A LONG-IGNORED law passed in 1992, which designates all shared swimming pools as subject to the same strict regulations as public pools, is coming back to haunt property owners and developers in Paphos.
The law stipulates that pools shared by more than one family are classed as public swimming pools and therefore must comply with specific regulations such as providing a lifeguard, separate male and female toilets, showers and footbaths.
Aware that complying with the regulations would entail a massive increase in communal charges for hundreds of property owners and make buying in complexes with shared pools far less attractive, local authorities have long turned a blind eye to enforcing them.
Not any longer, however. Municipalities have now been put under pressure by the Interior Ministry to demand companies provide them with all the necessary documents to prove they have complied with the regulations before they can issue an operating licence. Perhaps even worse is that without this operating licence, a housing complex will not be issued a completion certificate and thus no title deeds.
Developers, individual property owners and local municipalities alike are now desperately trying to press the Ministry of the Interior to change the law, which they believe hammers another nail into the coffin of the property market.
Peyia has a large population of British residents as well as locals, many of whom own property with a shared swimming pool. A report in 2008 listed a whopping 49 pools in Peyia which are classed as public pools, only seven of which have permits. In Paphos generally there are 267 of which only 54 are licensed.
“This is a really big headache, and I have been in contact with the permanent secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Lazaros Savvides, since 2007. But I have yet to hear anything back from them,” said Peyia councillor Linda Leblanc.
Leblanc said she had received many complaints over final completion certificates concerning properties in Peyia municipality.
Most are from buyers who live in complexes with a shared swimming pool and who are being denied certificates by local authorities on the grounds that their pools do not fulfil the requirements of the ‘public swimming pool’ as set out in the 1992 law.
“There is confusion over what is interpreted as a public pool. Shared pools are for the use of resident owners and their guests and are not open to the general public,” she said.
A spokesman for Vesta holidays, part of the Leptos group was particularly pessimistic. “This law is going to destroy the whole tourist and home purchasing industry of Paphos,” he said.
He confirmed that the law states there are only two categories concerning swimming pools in Cyprus. It says that private pools are for the use of only one family and public pools cover absolutely everything else.
“The law says that a private common pool is one used by more than one family and it comes under the umbrella of a public pool. The regulations say that we have to have a lifeguard, showers, toilets, new signs, footbaths, life buoys, oxygen bottles and so on,” he said.
“The expense for a lifeguard alone will be more than € 2,000 each per month,” he added “We have received a lot of complaints from property owners and management committees. We’ve applied to the state to try and change the law. It’s very strict and we will face a lot of problems especially now during the economic crisis, if added costs must be paid.”
Connie Singleton is the chairman of the owners association of Margarita gardens in Kato Paphos, a Vesta-managed complex.
“Our pool isn’t for the general public’s use. An outsider can’t use it. The pool is there for owners and their guests. In all these years, we’ve never had an accident or anything like that, and now we will have to employ a lifeguard.
“It’s so much more expensive for the owners, but I have been advised that the regulations have to be complied with or we will be in trouble.”
Leblanc said Peyia municipality was trying to give permits where it can as many people do not have title deeds.
“In Peyia we check each individual case to see what was specified in the planning permit. If there is no specification recorded requiring conditions on the pool, we are giving approval so that completion certificates on the properties may be issued. This has been based on legal advice,” she said.
But there are other problems concerning the thorny matter of the swimming pool legislation. According to the councillor, the law requires approval of a health inspector before approval may be granted by the planning authority.
“Peyia doesn’t even have a health inspector,” she said.
Peyia municipality has already sent out notices to pool owners and placed announcements regarding this law in newspapers.
The Vesta spokesman said that although the Paphos municipality had so far “closed its eyes” to the regulations this period was coming to an end.
“They have already given us many extensions, but there is now a time schedule which we have to comply with. Parliament needs to try and find a solution and change the law, or it will cripple us,” he said.
“Nobody will come and buy an apartment or a house which is part of a complex or has a shared pool. The expense will just be far too high.”
