Land purchased in Larnaca 2006

[petelang]

Hello Nigel.
I hope someone can assist us as we are new to this site and have purchased a few years ago just a plot of land.
We bought 805 sq mtrs, just north of the Laranaca Highway, former agricultural land but divided into 14 or so plots, about the same. At the time we lived and worked there. Friends also bought a plot and have since built a villa on a double plot accross from ours and are living in.
All services, roads, sewage, electricity etc. but few plots built on. The vendor brothers have retained many plots for themselves or to sell later.
We bought cash. No mortgages involved. Used a solicitor in Larnaca to draw up contract of sale and paid in three stages but retained 5k CYP until deeds issued, this being held in CYP bank bearing nominal interest. Deeds anticipated in 2008 but nothing happened yet. We understand our friends still have not got deeds either but say they have seen documents at the bottom of a very large pile of work at the local office!
We have a prospective buyer but he does not want to buy until the deeds are available. We agreed a price with him and he is looking to lodge a building permit. We could do with liquidating this asset to clear some debts in UK and it is frustrating that we cannot proceed.
We were told that we could sell but would have to offer it back to the brothers to do so as first refusal but they only want to pay what we paid and the value has considerably increased since 2006. We question if this is true as cannot see reference to it in the contract of sale.
Should we just sit tight and wait or is there anything we could do to expedite the deeds?
We are very much reliant on our friends letting us know what is going on as he speaks Greek but our solicitor does not even have an email address!!
If you elighten us we would be much obliged.
Peter

[Nigel Howarth]

Hello Peter & welcome to the forum,

I suspect that what you have is a share in the plot of land that includes the other thirteen plots. In this situation you are required to give the owners of the other thirteen plots first refusal if you wish to sell. If they fail to offer you what you are prepared to accept, you can sell it on the open market.

What the vendor should have done is applied for the land to be sub-divided into individual plots. Once this has been done, individual Title Deeds for each of the plots can be issued - and you will eventually get a Title Deed for just your plot of land - and you will not need to give the current co-owners first refusal should you wish to sell.

A Division Permit takes around 6 months to issue.
Then a Certificate of Approval for the Division Permit is required - another 6 months.
Finally individual Title Deeds can be issued - 12 to 30 months.

I cannot say what progress has been made - or indeed whether the vendor has applied for the sub-division. This is something that your lawyer will need to check out on your behalf. Unless your friends have contacts at the Land Registry, it is unlikely that they will be able to find out what is happening.

By the way, if your name is registered as a shareholder on the existing deed, the people wanting to buy shouldn't have a problem.

Regards,

[Pantheman]

Nigel, going by what has been said, I would guess that there was only a contract of sale. The solicitor should have least checked that the permit was issued otherwise these people could be selling 'proposed plots'. But, since some have already built and the services are in, it would suggest that much of the works has been done and there is little to worry about.

Now there is some contradicting info. if he has to seek there permission, this would suggest he has been issued with a share and is on title, but since he is still waiting for title it would seem he has not.

Eitherway, all he has to do is offer the plot to the others at the current offer price he has, if they refuse then he can sell the plot elsewhere after going throught he necessary procedures of advertising it etc etc etc.

Peter, you DO NOT have to sell at the original purchase price, it is BS they are telling you.

A solicitor is a must, preferable NOT the original.

Good luck.

Pan

[petelang]

Hello All.
I recently received this by email:
More about the TITLE DEED issuing service from BUY SELL Cyprus .com
One month ago the Cyprus government passed a new legislation which allows property buyers to skip the developers and apply for the issuing of their separate property Title Deeds using their contract of sale. This is the most significant legislation change ever made, since the absence of Title Deed diminishes the value of a property, makes it extremely hard to sell and it is impossible to get a mortgage.

The procedure requires an architect or civil engineer to inspect the property for any illegalities or irregularities. Following their report, since the law also incorporates an amnesty on any illegalities or irregularities already made to the property, and when some other procedures are also followed, an application will be made to the relevant authorities (like land registry, building authorities, inland revenue, municipalities, etc) for the issuing of the Title Deeds. Simultaneously our accounts department with tax experts and accountants will commence with obtaining your Tax Clearance. Once all the necessary procedures have been completed the Title Deeds will be issued.
The procedure requires coordination of a team of specialized professionals and good knowledge of the new legislation procedures. At BuySell we have formed a team of professional architects, civil engineers, solicitors, valuers, accountants and property experts trained in the new legislation. Since the legislation is new, the procedure must be followed to the letter. Therefore we have invested a significant amount of time, money and energy to form a team with the top professionals in the country that can deal with speed and efficiency. We are here to make it easy and help you get your title deed.
BuySell is the only specialized organization in Cyprus with a dedicated TITLE DEEDS DEPARTMENT. We are ready to proceed the matters on your behalf and issue your property Title Deeds.
The cost of dealing with all Title Deed issuing procedures is:
1. 1,500 Euro for the Architect/Civil Engineer.
2. 1,500 Euro for Tax Clearance and other accounting expenses.
3. 1,000 Euro for Legal and document preparation fees.
(above fees are subject to 15% VAT)

Since this is a new innovation we are already dealing with a large number of applications. We plan to file the first applications before August 31st 2011. If we act with speed and efficiency we estimate that we will issue the first Title Deeds within the next few months.
However, should you postpone this process, since the Authorities will be inundated with applications, causing significant delays, we would be unable to estimate a timescale for issuing of Deeds.
Title Deeds Department
[edited]
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It seems like a very expensive process and we wondered if it was a scam by Buysell.
Questions.
As we just have a plot of land would we need the architect involvement?
Are these legal fees what is expected or greatly inflated?
Is the charge for tax procedures realistic?
Should we bother to consider this or just wait out the normal process for issue of deeds? Been waiting nearly seven years already!

Best regards,
Peter

[Nigel Howarth]

Hi Peter

I published an article about this yesterday - see 'We will get your Title Deeds for a price'. There are a couple of companies offering this type of 'service'.

Regards,