Far fewer applications have been received than anticipated for the small-scale building violations amnesty, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said on Friday.
The measure announced in September had been intended to run for a period of six months and resolve a number of problems.
Owners would receive withheld Title Deeds through a simplified process, the authorities’ bureaucratic workload would be eased, and revenue generated from fines was to go into a fund for promotion of affordable housing by the land development organisation.
However, only 550 applications have been received to date although properties with small deviations run into the thousands, the minister told CyBC radio.
Strict terms are in place for the amnesty grants which aim to free up owners and prevent future legal hassles should they decide to sell, Ioannou said.
The measure allows for scale-scale planning deviations to be legitimised after payment of fees ranging from €400-€3,000, he said, and a list of infractions which may be legalised is available on the ministry website.
Owners must provide the original planning and building permit, as well as certification from a registered architect or civil engineer for the arbitrary alterations.
It is known that in their vast majority, these concern expansion of the building’s size and distance from the plot perimeter, the minister said.
Amnesty eligibility
Residential properties may be eligible for amnesty for building factor deviations of 20 per cent, up to 60m² both vertically and horizontally including spaces such as enclosed verandas and pergolas.
In the case of apartments, the arbitrary constructions may be legalised only with the consensus of all unit owners.
The amnesty decree also provides for unapproved constructions in livestock operations and leisure venues.
In the case of livestock operations, the cutoff is for infractions in building coefficient of up to 20 per cent, while for leisure venues the terms are 20 per cent, up to 100m².
District administrations (EOAs) had sent out notifications with water bills in a bid to push property owners to respond by the time of the decree’s expiration at the end of March.
No renewed decrees will be issued over the exceptional measure, although a minor extension of two weeks would be considered if interest peaks, Ioannou said.
As for the issue of foreign trapped buyers who are not covered by the decree, the matter will be addressed in the near future and new legislation will be proposed, in cooperation with banking institutions and all relevant authorities, he said.
Possibly the lack of interest is because, even if we can get the Deeds, they will not be ‘clean’, so we will be worse off than not having Deeds at all!!
What makes you believe that Title Deeds will not be clean???
Is anybody actually surprised by this apathetic response. Fail 1; The amnesty appears not to be open to non-Cypriot citizens/residents, who constitute a significant amount of property buyers in Cyprus. Fail 2; The amnesty has the effect of turning what would have been previously considered a bribe into a government sanctioned fine. Fail 3; It does not address the fundamental issue that having paid once for our property we, the owners, are now expected to pay again to fix planning and building discrepancies and the complete failure by the various planning departments to enforce building regulations and planning decisions.