Bill protecting ‘trapped’ home owners without title deeds expanded

By Angelos Anastasiou
Foreclosure proceedings will be suspended for all cases of ‘trapped’ property buyers with no title deeds, who bought their properties from insolvent land developers, only to find out later on that the properties had already been mortgaged before the sale, Interior Minister Socratis Hasikos said on Monday.
After attending a joint session of the House Finance and Interior Affairs committees, in which the issue was discussed, Hasikos confirmed that the government bill exempting ‘trapped’ buyers from foreclosure will be broadened to cover buyers for whose property no title deeds have been issued.
The core of the government bill addressed the cases of some 30,000 buyers for whose property title deeds have been issued, but couldn’t be transferred to the buyer, despite fully honouring the repayment terms of the sale agreement. An additional 48,000 – also honouring the terms of sale – have had no title deeds issued, a fact that caused some concern that their cases might not be covered.
“In these cases, foreclosure proceedings – or any other proceedings – will be suspended, allowing sufficient time to have the deeds issued,” Hasikos said.
“Until then, they will run no risk, because non-issuance of title deeds was most likely not the buyer’s fault. So why would I punish him? It could even be the government’s fault, so a suspension will apply.”
The interior minister squarely dismissed concerns that commercial banks may take a hit on their capital reserves due to the removal of their right to foreclosure on these properties.
“Per the admission of the banks’ association rep in the committee session, 95 per cent of such cases are clean – therefore, the whole fuss is being made about the remaining 5 per cent,” he said.
“We are not going to sacrifice 95 per cent for the remaining 5. We won’t sacrifice the forest for the tree.”
The banks’ rep, Dimitra Valianti-Plati, had argued earlier that at least 80 per cent – and perhaps up to 95 per cent – of buyers “are fully protected and will receive their title deeds once they are issued, because the banks themselves have already provided for such cases – either by issuing a waiver, calling in guarantees, or otherwise”.
“In these cases, the banks will not object to the issuance of the title deed, because they had been involved in the financing of both the construction and the purchase of the housing unit and were fully aware of the situation,” she noted, but clarified that the association will object in the few cases where the buyer bought a house for cash – without involving any of the banks for a loan – because a bank should not be held responsible for cases where it had been unaware of the sale.
The argument did not go down well with Hasikos.
“Some here present themselves as holier-than-thou,” he said of Valianti-Plati’s assertion.
“Speaking on behalf of the banks, as if the banks need proxies to defend their interests. Talk to Hellenic Bank. Are they concerned? Talk to the co-operatives. Are they concerned? Not to mention the rest of the banks. There is no such risk.”
The minister argued that under no circumstances should the ultimate goal of protecting ‘trapped’ property buyers be missed.
“Each of the stakeholders will certainly try to protect their interests – whether it’s the banks, or the municipalities that seek to be paid their fees before unblocking the transfer of ownership, or anyone else,” he said.
“We need to stay focused on the initial goal of protecting and safeguarding these people’s interests.”
He also dismissed claims by the sewerage boards that allowing the transfer of properties for which sewerage fees remain unpaid will mean that the boards will be forced to resort to raising fees to remain above water as “nonsense”.
“Despite the concerns and the issues raised, parliament will vote the bill through because there is consensus that these people need to be protected,” he said.
“Those with interests to protect should resort to the courts, or other institutions available to them.”
On Monday, it was announced that a special House plenary session was called for Thursday, at which the bill will be put to a vote.

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