Cyprus' leading on-line resource for home buyers & real estate investors -

18th March 2024
Cyprus Property News logo
HomeNewsDetermined action over Title Deed fiasco

Determined action over Title Deed fiasco

Cyprus Title Deed protestIN THE ABSENCE of tangible government action, main opposition AKEL said on Wednesday it will be preparing two proposals designed to iron out kinks in a 2015 law that sought to sort out the Title Deed mess, offering relief to so-called trapped buyers.

The law sought to resolve the problems for homeowners who had paid for their properties but were not issued with their Title Deed either because it was mortgaged by the developer, or the state could not go ahead with the transfer because of outstanding taxes.

Since developers’ land and buildings were counted as assets that need to be offset against their debt to banks, this gave lenders a claim on people’s properties that had been mortgaged by developers.

However, following a string of court decisions in cases where banks objected to the law, the government had said it would seek ways to plug any loopholes.

AKEL MP Aristos Damianou said the matter was revisited by parliament in July 2017, after decisions, mainly by courts in Paphos and Limassol, that found the law unconstitutional.

It had been decided at the time that government departments would look into the matter together with the Legal Service, in a bid to make corrections and secure the rights of trapped buyers.

“We waited for over six months. We had warned at the time that in the absence of government initiative parliament would not remain idle,” Damianou said.

On Wednesday, the party’s parliamentary group decided to prepare and submit next week, two proposals that will be jointly tabled with all parties aiming at tackling “this huge social problem”.

Damianou said government departments will be invited in due course to offer their views but parties could no longer wait for the executive to act.

The AKEL MP said the proposals will seek to safeguard buyers who have paid the full amount of their purchase and were not at fault. Encumbrances will be taken into account but the proposals will weigh the wider public interest.

“In our understanding, the wider public interest is to cover all those people who have paid off the price as per sales contract, but they cannot get a deed because the businessman has outstanding issues with the banks,” Damianou said.

He said banks will have a say in the matter but they will not be able to veto decisions.

Some of the court cases have been won by the banks, largely on the grounds that the buyer’s claim on the property infringed on the contract between the bank and the developer.

But in September, the Larnaca district court upheld the 2015 law, allowing trapped property buyers to obtain their Title Deed irrespective of the developers’ own commitments to banks.

The attorney-general had instructed the departments involved to continue implementing the law while appeals were filed at the supreme court, which will have the final say on the matter.

Earlier this year, Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides said that despite the matter not being resolved, the ministry had prepared a bill which it sent to the Legal Service for processing last October.

“As it transpired from the differing district court decisions, it is a complicated legal issue and due to this an in-depth study is required,” the minister said.

Damianou said parliament knew about the problems but it could not remain idle any longer.

“Inaction on this matter cannot be justified in any way.”

RELATED ARTICLES

5 COMMENTS

  1. We paid for our house 15 years ago and have spent a lot of money trying to get our Title deeds.

    Last month we paid our developer nearly €2000 before he would give us a letter for the Deeds office stating that he had no objections to us receiving our deeds.

    But the deeds office has now decided to re-value the properties on our estate so that they can get a lot more transfer money, so we are still waiting.

    They are over valuing the properties by as much as €100,000. Can they get away with this.

    Ed: Something is definitely wrong here. Did you apply for your Title Deeds as described in Applying for Title Deeds? Had you done so the Land Registry would ave charged you €10 and there would have been no need for you to pay €2,000 to your developer.

    I suggest you take your stamped contract of sale together with the receipt you received from the Land Regitsy when you deposited it and ask to see the director.

    The Land Registry assesses the market value of the property at its date of sale (when your contract was deposited) but it sounds as if they’re charging you the current market value, which would only happen if you didn’t deposit your contact 15 years ago.

  2. Have now entered our thirteen year of waiting, during that time we have been told every LIE you could think up. Wouldn’t insult a banana republic by calling Cyprus one its much, much worse. A land of cheats and thieves.

  3. Yada yada yada.

    More sticking plasters and populist platitudes whilst the elephant continues to amble around the room in plain view, for everyone to see.

  4. In my case the water meter has been stolen or removed, I stopped the contract with the municipality, as I do not use my cottage, I became disgusted by the poor and scummy public services. A foreign investor is considered as a milkcow.

    I bought and paid in full over 30 years ago and I only could obtain the title deed because I had some helpful friends.
    Cyprus was beautiful…

    Nowadays it is seemingly a place to keep off for serious and correct investors. My friends are old fashioned and honest Cypriots and feel ashamed how things are handled by the public services. Lawless and corrupt…

  5. We can’t get our deeds at the moment because the developer can’t get a Certificate of Final Completion because they can’t finish the green area as the municipality refuses to fit a water meter because “they can’t afford to”.

    Where do we stand with that??

    Ed: The developer should finish the green area, but this should not prevent your getting your Title Deeds – see the article I published last November – Local authorities obstructing Title Deeds.

    Fitting a water meter shouldn’t be a problem – they only cost a few Euros. The Municipality is messing you around.

Comments are closed.

Top Stories

Sign up to receive our free newsletter

We handle your data responsibly, find more about our privacy policy

Cyprus property transfer fees

Elsewhere in Cyprus Property News

EUR - Euro Member Countries
GBP
1.1684
RUB
0.0101
CNY
0.1285
CHF
1.0436

Property capital gains tax (CGT) calculator