgage Offices record titles by name only. In some villages all the male children may carry the same name. The researcher must be able to differentiate which familial line is the correct one back through several generations.

Send your attorney copies of the above documentation and the family tree and they will be able to determine the next steps to take. Almost always the first step is Research.

The Research
If an old Will is the primary documentation it may take your attorney a while to sort out the wishes of the grantor and who the takers are, particularly if there are multiple marriages and numerous offspring involved. It needs to be determined if previous generations have accepted their inheritance so that the current generation may accept their inheritance. It is a layered process so that the chain of title remains intact.

Of course, problems can arise even with a recent Will. If, for example, the grantor (testator) leaves all of his property and assets in a Trust of some kind, the situation in Greece needs delicate handling. Trusts are not recognized and do not exist in Greece and they create enormous problems. It is wiser for individuals owning property in Greece to leave their Greek holdings outside of a Trust.

Keep in mind that the research at the Mortgage Office/Land Registry is the most important step in legally clearing property. The attorney should also research under all family names (i.e. grandmother’s maiden name), siblings, aunts and uncles. Most of the Mortgage Offices have numerous handwritten volumes which need to be cross referenced and then re cross referenced within their own organizational system. If other family members have accepted their inheritance these documents should be on file and will help in the research particularly if the property is jointly owned. The research should include verifying that there are no liens or burdens against the land, that the land has not been sold or gifted, and that there are no pending claims of ownership through trespass.

As stated earlier, in some cases, depending on how old the Will is, and depending on where the property is located, the Mortgage Office may have little information. For many years land was passed orally and written documentation did not exist. If there is no paperwork and no one locally can identify the land and the local Mortgage Office does not have any documentation it can be very difficult to trace property.

Of equal importance is verification that the properties actually exist. We prefer a visual identification to ascertain that no one has trespassed on the land. However, if the property is inaccessible (no roads) or there is no one locally to point out the property, this visual identification may be impossible.

The Acceptance
In Greece, one must accept their inheritance or gift of property. It is a formal, legal process involving a number of steps.

Your lawyer’s list of things to do when Accepting your inheritance:

1.Research property, verify shares of takers, verify property parameters (see above)
2.If and when property is identified your attorney may recommend hiring a local
surveyor to map out property that has a high value.
3.Calculate the property’s value (in some cases it has an objective value which is set by
the Tax Office, in other cases the value is set by the Tax Office + additional data and
is an estimated value). It is on this value that the inheritance taxes, Notarial fees and the Land Registry fees will be based.
4.Draft Power of Attorney (P.O.A.) giving the attorney power to act on behalf of the client for all the next steps.
5.After receiving the original P.O.A. fully notarized and sealed from the client, (and a copy of the clients’ passport or driver’s license) a Greek Tax Id needs to be issued for the clients (these are requirements of the Tax Office).
6.Gather necessary certificates (such as certificates verifying existing Wills, death certificates, filing of foreign Wills, if they have not been filed in Greece etc.)
7.Complete Inheritance Tax Declaration and filing it at the competent Tax Office on behalf of the client. In some cases there are no property taxes. This can happen if the Tax Office has given the land a small value (agricultural), or because of a death occurring before a certain date. If there is an inheritance tax it can be paid in installments. The inheritance tax declaration must be filed within a year of the death of the grantor. If this deadline passes, a small penalty may be set by the Tax Office.
8.Draft the Inheritance Deed
9.Submit all certificates and Tax Declarations to the Symvolografos or Notary (not the same as U.S. Notary) and sign the Inheritance Deed in their presence.
10.filing official copy of Notarial Deed with the Land Registry.
11.Some areas of Greece require additional steps.

After this last step, the property is finally transferred in your name.

All of the above legal processes, while not cost prohibitive, are not inexpensive. Calculate by your own country’s’ standards, what it would run to send a lawyer to a remote location, island or mountainous village, where they may get stranded due to inclement weather or perhaps hours away by car to conduct research in less that desirable conditions. Depending on the location it may involve an overnight trip to access all the offices that in Greece only have morning hours. Researching through old books, perhaps fire singed or volumes miscataloged, not to mention the time to research within these documents and filing the necessary paperwork. This involves an outlay of legal working hours alone not to mention travel expenses. Depending on your case you may need to add in inheritance taxes and maybe Court costs if there is a challenge to the land. Many of the above costs are set by the Greek Government, certainly taxes and Land Registry Fees. By sending your attorney paperwork up front in most cases they can estimate the initial step to research your property.

Land is an investment. If generations before you did not take the time or make the investment to clarify their title it is now in your hands. You must decide if it is worth the investment to you and your family, remember you cannot sell or develop property without taking these steps in Greece. The next generation, with the reorganization of the Land Registries may not get this choice.