AN EXTRAORDINARY plenary session of the parliament has been scheduled for September 3 in order to satisfy a Troika demand for the voting of a bill addressing the issue of home buyers ‘trapped’ in mortgaged properties by that date.
In light of this decision, the exemption of such cases from foreclosure legislation until year-end – voted by the House – has been amended to September 5.
Interior Minister Socratis Hasikos slammed parliament last Friday for shelving a government bill designed to protect house buyers without title deeds.
The bill, submitted by the government in June, was meant to sort out the mess created by the failure to provide title deeds to people who paid for the property, either because the property was mortgaged by the developer, or the state could not go ahead with the transfer because of outstanding taxes.
Last Thursday, parliament apparently decided to kick the can down the road, despite the universal demand by political parties for the government to resolve the problem.
I believe some of the arguments for changing the bill would be to encompass those that didn’t submit sales agreement to land registry as well this is good.
Why should these persons be discriminated against? They upheld their side of a deal with the developer and paid him, and to be frank fat lot of good the submitting of the sales agreement does anyway…
What’s the point of citing all the gibberish about law of specific performance that it affords you IF by submitting the sales doc when in the end even if you do get a court ruling transferring a property you paid for in your name….you must prior to this pay a developers outstanding debts to the state and banks! no thank you CY govt….
At the risk of repeating myself (which I often do) wouldn’t it be nice if Troika withheld all further money until parliament did as they agreed in the MoU? The track record of Cypriot politicians doing what’s best for the people of La La Land instead of lining their own pockets is pretty appalling and Troika know this so why give them the chance to squirrel away more money before doing the right thing?
@Pete on 2015/07/17 at 12:41 pm – The conditions under which the troika withhold loan tranches are contained in the 18th June 2015 issue of the Memorandum of Understanding.
Once the troika have completed their current review, we shall see a revised Memorandum of Understanding (which may include harsher conditions.)
@Nigel – This proposed legislation ‘should’ protect buyers from bank foreclosures in respect of the oft-concealed pre-existing mortgages. Is there any foreseen protection from a Liquidator if the Developer becomes insolvent; prior to the issue of Title Deeds; while the legal ownership of a property remains deemed an asset of that Developer?
Would the currently proposed legislation protect such situations; or is there an embryonic proposal for similar buyer protection from such liquidation processes; or is that just another nightmare for the Cyprus property buyer?
@Frank on 2015/07/17 at 11:01 am – Hopefully this ‘hidden mortgage’ bill will resolve the problem – but there could be amendments to it before it is written into law.
Basically, the bill will enable you to apply to get the deeds to the property providing (a) your contract of sale has been deposited at the Land Registry and (b) a Title Deed for the property exists.
(From what I have seen of the bill it makes no mention of companies in liquidation – so I would assume that providing (a) and (b) are satisfied, you can apply for the Title to be transferred.)
I’ve just published an article that covers this in a bit more detail – Who is parliament trying to protect?
If the figures posted on the last post regarding these matters is correct then this bill will be thrown out. Which MP in their right mind would pass a bill which would directly put a noose around their own neck.
Another delaying tactic is on the horizon and Troika will swallow it because most of the MoU set out has been reached. Don’t hold your breath on this one.
@Houlou This is little Cyprus the small island of make believe we are taking about nothing will happen just all political spin as usual by a Third Rate Government. The reality is that they believe there own hype so sad really. Did they say what September could end up being delayed to 2017 ?
Can we presume this is as a result of the Troika arriving in Cyprus this week? If so, can we also presume the Troika are expecting only one outcome in September?
Very large article on the views of all parties, in Greek alas
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You could say it is the same old story Hasikos saying bill has to be voted as law, Papadopoulos wanting to discuss further, Perdikis wanting to make many changes other MPs saying it is the intention of parliament to protect all trap buyers and not the banks blah blah blah.
I do wonder if there are any consequences if they don’t pass it as law by the 3rd sept….
Nigel, Let me get this straight MPs will vote in by the 5th Sept the bill to protect the trapped buyers who are caught in the net of NPLs of dodgy vendors/irresponsible lenders?
@houlou on 2015/07/16 at 4:35 pm – MPs will vote on the bill at an extraordinary plenary session of parliament on 3rd September. Whether they vote in favour of the bill remains to be seen.
If the majority vote against the bill, it could become ‘interesting’.