Cyprus Property Forum for Buyers, Sellers & Investors

Hi Nigel,

I have planning and building permits and the property is now complete, other than a permanent water supply. I applied for a final approval certificate but Limassol District Office rejected the application on the grounds that a clause in the planning conditions had not yet been met.
This planning clause says that "no final approval will be approved until the plot is divided up".There are 5 houses on the plot
I am confused by this as I have been using your "Cyprus property and planning regs" guide and division permits follow on from successful issue of final approval certificate. I thought the final approval was a check that the property had been constructed as per the submitted drawings etc.Given that in theory you have 21 days from completion of property to apply for final approval I now seem to be going around in circles wondering how I get a division permit (and the water supply)sorted out. The developer is next to useless. He has built 16 houses in total. Some have no planning permits, others have no building permits and none have final approval. I'm the first to attempt going it alone.

District Office did suggest that I contact Town Planning and see if they will remove the clause in question. Do you think this is possible?

Any guidance would be appreciated

regards
Brit

Hi Brit and welcome to the forum.

I'm afraid that if the planning conditions have not been met, the authorities will not issue a Certificate of Final Completion.

If there is a clause in the planning conditions that require the land to be divided, then this work has to be carried out before the Certificate can be issued. If this clause had not been included, you would not have this problem.

There is nothing preventing the land being divided now - and this is possibly something that could be done now to overcome the problem.

If it becomes necessary, you can apply to a court to have someone else undertake this work if the developer refuses to do so or delays things.

Regards,

Not knowing all the details of this situation, I think we may have a 'Chicken and Egg' situation.

The land cannot be sub divided without a CFC, but we cannot get a CFC without division. You should ask at the planning department how you can apply for sub division without a CFC. perhaps it is in error!

Worth a try. First I heard of such a situation.

Are you sure the condition does not say to register the house on the title as opposed to dividing the land?? The condition would be written in Greek, can you scan post here to see what it says??

Regards

Pan

Thanks guys,
The developer seems to think that he cannot get division permits until he sorts out the permanent water supply. Is this correct?

Who issues division permits ? Is it Town Planning? Can a single property on a plot of 5 houses just get a permit for that property ?

Is it something my architect can help with?

Pan,
How do you scan post? The translation I got said"we cannot approve any final approval except if they divide the piece into plots" but I'm happy to send the Greek version if I knew how.

regards

Brit

Hello Brit,
Well I had your email and read the clause. It appears that you developer applied and got a licence to divide the land into plots. The clause states the the development cannot have final certificate unless the division has successfully been made. It would also appear that your developer has not fullfilled all the conditions of the sub division, and so no division has taken place. This is not the normal process of get the FC then divide as he had a licence to divide and didn't see it through. The best your architect can do for you is to establish the status of the division and see what's left to do. Perhaps you could take a legal opinion as to any contractual terms broken by the developer. You have to overcome this before you get your FC ,sorry. There is an upside to this however. If the division gets done, then it can then your plot can be transfer to you so you have your title deed to your plot. The FC then becomes secondary so you can either try for it or not, although your aim should lays be to get it and then register your house on the title. Ask for a copy of the planning AND Building permit, these coupled with your deed is the main thing to have. I have these for my home and I have no intention of applying for Final Certificate. The water issue maybe because the build permit has not been issued and so you need to ask for it. If you can get it, the council have a legal obligation to provide you with mains water.
Good luck hope that helps.

Pan

Hi Pan,

Thanks for that.

We bought the plot first and registered the sale of contract via our lawyer with land registry.We were then issued with land deeds that say we own 1100m2 of the 6689m2 plot.

I have the planning permit and a build permit has been issued in my name, as I paid for it.
I found out that the developer had not been paying for the build permits for other residents in the time allowed, thus making those permits invalid. District Office told me that this means they go back to planning approval stage.
I didn't want that to happen to my permit, hence I paid for it. Part of the payment on the building permit was to the Muktar for permanent water supply, which we paid 300 euros for. However, as the other residents have not paid their share (as the developer did not pay for their building permit) we believe this is why we are still on a temporary supply.

Have I therefore got what you call "the main things to have "or do I still need the sub divisions sorted out?

Regards Brit.

Hi brit,

this would explain the water situation and it was foolish of the others not to have paid (even though not their responsibility) the extra to be secure.

From what you are saying, you have a share of the land and not a 'whole' title. if you look at the title deed you have to the right where you name is printed you will see a fraction, maybe 1/5 or 1/6, these means you are a co-owner of the plot. It has not been divided yet. The developer still has to make the necessary work to completely divide the land before you can do anything else.

I think you need to get a 'decent' lawyer to sort this out as the way I see it, the developer could string this out forever.

Sorry to hear you got in to such a *ucked situation, but I think your lawyer has some explaining to do as well.

Good luck mate

Pan

OK,

Anybody know a good lawyer with Rottweiler capabilities??? Not bothered if it's not in Limassol as the developer has probably used most of them here.


Brit