Fighting for Property Rights: Embedded in the Struggle for Property Rights

With the issue of issuing certificates of title for blocked buyers dragging on for ages, one Briton living in Hillofagu is desperate to get his certificate after nearly a dozen years of waiting. Kenneth Beck, a 75-year-old Briton, now intends to sell his apartment and return to England to be near his family, but like many others, a lack of a title deed is preventing him from leaving.

He bought the apartment in 2007 with the intention of retiring. After seeing an advertisement for a developer, he decided to move to Cyprus and bought an apartment in a complex with a swimming pool near the sea. However, he had no idea of the complexities of owning real estate in Cyprus, and shortly after buying the apartment, the developer announced voluntary liquidation, which meant that all buyers were left without certificates of ownership. For Beck, that means that now that he wants to sell the condo, he's having a hard time selling it for its real value.

Beck wasn't the only one whose investment went nowhere; many buyers were left dry and helpless as companies went bankrupt and buyers were unable to obtain certificates of title. As a result, the Cypriot authorities enacted the Blocked Buyers Law in 2015 to help those who, for various reasons, could not obtain title certificates for their properties. Authorities have faced thousands of such cases.

The solution was for buyers to fill out applications at the land registry, which will launch an investigation and issue certificates of title if their properties match what is shown on the plans. The Land Registry told the Sunday Mail newspaper that in the case of Beck and other residents of this apartment complex in Hillofagu, certificates were issued to the developer in 2019, even though the company no longer existed, following an application in 2015. But residents still have not received them.

Since the developer is no longer a legal entity, they now have to wait for the Land Registry to issue certificates of ownership.

Beck, who was recently diagnosed with diabetes, is trying to work with the building's residents' committee to deal with the situation, but he feels that all he has done is move from one government agency to another. His apartment is valued at 80,000 euros, but without a certificate of ownership he can only sell it for half that value. Without the certificate he was told his apartment would only cost 45,000 euros. Beck says he feels "hostage" to the situation because he wants to return to England and be closer to his family, especially now that he needs more help caring for himself.

The Sunday Mail has learned from Beck's compound that about 60-70 people have been affected by the situation and have still not received their title deeds and in many cases people have simply given up and left or died. After buying the apartment, Beck says he applied for a certificate of title five times, both before the law was passed in 2015 and afterward. He believes the agencies responsible for issuing certificates should move forward and stop wasting time leaving him to deal with case numbers and paperwork as he tries to leave the island.