owner of land, but no house possible??

[giseladimis]

Try to explain as exactly as my English allows it:
My husband (Cypriot) and his 3 sibs got a piece of agricultural land, 40 scales from their father. This was 1990.
Think, it's registered as Zone C. Now that we decided to stay in Cyprus, we are planning to build a house for us on this land. Landborder is about 10m from a public road, so we bought a small piece from the neighbour's land and with that we have an access from the road to our land.
(Explain it that exactly because I know that the question of access to public road and which kind of access is vital for everybody and the things you can do with acricultural land).
All sibs now made a plan and subscribed which part of the land should 'belong' to each of them. Decision is, not to divide it now into 4 deeds officially, because it's not necessary as long as it's not building zone.
We just wanted to get this notarially certified for now but with the option to make 4 deeds during the next years.
Our part has now access to public road, there is also water and electricity.
What happened is that the Land registry -where we wanted to look at their actual plans to see, if there a plans like greenery parts or anything else- told us WE CANNOT BUILD A HOUSE:
1. because the acricultural land cannot be divided anymore (new law????), so if we would build one house, noone else could use the 40 scales for another one as long as it is not in the building zone. (According to the location this could take 10 years or more).
Up to now we had the info, that you can build a house on every 5 scales of acricultural land.
2. The road that abuts on the piece, we bought for a way through, has crash barriers, that's why we are not allowed at all to build.
--Unbelievable???? 40 scales of land and we cannot use it for a residential house?????
New law, so acricultural land cannot be divided and is deemed to be one piece??
One owner = no problem // 4 owners = 1 house of 95 sqm means the other 3 cannot do anything on the 40 scales?????
Crash barriers = no house???
These are statements from official sides!!
Cannot believe, this is the law!!!

[Nigel Howarth]

Hello giseladimis - and welcome to the forum.

Generally speaking in any agricultural plot, assuming it is of a sufficient size, you can build a single house. In certain circumstances, for example if there is a sufficient supply of drinking water, you can build up to four houses.

But I have to say that the regulations are very complex and you need to take advice from a professional town planner or valuer who will be able to advise you what you can build.

I believe that the Government was asked to look at the present regulations with a view to easing the situation, but as far as I'm aware, no progress has been made.

Regards,

[giseladimis]

Thanks, we did ask several official planers and so on. Everybody said something different!!
Thought it would be possible to get an independent information here, where we can find the official laws.
Anyway, thanks.

[Pantheman]

Thanks, we did ask several official planers and so on. Everybody said something different!!
Thought it would be possible to get an independent information here, where we can find the official laws.
Anyway, thanks.

Hi giseladimis,

well, seems someone has been BS you.

Firstly, you should ask them to tell you which law and tell you the ref number. From here you can check the details your self. But you need to understand something. Agricultural land is NOT for development. It is a loophole/weakness in the law. It allows a person (family) to build a single house, since if you are a farmer with land and you have children where are they going to build? The law gives this benefit. However, people have exploited this and develop agricultural land.

There is no real reason that I can see why they will not subdivide it into 10 scales each. Aside from any building, you should be able to divide with no problem, as long as there is available water on site. If you were looking to divide in much smaller pieces there are a number of requiresments before you can do this, but it does not apply to you.

Why didn't divide it now??? It is best to have your own title deed since this way you don't need to get the others consent to do things on your land. You do realise as co-owners you always need the others signatures to do things??? Even to sell, and as co-owner it is much, much harder to sell a share than a whole.

Access, I am not sure about the crash barrier situation, this is something the planning department would be involved in not necessaily the Land registry. cannot you not access elsewhere? the access granted would be for the whole plot anyway and 1 access of 3m would not be sufficient to serve 4 properties anyway.

If you all want access to your plots you should be aiming for a 6.1m access.

better to start with the law first and see if there is a way around this. If they cannot provide you know something is wrong and you can take legal action against them.

Hope that helps.

pan

[giseladimis]

Why didn't divide it now???

Thanks first,
we didnot divide it, because we were told, it's not possible with agricultural land, Zone C, anymore!!!

That makes our problem. We just want to divide among the sibs to build one house for us.