Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou on Thursday highlighted “significant improvements” in the examination and issuance of property Title Deeds, which, according to him, will help reducing the average processing time to three months from the previous one to three years.
Addressing a seminar organised by the Pan-Cyprian Association of Land Development and Construction Entrepreneurs, Ioannou underlined the government’s commitment to fostering conditions conducive to development, a pledge declared since June 2023.
The efforts to shorten the time needed to grant Title Deeds to property owners involve the simplification of procedures both at the Department of Lands and Surveys and at the department of town planning and housing.
Ioannou also stressed ongoing efforts to streamline urban and spatial planning, facilitating expedited citizen service and bolstering development prospects.
Acknowledging past delays in completing Title Deeds processes, Ioannou outlined objectives to institute more flexible and expeditious procedures, eliminating unnecessary delays and inconveniences.
“We recognise that significant delays in many instances regarding the completion of title issuance processes affected people,” he told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA).
“Our goal is to introduce more flexible and faster procedures.”
One of the key changes proposed to enhance and expedite the issuance of Title Deeds is the new procedure concerning applications for parcel division to create new property titles.
The change, which was effectively implemented on January 2, 2024, prioritises pre-defined external demarcation and surveying work for developments, ensuring that all applications are submitted fully and correctly completed for expedited evaluation without the constant need for additional documentation from applicants.
Ioannou also highlighted the pre-defined completion of external demarcation before parcel division, “which will ensure that future developments align within the real boundaries of the properties’ plots, avoiding interventions in neighbouring properties, a frequent point of contention among property owners.”
Additionally, Ioannou noted recent measures undertaken by the department of land and surveys, including the implementation of the private licensed surveyor institution as the sole option for conducting required surveying work for parcel division.
“This enables people to engage directly with their chosen private surveyor for completing surveying tasks, relieving departmental personnel from these duties to undertake other responsibilities and reducing significant delays,” Ioannou explained.
“With these changes, I am sure property owners will face a substantial reduction in the overall processing time for applications and, ultimately, the issuance of Title Deeds,” he concluded.
I am just getting my deeds after waiting since 2007, there will be a note on in that the car parking allocated is not the one the land registry has on there drawing, so I have been advised to get the deeds and once received put a complaint in and get it amended, yes more money to pay out
Welcome back to the Wild West;
Never ever buy any property without a clean title deed. I remember when I went to pick up my 9 title deeds from the LR, they detest giving the titles to a foreigner (Charlie) little they knew I was born in Cyprus.
Nothing but a bunch of jealous filth !
I have paid a small fortune for my “dirty deeds” received last months having purchased my apartment in 2004 with no mortgage. I am not allowed to sell or raise a mortgage against the property.
The Deeds are at variance with my sale contract in a number of areas such as the allocation of parking spaces. The Deeds do not appear to recognise that all purchasers on the development have allocated spaces written into their contracts. It also lists an outstanding amount due to the Municipality which was paid before the Deeds were issued.
The process of issuing dirty deeds is grossly unfair to buyers who face restrictions unlike those owners without title Deeds.
Would any agency of the EU be interested in correcting this injustice?
A few years ago, Diana Wallis (an MEP at the time) edited a report ‘European Property Rights & Wrongs‘ It’s worth scanning though.
But property issues generally are outside the remit of EU law.
I wrote a piece back in 2019, Planning issues the victim has to pay about the problem.
It’s good to hear the processes are being more streamlined but and I must say but , the issuing of ‘Dirty Deeds’ (those with notes attached) are worthless to the home owner.
It’s not in a lot of cases issues with individual homes that are easily resolved but the site issues like pavements, sewers, green areas lighting etc… that are the main issues. All these were the responsibility of the builders and either not completed, or poorly done.
Councils have been asking the buyers to pay for this extra work and some of the costs are prohibitively to many or some buyers on sites are refusing to pay for good reasons. We need the government to only issue clean deeds as nothing else gives homeowners who have paid for their homes in full what they paid for.
Why the relevant agencies and departments never dealt with builders at the time of the issues is very concerning but penalising the buyers is the wrong approach.
I totally agree with you Chris. The government started issuing ‘dirty deeds’ when the Troika said it should reduce the Title Deed backlog in exchange for a tranche of bailout money. The Troika could have been more specific – but dirty deeds didn’t exist at the at time.
Legal opinion on the problem concluded that no-one could be held responsible for lack of pavements, green areas, etc. The law must be changed!