GREEN Party MP, George Perdikis is to question the House over property legislation which leaves hundreds of home-owners in Coral Bay unprotected.
The matter concerns recent changes in the law which would enable the release of Title Deeds through enforcing an amnesty on building irregularities which had hitherto blocked issue of the ownership documents.
But Peyia Councillor, Linda Leblanc, ascertained this week from the House that none of the raft of laws covers leasehold properties.
According to Leblanc, Land Registry is refusing to accept deposits of Contract of Sales for a number of leasehold properties in what is known as Plot One in Coral Bay.
“Perdikis will put a question to the House on the lack of legislation for the 155 residents in Plot One in coming weeks,” Leblanc told The Cyprus Weekly.
Current laws could scupper property owners’ chances of obtaining their title deeds.
“The Sale of Land Law helps to protect the rights of property purchasers as depositing a contract of sale at the Land Registry effectively prevents the vendor from selling the property in question to someone else or changing his mind about the sale,” Leblanc explained.
“A new law entitled ‘The Sale of Immovable Property (Specific Performance)’ was approved by Parliament and came into force on July 29, 2011. Any contracts of sale that were signed and that have not been lodged at the Land Registry may be filed within six months from the July 29, 2011.
The deadline to lodge any contracts is January 29 this year. For example, if a buyer signed a contract of sale in 2005 but failed to file it at the Land Registry, there has now been a six-month window of opportunity to do so.
But this does not apply to leasehold properties so where does that leave all of these home owners?”
Leblanc added that the main stakeholders in the issue would be holding a round table meeting soon to try to thrash out problems.
Land Registry, development manager, Harbour Shore Estates (HSE), Peyia Municipality and The Coral Bay Association are the key players in a decades-old deadlock over a number of property issues in Plot One.
