Cyprus-Forum.com

[rhodesia47]

It's always fine until last month. The "mayor" of Tala village, lost his own spot and suddenly claimed a part of our courtyard plus one tree acutally are belonged to him! And he wants to take it back for his new coffee shop.

We bought this house 3 years ago, not from any developer, law firm, it's an old 150 years old house and the owner who sold us the house always had the existing title deeds! And the solicitor, the real estate agent never mentioned that one piece of land is disputed!

Allegedly the mayor quickly got the land registry office to come down to our courtyard in one week even WITHOUT our permission for entry to confirm that story. And he is planning to extend his coffee shop. As we are working overseas and will not be back until August, what action we should take to prevent any damage to our courtyard before we are back?

Is there any very clear statement in title deeds that show clearly the boundaries. And the point is - the title deeds could be changed by some "powerful" people or not? Or Is the land registry office could be bribed? As we are hinted by that.

We try to contact Nigel Howath and will be very grateful for any help from you!

[Svetlana]

The Title Deeds do define the boundry of your property, although they can be a bit vague at time - no GPS 150 years ago.

The village mayor (Mukhtar) can no doubt be part of the 'old boys' network' but, of course, in theory, Land Registry officials cannot be bribed!

Your starting point must be a lawyer, but maybe not the one you used previously, if he/she failed to identify the land dispute when you purchased it.

It is hard to win, in a situation like this.

Lana

[Doratis1980]

You can file a border dispute petition to the land registry office and in a couple of years they will visit the place to solve the dispute..you can also hire a private topographer who can make through the land registry an official search at the place and point you the exact borders of your land( this will save you time but not money !).
Regarding the title deeds sometimes they have false informations about the total surface of the land or the exact borders of the land.
At the old times peole used to appoint the borders by their own so now many people occupy some wrong piece of land than the one appointed by their title deed.

[purdey]

I was in the same situation some twenty years ago. I bought two old village houses (side by side). To the front of one was a small parcel of waste land, which I thought and my lawyer thought were on the deeds.
It transpired that 40% of the wasteland belonged to the village and they wanted to build a water trough there.
We settled in the end by buying the small piece but it opened my eyes regarding measurements and disputed land. I would have thought if the land was disputed your lawyer and the Land Registry should have picked up on this prior to your purchase.

[rhodesia47]

So maybe we also have some land belonged to us and we don't know yet, and should also claim back?

I really don't understand such kind of thing - Everytime when the property is sold and the title deeds got changed, they never update the title deeds? Never indicate how much area exactly you have? How many things that not belonged to you and should be moved?

The solicitor never reply or make any sense to us. It seems that we have to change the solicitor.

So the choice we only have is to buy that piece of land?

[Kifeas]

So maybe we also have some land belonged to us and we don't know yet, and should also claim back?

I really don't understand such kind of thing - Everytime when the property is sold and the title deeds got changed, they never update the title deeds? Never indicate how much area exactly you have? How many things that not belonged to you and should be moved?

The solicitor never reply or make any sense to us. It seems that we have to change the solicitor.

So the choice we only have is to buy that piece of land?

Rhodesia, all title deeds state clearly the area (in sq. meters) of the property in reference, as well as the plot number corresponding to it on the area plan. However, because the scale of the area plans is usually very small, it is very difficult to determine precisely where each property's boundaries end, and certainly you shouldn't take someone's word -more so the seller’s one, as to where the exact property boundaries are. Who is responsible to determine the exact boundaries of your property is only the Land surveyors of the Land registry, and this is something one ideally should apply to have it done before committing himself in buying a certain property. Disputed boundaries of land in Cyprus is not an entirely uncommon issue, as I am sure it can also be the case in any other country of the world.

[rhodesia47]

Thank you Kifeas.
You got the point! Yes, all title deeds state clearly the area (in sq.meters). The piece of land the guy wants to take back is at least 10 sq.meters, and plus the big tree area. In this case, the area (sq.meters)will be huge different from title deeds?

And is it very common that the commercial business property could be build just over your nose? your garden? There is no least distance required?

[CBBB]

The Land Registry in Cyprus is one of the best as far as record keeping goes. It is just shit at processing stuff.

[rhodesia47]

Thank you Purdey!

The funny thing is that the previous owner bought the long bench, planted the flowers, and decorated the cornet by a statue. And the tree, that big size tree, at least have been standing there for at least 20 - 30 years! If we made mistake not to use any accurate GPS, the previous owner did not use it either?

If the guy just wants to build water, make a garden, it would not be too bad. But he wants to extend his cafe shop on that land.

And we also know that with the movement of earth itself, every part position might get changed, one day your house might move to some ground totally not belonged to you? There is no expire date of current position/previous position? And there is no regular check if anyone build any illegal extention? Most countries government will knock down the illegal parts if they get the information from anyone.

[rhodesia47]

The Land Registry in Cyprus is one of the best as far as record keeping goes. It is just shit at processing stuff.

Thank you CBBB!!

I hope so. But they could just enter my house even without informing me? Without any permission? It really upset our tenants there.