NEARLY 14,000 refugee families stand to receive title deeds for their government homes, following a Cabinet decision to resume issuing title deeds to refugees, after the Plenum put the breaks on the procedure eight years ago.
The move affects those living in government housing or self-built homes on government plots. It will not apply to the same number of refugee families living in Turkish Cypriot homes or properties built on Turkish Cypriot land. Instead, as compensation, they will receive a plot of government land in the district they currently live in.
The news has naturally been welcomed by the majority of the 26,854 refugee families that stand to benefit. But a number of refugees who were only eligible for financial aid when they lost their homes in the 1974 invasion, and not government housing or land to build on, have been made extremely unhappy, as they have been left out of the loop.
In an interview with the Sunday Mail, Interior Ministry chief administrative officer Michael Parellis helped explain the government’s plans.
In 1998, the House put an end to the previous government’s project to issue 27,360 refugee homes with title deeds, but not before 5,462 homes had been made over to their occupants, he said. The reason given at the time was that there was no policy to regulate the procedure of transferring government property to the refugees.
Last Saturday the Cabinet approved a bill, along with a series of regulations to go with it, which it has submitted to the House Refugee Committee for discussion. If approved, it will be put to vote before the Plenum.
Parellis said there were currently 13,342 refugee homes built on government or expropriated land, which were eligible for title deeds. However, a further 8,556 homes had been built on non-expropriated Turkish Cypriot land and were not eligible for title deeds. Nor were the 4,956 refugee families living in Turkish Cypriot homes abandoned by their owners in 1974.
After the invasion, the government devised four schemes to help house those who had been made homeless, he explained. Each scheme was drawn up and applied to refugees according to their eligibility.
The first plan was government housing, in which the government built refugee estates and gave them to the refugees to live in.
The second plan was self-built housing on government plots. “This means the government gave the refugee a plot of land and some money to build his or her home. The remainder of the money put towards the house was the refugee’s own,” he said.
The third plan involved financial aid for refugees who bought their own ready-made flat or house.
And the fourth plan involved giving financial aid to refugees who had their own land in the free areas to build on.
It is the refugees who were only eligible for plan three and four that are now unhappy with the Cabinet’s proposal. According to them, they are being unfairly treated as they only received a pittance compared to what refugee houses and land are valued at now.
The government decision means title deeds will be issued to refugees living in government housing and self-housing on government plots. The procedure of turning over the 13,342 properties to their occupants is expected to take two years and cost around £1 million, Parellis said.
The process will involve a door-to-door inspection of each and every refugee home to ensure their rightful owners are occupying them. The data collected from each home will be handed over to a Housing Aid Committee, which will prepare a report on each dwelling. The report will then be handed over to the Interior Minister, who in turn will give it to the Cabinet for approval. Depending on whether or not the occupants meet certain regulations, the title deeds will be issued.
Parellis said title deeds could be issued in more than one name, depending on how many occupants were eligible for ownership. For example a husband and wife would receive 50 per cent each of the property, he said.
Regarding the 13,512 refugee families living in Turkish Cypriot homes or homes built on Turkish Cypriot land, Parellis said an average of 6,000 donums of government and appropriated land would be divided into plots and given to each family. “The land will be close to where they have been living. For instance, if they live in Limassol they will not be given land in Nicosia,” he said.
The government plans to build roads and supply the areas with electricity, water and telephone lines. Parellis said it was estimated the project would take up to five years to complete and cost £150 million.
The refugees would be allowed to continue living in their current homes until there was a solution to the Cyprus problem. After that they would have a plot of land to fall back on that they could either build on or sell, he explained.
Now it is clear that title deeds for Turkish Cypriot land will not be given to refugees as some members said here.
