SEVEN years after the Planning Department of Nicosia Municipality planned a road network that encroached into a private garden, the owners of the property concerned have successfully petitioned in the Supreme Court against the decision, which in effect required them to cede part of their property.
“The petitioners considered the above decision as illegal and petitioned annulment thereof,” the Supreme Court ruling said. “They claimed that the requirement for concession of part of their property for the needs of the road network was not legal unless a street plan had been previously published, clearly indicating the area affected. Since the street plan has never been published in whole so that the petitioners could assess any future interventions to their property, they were deprived of the option to take any expedient measures to that end.”
Maurice and Pat Brown live in a stunning villa set in spacious grounds in Strovolos, with a swimming pool, immaculate lawn and patios, surrounded by olive, shrub and palm trees.
They bought the land nearly 25 years ago after they moved to Cyprus from the UK, found an architect and started building.
They finished the property in 1983. Planning permission was requested and given at every step of the way. In subsequent years, the surrounding olive groves were sold to developers and the land was cleared and marked out into plots.
Then, in 2000, the Browns were confronted by contractors marking out a new road on the other side of their wall. To their horror, the width of the road extended into four metres of their garden, with the developers planning to shave off 140 square metres of their property.
Brown said “our first knowledge of this was when our architect visited the planning department, at their request, concerning some additional building to our property, and that was when I was advised of the road in question.
“It was some months later that I discovered the extent of the incursion into our property that would result if the development approved were to be built. A meeting was arranged with the Secretary of the Improvement Board of our Municipality, where the matter was discussed. It was suggested that a mistake had been made by the Planning Board and missed by the Municipality Development Board, who I was advised, knew nothing of the matter. It was agreed that they would investigate and revert. They later passed our complaint to the Planning Department and we heard nothing further.
“In June 2001, we engaged lawyers to look into the matter, to protect our interests, as work on the road had commenced.
“In the end, a district court judge ruled that no action could be taken against the developers as no attempt had been made to encroach into our property as the road was not built to the original plans.”
The new road was approved by Strovolos Municipality and delineated by the Department of Land Registration – the same department that signed over the same land to Brown nearly 25 years ago.
“No one informed me about the road until the contractors started digging in April 2001. My letters had gone unanswered and I felt excluded and victimised. Meetings either solved nothing or failed to materialise.”
The subsequent three years saw more legal wrangles until the Browns’ lawyer lodged an appeal in the Cyprus Supreme Court in April 2004, the decision of the presiding judge being in their favour.
Brown said the road was built gradually over the years and was tarmacked and completed in November 2003. It is currently in use as a public road, bypassing the Browns’ property.
“While these past five years have had their bad moments for us, we always felt that we had no alternative but to keep fighting, as to do otherwise would have made our life here intolerable, seeing every day the transformation brought about by the intrusion of the road into our garden.”
