A NEW BILL was submitted to Parliament in January that is designed to overcome problems with the division and distribution of co-owned property in which one or more of the co-owners refuses to co-operate.
This situation is quite common in Cyprus with plots of land owned by members of the same family in which one of the family wishes to sell their share, but the others refuse. The new bill seeks to resolve this situation by giving the Directors of Land Registries additional powers.
Assuming that the bill becomes law, it will enable the Directors to decide on the division and distribution of a property in cases where one or more of its co-owners refuses to co-operate without reasonable justification.
The House Interior Committee, which is examining the bill, recently received information on the extent of the problem.
Ionas Nicolaou MP said that 24% of the plots in Cyprus (approximately 274,000) are co-owned. Of these 49% (approximately 134,260) are in the district of Famagusta. But as there is no agreement between the co-owners as to how the plots should be divided and distributed, Title Deeds cannot be issued even though contracts of sale for their purchase have been deposited at the Land Registry.
Mr. Nicolaou said that the House has asked the Legal Department and the Land Registry to examine the involvement of the judiciary, so that the matter may be settled.
Nigel.
I collapsed in unbridled mirth and disbelief when I read the last paragraph of your piece.
It has to be a classic of our age…
This is a recipe for that very common species, the ‘lesser spotted brown envelope’ to reappear on an epic scale.