The Minister of the Interior has taken the title issue problem under hot pursue. His main worry being that the proposed legislation may be tangled in the “small politics” of the House and in order to minimize the delays, he has visited the chiefs of the various political parties ahead, in order to explain to them his ideas and seek their support. At the same time he has invited all sorts of professional associations to comment and submit to him/the Ministry their own proposals on any alterations.

Our own views have been submitted and on our part we have lobbied various Business Groups, developers, the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and others to have, as far as this can achieved, a common stand during the House’s discussion. As we have reported before, this new amended legislation goes a long way towards improving the situation, but it is like repairing an aged engine instead of throwing it away and replacing it by a new one. Our views were given in detail, but what we really want is for the whole system to be replaced and copy the European title system, which is similar subject to some differences in most European countries including the U.K. This view has been shared by the Law Society, which in a nutshell proposes the following (blended to an extent with our own ideas shown in brackets):

1. Town Planning Permit - To remain as is (but if no approval is received within 3 months not at the applicant’s fault, the permit to be considered as being approved).

2. Building permit - To remain as is (as above - 3 months).

3. The supervising architect, upon completion, to issue the certificate of final approval (subject to any alterations of the town planning permit - If of minor nature to compensate subject to fixed penalty the local authority - Payment by the developer/owner).

4. To adopt the proposed system of incomplete/illegal titles.

5. Upon completion the supervising architect to submit the detailed plan etc to the Lands Office for the title issue. No more work is required by the Lands Office, other than the checking of boundaries (external) and in this way the titles should be issued within 1-2 months from submission.

6. Illegal structures subject to the supervising architect’s report/or the local authority’s inspection, to bear the consequences of the law.

7. Specific performance to apply to all, those who have deposited their sales contract and those who have not. The particular procedure as it is now required to be abolished.

8. Because changing the system (placing a new engine) might require time eminating more based on the reaction of the Governmental/Municipal civil service, as opposed to anybody else, to adopt the proposed bills and immediately afterwards to start re-thinking the European title system.

The existing system introduced by the colonial British Government, was very good, since they were, at the time, approximately 5.000 units under construction/applications, as opposed to the 20.000/units p.a. nowadays. The system as is, it cannot cope, let alone catch up on the delayed 125.000 title issue. With a brand new system the responsibility is passed to the supervising architect, who must make a good job and who is subject to professional liability, as well as the local authority who, should, if it so wishes/has the capability, to carry out inspections etc. What we always stress is to find simple procedures to solve the problem, even if there will be a percentage who might be benefited from illegalities etc. The target is the title issue, regardless, to clean the backload of the past, to “repair” Cyprus’ name in the local and international market before we go forward. It is not only the never ending procedures and the red tape that holds up the procedure, but we suspect (even worse) is the load that the Lands Office will have once it when receives the 125.000 applications as well as the new, a circumstance which in our opinion is impossible to cope not even after 5 years.

We need a change of mind, our dear readers, have a more “loose” system, get the titles issued and subject to this the local authority can follow it up (or not). Based on the existence of pre-fixed penalty (suggested in an analytical form in a previous article of ours) everybody will know the score beforehand. Exception to the “free for all” approach, should be, the change of use, the increase of floor numbers and height, the non execution of infrastructure by developers/owners (e.g. not building roads etc) and the invasion of neighbours in non-owned property. Notwithstanding the above, anything that damages the neighbours’ enjoyment should also be excluded from the penalty clause.

What is strange, as many other things are in this country, is the so called, the Technical Advisor to the Government (ETEK), which has kept silent on the whole procedure. Such advisors in private practice would have been fired a long time ago.

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