THE INTERIOR Ministry has asked the House Finance Committee to release €3.6 million, part of which will go to pay for services to clear a backlog of cases at the Land and Surveys Department.
Of this €400,000 will pay for private land surveyors to tackle a pile of cases.
According to Philenews, thousands of applications relating to boundary disputes, access applications, land developments and the issuing of title deeds have been pending for many years, leading to long waits and the loss of state revenue.
To deal with the problem the Interior Ministry is contracting services from the private sector and paying employees overtime.
The 2019 budget provides for €700,000 for overtime pay at the department as follows:
€300,000 for overtime allowances for staff working on title deeds, computerization of the archives and land surveys.
€200,000 for overtime pay to cover current and pending cases relating to the issue of title deeds of apartments, plots of land, houses in development projects and upgrading of the land information system and the implementation of other current IT projects.
€200,000 for overtime pay for contract employees who help land surveyors.
The ministry is also asking for funds to buy services from the private sector as follows:
€285,000 to collect information for land appraisals (this is the first-time private evaluators will be involved). The value of an estimated 2 million properties are to be re-assessed. The procedure is underway and should be completed by the end of June.
€522,000 for new aerial photography.
€80,000 to improve the department’s online platform and implement changes resulting from the European INSPIRE directive (establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe.)
© 2019 In-Cyprus.com
Very boring stuff reading this, come on Nigel you know and we all know these Cypriots in office can’t change, most have their fingers in the pie from privately doing land divisions on the side way up to drug dealing, all a bunch of potato pickers, if it was up to my I will get rid of the lot and bring in a foreign company on a performance related pay.
This is not rocket science is it?
You buy a €200 car and it has a title, buyers should stop buying properties unless they have titles we’ve said it many times “No title walk awayâ€
When was the last time you saw a foreigner working in any government office?
Reminds me of England 40 years ago.
Ed: The antiquated processes involved in issuing Title Deeds, planning and building approvals need to be re-engineered. I suppose we should be thankful that, unlike Greece, we have a Land Registry – Greek land registry enters final phase and Greece Finally Expects Registry Done by 2021.
Throwing money at Land Registry is not the answer to speed up the issue of Title Deeds. The problem is incompetence and laziness. I have contacted the Larnaca office on numerous occasions personally and by email with no response. That is simply unprofessional and discourteous and no amount of money will change that.
I think we may be missing the point here!
Money for overtime won’t incentivise staff, when they have been used to receiving money through other means for either fast tracking certain (illegal) land transfers, or deliberately slow tracking those which be an embarrassment to banks, lawyers and/or estate agents and developers who have been complicit in the deeds delay for years.
What is required is a professional and ethical approach to the issuance of deeds, this whole thing could be solved in a very short space of time, given the right approach.
first thing appoint someone in charge of Land Registry who isn’t connected to the current system and actually knows how to do the job.
Train the staff properly and then set targets
Pay by results, not overtime for more delay
Would suggest even if £ 300m Euros was approved to facilitate the fast track of Land Registry backlog nothing will change until a major upgrade is embraced to replace the current outdated process which is costing the Country Millions of Euros which could be achieved by processing the long over due title deeds several that have only have minor planning infringements before it too late.
I recently came across this article;
THE LIMASSOL district land registry is operating like a free-for-all, with staff frequently covering for one another by punching in co-workers’ cards – the most glaring case occurring recently where an employee punched in for a colleague who, unknown to him at the time, had died the night before.
The pic. Above is ‘, ‘Indicative’, I saw similar in the U.K. 5 decades ago! Just wonder how many more such overloaded ‘rooms’ there are around Cyprus!
‘Old habits die Hard’ seems currently to apply
Overtime? And at what speed will those ‘doing it’ proceed ?
Above said, on our properties on the island, we have made a Point of visiting the appropriate Registry, wherever possible taking a friendly Greek Cypriot with us and politely befriending the Workers, who generally we find are very helpful, get them to help to bridge us to someone at or near the Top of the inflated, slow-moving piles seemingly ‘stuck in the middle’. Or even still on the dust-covered shelves. It works!
Best to make sure, first, of course that you have yourselves, sorted the ‘basics’, Land as well as buildings Titles, compliance with seemingly these days ‘essential’ – pavements (even Kids playgrounds) etc,.
‘Friendly but Firm’ seems to provide the necessary ‘traction’. ‘Patience’ and ‘Pleasantness’ seem to help too!
So these people are to be rewarded for their shoddy work-ethic. I hope there’s a time-limit on the overtime……