Sir,
We write regarding the article in the Cyprus Mail, November 25, titled “Minister Urges Patience Over Title Deeds Issue”.
Mr Sylikiotis once again trots out the same pathetic excuse that it’s all the buyers’ fault stating that “people who buy homes cannot be blindly signing contracts”.
May we remind him that what we are talking about here is the total failure of the current and present governments of Cyprus to provide an effective framework of regulation and law enforcement to ensure adequate safeguards for both Cypriot and foreign property buyers.
He mentions the meeting with CPAG in June at which he would not even discuss the CPAG report prepared for the previous government. He just stated that new legislation would be passed, including this amnesty reward package for developers.
From what we now understand from the few snippets in the media, the Minister is only planning another amnesty for developers who have failed to meet the legal obligations of their planning permit. In doing this, these developers were unable to obtain a Certificate of Final Completion meaning that the developer and the buyer (unknowingly) were breaking criminal law CAP 96 Article 10 which forbids occupancy prior to the issuance of the Certificate. Clearly, buyers’ lawyers failed even to warn them of this issue, never mind inserted anything in their contracts.
One of the main demands in our CPAG report was the enforcement of this law. At our meeting, however, the Minister informed us that he could not enforce this vital consumer protection law. The reason cited was that he could not get the responsible departments in his own Ministry to enforce it – because there was no penalty for breaking this criminal law. You could not make this up!
In the November 25 article he states that by ‘rewarding’ these law breakers through an amnesty instead of punishing them – that Title Deeds will be issued sooner.
Could we remind him and the hundreds of thousands of affected buyers that this was already tried three or four years ago without any discernible results for one very simple reason. Namely, that Title Deeds cannot be issued until mortgages are cleared – and currently with over €4 billion of loans to developers, especially in the present financial crisis, this simply won’t happen.
A responsible government would guarantee every sales contract lodged at the Land Registry rather than to continue to allow this orgy of lending to developers. Yet Ministers and others simply talk about some developers going bust in the present crisis and brazenly accept the risk that buyers could lose the homes for which they have paid in full. Nevertheless, it does not go unnoticed that the government now guarantees individual bank deposits up to €100,000, thus protecting the banking system and their friends the bankers.
A responsible government would have investigated the mass organised scam surrounding Immovable Property Tax whereby possibly tens of millions of euros have been defrauded from buyers in the Title Deed Trap. Obtaining money under false pretences carries a 5 year jail sentence under Criminal Code 298, yet buyers have been told that organised fraud is nothing to do with government.
A responsible government would have stopped the illegal contract cancellation scam whereby buyers are forced to pay huge amounts to developers when they want to sell whilst in this Title Deed Trap.
All these failures demonstrate that developers are allowed by government to ride roughshod over buyers’ property rights in total contradictio of Article 23 of the Cyprus Constitution, in addition to EU and UN charters safeguarding these rights.
Finally, Mr Sylikiotis in calling for “patience over the title deed issue” whilst at the same time failing to enforce the law of the land to protect their rights not only insults every buyer in this trap but also confirms that his is not a government of the people, for the people but one which is subservient to the wishes of the dishonest developers and legal fraternity plus the irresponsible bankers who have helped put these 100,000 homes at risk.
CPAG
