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The government will have another try at solving the problem of the title deeds, said Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides. He did, however, acknowledge that this is a very complicated legal issue which requires in-depth study. The government has prepared a new bill that it forwarded to the state legal service for scrutiny and is awaiting its study to be completed before it is sent on to the council of ministers for approval.

The law, approved by the House in 2015, which gave the head of the land and surveys department the power to exempt, eliminate, transfer and cancel mortgages under certain conditions, did not have the desired results. Banks won cases on the grounds that the buyer’s claim infringed on the contract between the bank and the developer, forcing the land and surveys department head to suspend procedures, pending a ruling by the supreme court. Last September though, Larnaca district court used the 2015 law to allow buyers to obtain their title deeds, disregarding the developer’s contractual obligations to the bank.

It is a big mess that will eventually be sorted out by the supreme court, which could rule the 2015 law unconstitutional. This possibility could be the reason the government has prepared a new law and the minister spoke about a very complicated legal issue. The reason it is so complicated is because it is based on unethical practices by the banks and developers that went on for decades. That the banks accepted land, on which a developer had built homes and sold to unsuspecting buyers, as security for the developer’s loans was shabby practice, even if lax laws permitted this.

The state has also contributed to the problem in its own way. For instance, title deeds cannot be issued unless a block of flats has final approval from the authorities. Why were developers allowed to sell flats in blocks that did not have final approval? With its laxness the state was penalising innocent buyers, while developers continued to engage in these dubious practices with impunity. If there was a law imposing a hefty fine on a developer failing to hand over a title deed within a month of being paid for a completed property, we would not have this problem.

There has been an unwillingness by successive governments to take a tough stance against developers because they contributed to the growth of the economy. Even the idea of the citizenship for investment scheme was primarily aimed at helping developers who owed the banks huge amounts of money and were in danger of going under. The scheme proved their salvation, but this is no consolation to trapped buyers, who are nowhere nearer obtaining title deeds for properties they paid for years ago.

In fairness, the Anastasiades government is the only government that has tried to tackle this problem through legislation. Perhaps the law being prepared now will prove more effective than that of 2015, and end this shameful situation that reflects so badly on the state.

Source: CyprusMail