Cyprus Property Forum for Buyers, Sellers & Investors

Hi Nigel

I am the secretary of our complex management committee – there are 71 apartments and we don’t have our title deeds yet although the process is happening.

We only have contact details for roughly half of the apartments – our developer refused to hand over contact details when they stopped doing our complex management. However, most people for whom we have contact details do pay their communal fees so we are keeping afloat!

We are currently basing our communal fees on the number of bedrooms in each apartment, following the method our deveoper used to calculate them. We now know that this isn’t right and are looking to rectify this (not least because we have been told we can’t take any non-payers to court if our communal fees aren’t calculated correctly).

My questions are therefore as follows:

- Am I right in assuming that once the land has been divided as part of the title deeds process the square meterage of each apartment will become available on the DLS website?
- If that is the case, should we leave correcting the calculation method until that has been done?
- If that’s not the case, how do we find out the square meterage of each apartment without asking owners to do their own measurements (and what would we do about the apartments where we have no contact details)?
- Do we have to change the calculation retrospectively – for payers (which could result in a debit or a credit) and for non-payers (so that we can take them to court for non-payment)?

Apologies for such a length post but if you are able to shed any light on the above, it would be much appreciated.

Many thanks for your time.

Sue

Hi Sue

I wrote an article a couple of weeks ago - Calculating communal fees.

"For those without Title Deeds you will need to get the information needed from your developer or the Land Registry. However if the developer has yet to divide the building(s) into individual units or if his division application is languishing in the Land Registry you may only be able to obtain the enclosed area of the property or the number of bedrooms."

As soon as the building's been sub-divided into individual apartments, the information can be found on the DLS website. It may be worth checking with the Land Registry to see what progress they are making.

The LR will provide you with contact details of the owners (they've done this for others).

I doubt you'll need to adjust payments retrospectively.

Regards,

Many thanks for the very helpful reply Nigel.

One further question if I may - We have a document from the Land Registry which lists each apartment with the owner's name but it shows no other contact details. Are you saying that the Land Registry will have additional information such as the owner's UK address that they would share with us?

Best regards

Sue

SueandRob wrote: ↑11 Feb 2018 20:47 Many thanks for the very helpful reply Nigel.

One further question if I may - We have a document from the Land Registry which lists each apartment with the owner's name but it shows no other contact details. Are you saying that the Land Registry will have additional information such as the owner's UK address that they would share with us?

Best regards

Sue

They may not have it and in any case they won't just give it that easy unfortunately.

Hi Pan

I've heard from 2 or 3 people who have managed to get contact details from the Land Registry. It took a little time and I think the LR had to find the sale agreements.

Regards,

Many thanks for the replies - we will visit the Land Registry when we are next out and see what they say.

Hi Nigel

Hope you are well.

Myself and my wife are the continued happy owners of a property in Cyprus but I have a question re communal fees.

I have long suspected that the fees calculated for our complex are incorrect. Basically all the 1 bedroomed apartments pay the same, all the 2 bedroomed pay the same etc.

My understanding is that this is incorrect and the fees payable should be based on covered/uncovered areas of each property.
If this is the case, would I be within my rights to withhold payment until the correct calculation method is used?

Btw I don’t intend to withhold payment but may use this as a ‘bargaining tool’ to get the management committee to apportion costs to each property in accordance with the legislation.

Also am I within my rights to ask the committee to recalculate previous bills to ensure compliance?

Many thanks

Brian

Hi Brian

I can check what your fees should be, relative to the other properties, but I need to see your Title Deed. I'll send you an email shortly with the information I need.

It could be that your charges are correct if all the one-bed are the same size and all the two-bed are the same size.

It could also be that the regulations have been changed, with the consent of owners, to base the calculation on the number of bedrooms.

Or the Management Committee have got it wrong.

It would be unwise to withhold payment as this could have a domino effect resulting in more people withholding money resulting in insufficient money to maintain the development. It would be better to argue you case once the facts have been established.

Regards,