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28th March 2024
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HomeNewsMEP questions Cyprus on planning and building regulations

MEP questions Cyprus on planning and building regulations

Ashley Fox MEP
MEP Ashley Fox

I have been approached by constituents in the southwest of England angry and disappointed by the building and planning regulations in Cyprus.

British families seeking to retire abroad are being caught by unscrupulous builders who are selling properties without planning permission, without access and without utilities. It seems that once this happens there is little protection for expatriate residents caught in the system.

Please could the Commission answer the following questions:

  1. Is the Commission monitoring the problems in the planning and building regulations in Cyprus?
  2. What measures is the Commission proposing to help Cyprus tighten up its building and planning legislation?
  3. What redress do expatriates living in Cyprus have after being sold an illegal construction?

Further reading: Property in Cyprus

The European Commission’s response

Answer given by Mr Tajani on behalf of the Commission

Building and planning regulations fall within the competence of the authorities of the Member State which should ensure their appropriate application and enforcement (monitoring and control of application and inspection).The EU’s intervention is only justified in cases of potential discrepancy regarding the conformity of the national practices with the principles of the Treaty and EU secondary law, in particular in the domains of the internal market of construction products, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, natural resources and environmental protection as well as health and safety at work.

According to the principles of the Treaty, all the provisions of building and planning regulations should be applied in an impartial, transparent and proportionate manner on the territory of competence of the authorities, whatever undertaking or citizen is concerned by these provisions.

As to the possibilities of judicial redress which expatriates living in Cyprus might have after being sold an illegal construction, the type of action available and the way to introduce it are governed by the national procedural law of the Member State where the competent court is located. European Union legislation only intervenes to determine which court is competent in a dispute involving two or more Member States and ensures that a judgment rendered in one Member State can be recognised and declared enforceable in another Member State. More specifically, Regulation (EC) No 44/2001 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters(1), provides that a claimant can bring an action for damages against the other party either at his place of domicile or at the place where the damage occurred unless the parties have agreed that a specific court should have jurisdiction to settle their dispute. Where the dispute concerns rights in immoveable property, e.g. the transfer of ownership, only the courts at the place where the immoveable property is located are competent to hear the case. From the limited facts submitted to the Commission, it would seem that where British nationals residing in Cyprus are seeking redress against the seller of an illegal construction, an action for damages would have to be brought in the Cypriot courts unless the parties have agreed in the contract of sale or otherwise that their dispute should be settled in the courts of another Member State.

Directive 2005/29/EC(2) provides a legal framework applicable against unfair business-to-consumer practices, including those for immovable property. Claiming that a planning or a building approval has been authorised by a public or private body when this is not the case, or not complying with the terms of such an approval, endorsement or authorisation is considered an unfair commercial practice. According to the directive, Member States shall ensure that adequate and effective means exists to combat unfair commercial practices. However, the directive leaves to Member States the choice of the concrete legal and administrative measures to be put in place. Cyprus has adopted such transposition measures by the Law on the Control of Misleading and Comparative Advertising of 2007 and the Law on the Unfair Commercial Practices from Businesses to Consumers of 2007.

(1)          OJ L 12, 16.1.2001.
(2)          OJ L 149, 11.6.2005.

Editor’s notes

Ashley Fox was elected to the European Parliament in June 2009 as the MEP for the South West of England and Gibraltar.

As a British Conservative he is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR). He sits on the Internal Market Committee where he takes a particular interest in the Aerospace and Pharmaceutical Industries.

Ashley also sits on the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee and the Committee for Constitutional Affairs.

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4 COMMENTS

  1. It is only by sticking together and getting onto our Euro MPs and UK MPs will the Cyprus government do something. But beware developers will have another trick up their sleeves to defraud us. Along with dishonest and corrupt lawyers.

  2. What is needed is a EU Commission Investigative Team in Cyprus as Daniel Hannan MEP has asked for.

    I think it is very Clear the Cypriot Authorities will do nothing as the Rusfeti Code runs the Country.

  3. All the same old questions that people have been asking for the last 20 or more years.

    Have the various governments that have been in a position to do something about all the crooks in the construction industry really care?

    Answer……NO

    Will the dishonest sections of the people engaged in building and selling houses in Cyprus ever be regulated?

    Answer……NO

    Cyprus gets what Cyprus deserves.

    Building, construction, tourism and retail sales all in decline, why? successive inept governments who have done nothing but break every promise given and it most cases appoint people who haven’t a clue what they are supposed to be doing.

    Stand up and be proud the current finance minister and our interior minister. The two of them Cyprus could well do without.

Comments are closed.

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