Cyprus Property Forum for Buyers, Sellers & Investors

Hello, we are wondering if it would be possible for some advise to the following issue:-

We brought an old village house two years ago and appointed a builder to renovate our property. The property has a boundary wall, beyond this wall there is another property/land but this is now in a very poor state of repair. The land is completely overgrown and in addition to our boundary query we are also concerned about the possible fire risk or pests living on the land. Apparently, it has not been occupied for around 60 years and the owner of the property/land is known to be dead and no one appears to know who has inherited it.

As part of the on-going work on our property, our builder suggested that we get the Land Registry Office to come along and check the boundaries of the wall as the plans we have all seemed to vary on the original drawings, dated 1991. The planning officers visited the property this July and it would appear that unbeknown to us, part of the wall, garden and shed is actually sited on next doors land ! (around 3 metres of land).

Whilst this is only a small amount of land, we were still upset to hear this news. We are not sure where we stand legally now as we brought the property in good faith along with title deeds that were supplied at the time of purchase. We did not receive the original drawings until the sale had been completed, so we were not aware of any changes to the original drawings. We have not altered the wall in anyway, so these changes from the original plans would have been made by a previous owner or their architects/engineers Louis Monoylos in order to improve access for vehicle parking but without planning permission to do so.

The current advice from the surveyor from the Land Registry Office and also our solicitor was not to make any structural changes at all to the wall, ie to leave it as it is. In fact our solicitor has said the title deeds were correct in terms of the overall size of the plot of land at the time of purchase.

I would like to know where we stand legally, do we follow the advise from the surveyor and our Solicitor and do nothing? Potentially, this situation could continue for many more years if no one knows who the rightful owner is. If we sell the property in the future we would need to make any potential buyers aware of this situation and to reflect this in the valuation of the property? Whilst it would be obviously fair to do so, we feel that we have been mis-sold this property from the previous owner who did not disclose this information to us in the first place.

So it would be useful to have another opinion on this issue - thank you for your time.

Dear Clare,

Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear about your issue.

Your problem is repeated many times and this is a general problem within Cyprus today. Encroachment is not necessarily deliberate but has come about due to the measuring techniques used in the past. Given these are old properties, the likelihood is that the land was measured using tape from a reference point in the village as were sizes determined. We now have GPS that is accurate down to 0.5cm. You may well have the number of m2 on your title and these you are entitle to, but the boundaries are a different matter. I don't think it is a case of mis-selling, it is quite possible that the previous owners didn't even know about this.

I now it doesn't help, but it is the buyers responsibility to ascertain such items before they buy!

With regards to overgrowing, speak to the council, they must either get the owners to clear it, or undertake the task and charge it to the owners. Insist.

With regards to the encroachment, just carry on as you are, enjoy the property and as long as there is no one to complain you will have no problem. Better to leave the old wall as proof and sometime in the future it may be possible to acquire the additional piece of ground, either through any re-alignment the LR may make or you may meet any new owners and come to an agreement. Don't worry about it, deal with it when you come to it.

Any drawings you may have had, even sooner will not necessarily have identified the misplacement of the wall. Years gone by neighbours placed was were they thought were theirs and they lived happily with the neighbours, but today it seems people want these demarcation lines!

Legally, I don't think there is much you can really do about this, it might be worth trying to find who now owns it and sort it this way if you must.

Not sure if that has helped, but good luck and don't worry about it.

Hi Clare

Just to add to what Pan has said.

There's a possibility you may gained land on the boundary opposite the encroachment - this is quite common. You can arrange to have the boundaries surveyed by a surveyor who is licensed by the Department of Lands & Surveys to get a complete picture. You can find this list at Cadastral field surveys carried out by private surveyors.

Two friend in the Limassol District have had similar problems but it hasn't affected them.

Regards,

Thank you for your replys.

I do have some further questions - would it be possible to do that privately ?

Thanks
Clare

Clare Musgrove wrote: 17 Sep 2018 10:10 Thank you for your replys.

I do have some further questions - would it be possible to do that privately ?

Thanks
Clare

No problem for me.

Clare Musgrove wrote: 17 Sep 2018 10:10I do have some further questions - would it be possible to do that privately ?

No problem Clare.

Regards,

Thank you for your responses.

I have read about a similar problem on this forum - it mentioned something about a '30 year rule' - ie after that length of time you are able to claim the land.

Would you be able to provide more information on this.

thanks

Clare Musgrove wrote: 23 Sep 2018 05:39 Thank you for your responses.

I have read about a similar problem on this forum - it mentioned something about a '30 year rule' - ie after that length of time you are able to claim the land.

Would you be able to provide more information on this.

thanks

Forget this, this does not apply to you. This process is called adverse possession and it is applied to lands that were historically unregistered and were farmed for 30+ years. This process rarely happens today as all the land is registered to some owner.