Cyprus Property Forum for Buyers, Sellers & Investors

Hi, my wifes mother inherited a half share in some Cypriot land, about 7 acres near Pyrga. The other half is owned by her cousin. She wanted to give her half to her three adult children, in equal divisions. She went to some Government building in Cyrus on her last visit to get the land divided. On her return to England she handed over a form called a "Type N 131A" which shows my wife owns a 1/6th share of the land, so it wasn't actually divided. Just her half signed over to her children. My question is, how do we go about legally dividing the land into 1/2 for her cousin and 1/6 each for the children? And what sort of costs can we expect?

Hi Zoukimando and welcome to the forum.

The form N 131A is the Title Deed for the property.

To have the land sub-divided you will need the consent of the shareholders - and in some cases it may not be possible to sub-divide the land if it's agricultural land the resulting plot is too small.

You can find more information about this in the Department of Lands & Surveys Citizen's Charter and their revised fee of charges can be found at http://cdn.cyprus-property-buyers.com/w ... _12_13.pdf

One of the problems you may face is where the boundaries of the land will be located. There could be disagreements/arguments e.g. about where your mother-in-law's cousin wants his half share.

If it's agricultural land there may be other issues (see page 21 of the Citizens' Charter).

I suggest you instruct a lawyer to help. The British HIgh Commission publishes a list of English speaking lawyers who should be able to help that you can download by clicking here. I suggest you contact two or three to get some idea of the costs involved.

Regards,

Many, many thanks for the quick and comprehensive reply. Very helpful
The land is really in two segments forming an L shape, and the cousin drew up an agreement with my mother in law, back in the 60's defining which half belongs to who ( he has the bottom of the L).
Each half is just over 3 1/2 acres, so the 3 X 1/6 plots would be just over an acre each. I hope that isn't too small to divide.
We will indeed be approaching a Cypriot lawyer as you suggest.
Again, many thanks

I'm slightly off subject here. I was just looking through the N131A form ( my Greek is limited to Google translate) trying (unsuccessfully) to find something that would indicate the size of the plot as my mother in law is prone to occasional exageration, and looking on Google maps it looks a lot smaller than the 7 acres she says it is. Is there an English guide to the N131A somewhere?

The file at vhttp://www.news.cyprus-property-buyers.com/wp- ... _303_c.pdf should help.

There's part of a Title Deed shown on the second page - the plot size is 980 square metres. If it's greater than 1,000 square metres the thousands with be shown in the field immediately to the left.

Regards,

Fantastically helpful. And its settled some arguments. The plot is actually only 2.3 acres, not the 7 my mother in law said. So division would be impractical. Thank you so much for your clear and helpful advice

Zoukimando wrote:Hi, my wifes mother inherited a half share in some Cypriot land, about 7 acres near Pyrga. The other half is owned by her cousin. She wanted to give her half to her three adult children, in equal divisions. She went to some Government building in Cyrus on her last visit to get the land divided. On her return to England she handed over a form called a "Type N 131A" which shows my wife owns a 1/6th share of the land, so it wasn't actually divided. Just her half signed over to her children. My question is, how do we go about legally dividing the land into 1/2 for her cousin and 1/6 each for the children? And what sort of costs can we expect?

The share is the best you are going to get. The 1/6 is your MiL share divided into 3 (ie 1/6). The subdivision of land is a long and bureaucratic process and is not a simple case of say, 'hey you can have this bit and i'll have that'.
Regarding the agreement your MiL cousin made, has it been deposited at the land registry, were there attached drawings showing which bit was who's? It would have had to have been witnessed by the mukhtari of the village as well. If it was not then it will not be a valid claim from either party.

As for the size, it will not be acres, but in 'scales' or Donums. The measurements on the title deeds are in m2. Just about the box that state the name you will see

Ektaria (hecteres 10,000m2) : Dekaria (1000m2) : and then M2. Adjacent you will see a number if it exisits. so if we said you had 7500m2 then it would show a 7 adjacent to Dekaria (ie 7x1000) and 500 adjacent to m2 (ie 500m2).

If you are going to have a 'Distribution Agreement' or on Greek 'Egrafo Dianomis' make sure you have some access to any roads nearby or touching yor plot.

All the same good luck with all that.