23.09.2021
Interior Minister Nikos Nouris spoke at the 15th Land Development Conference in Nicosia on Tuesday. He stated that the title backlog had narrowed.
This news delighted thousands of people. Many of them have to wait several years, and sometimes even decades, to receive titles for the purchased property.
In 2014, 120,000 real estate titles were not issued; today this gap has been reduced to 19,190.
Of these, 8,000 will be issued during 2022 without issue and another 6,500 will be issued by the end of 2022 with banknotes.
For the remaining 5,000, the minister said that the issue is complex, and the authorities must find a way to solve it.
Nouris also stated that thanks to the new licensing policy from October 2020, the entire procedure will be accelerated. The possibility of using electronic applications is being implemented, which will simplify the process and make the procedure efficient and more transparent.
Title deeds with notes
Violations in the layout are indicated in the title as records of unauthorized work. They indicate that the developer has not complied with the conditions set out in the planning and building permits issued for the construction of the property.
In some cases, buyers make unauthorized changes to purchased property. This will also cause the title to be issued with notes. It is possible that other properties in the development will also be issued with title deeds with notes, even if they were built correctly.
Properties with notes cannot be sold or mortgaged until any planning irregularities are corrected.Once the property is corrected, “clean” titles will be issued. This will allow you to sell or mortgage the property.
Just last week it was reported that development titles could not be issued for a number of reasons, including: unpaid land division fees, failure to apply or pay for a sewer license, roof perimeter walls too low, unfinished landscaping.
In these cases, the developer responsible for breaking the layout goes unpunished – and the property buyer is left to pay for any necessary remedial work and then sue the developer to get their money back!
A double whammy! (four actually):
Because title deed properties with notes cannot be sold, they have no value on the open market.
Although the property does not have a market value, owners are required to pay a property transfer fee based on the land registry’s estimate of its market value at the date of purchase.
The buyer must pay for the builder’s indiscretion in order to obtain a “clean” title and make the property marketable.
To recover the cost of any restoration work, the affected owner must sue the developer.
The simplest solution to this gross injustice for the planning authority is to impose fines on the developer sufficient to pay for the repairs necessary to remove any “notes” from the title deeds and revoke the developer’s building license.Homebuyers who insist on buying property off-plan are strongly advised to insure against any potential loss in the event of the inability to issue clean title deeds and the insolvency of their developer.
