Title deeds and specific performance

Cyprus land is a registered system. The Department of Lands and Surveys keeps the record of who owns what, and of the mortgages and other burdens on it. A title deed is the certificate of that registration. A contract, however carefully drafted, is not the deed. Until the transfer is registered, the seller is still the registered owner. The buyer’s protection in the gap is the Sale of Immovable Property (Specific Performance) Law 81(I)/2011, and it depends on depositing the contract.

What the deed shows

The deed identifies the property: the district, the registration number, the sheet and plan, the area, and the owner. A search certificate is the live version of that information, including charges that a paper deed in a drawer will not show. Always read the search, not a scan of an old deed emailed by the seller. If the flat has no separate registration yet, because the building has not been split off the mother plot, there is no deed for the flat. There is a deed for the land, usually in the developer’s name or a previous owner’s, and there should be a planning permit and a building permit that describe the building of which the flat is part.

Separate title for each unit is issued after the building is complete, the authorities have accepted it, and the developer has filed the division. That can take a long time. “The deeds are coming” is not a date. The contract should say what happens if they have not come, and the deposit of the contract is what stops the wait from being unprotected.

Depositing the contract

Section 3 of Law 81(I)/2011 says the Land Registry accepts the deposit only if three things are true. At least one seller is registered as owner of the property, or of the larger property of which the unit is part. The contract is in writing, identifies the parties, describes the property, states the price, and is signed by all parties. And the contract is deposited within six months of signature at the district office where the land is. If during those six months there is no registration in a seller’s name, the six months can run from the date that registration appears. A clause that tries to forbid the deposit is void.

The Department’s own leaflet tells buyers to deposit, and it lists why. A later contract for the same unit should not be accepted once yours is on the file. If the seller will not transfer, you can apply to the court for an order registering the property in your name, or for compensation. You can also pass your rights as purchaser to someone else, by a vesting contract that is itself deposited within six months, with a capital-gains clearance. The deposit is a charge on the property. Its priority against other charges follows the date it was filed. And if you miss the six months, the leaflet says that when the property is eventually transferred into your name the transfer fees are increased by 10 per cent.

The fee practitioners quote from the Department’s form is €50. Confirm it, because a fee can be revised. Any party can deposit, or a lawyer, or an authorised representative. Do it in the first weeks, not in month five. A mortgage put on the land after your deposit ranks behind you. A mortgage that was already there ranks ahead. Depositing does not cancel an existing bank charge. That is what a waiver is for.

From deposited contract to deed

When separate title exists and the seller is ready, the transfer is an appointment at the district lands office. The buyer pays the transfer fee, or produces the VAT certificate if the purchase was subject to VAT so that the fee is not charged. The seller produces the capital-gains clearance. Identity, the contract, and the acquisition permission if the buyer is a non-EU national, are on the table. The registrar records the new owner. That registration is the deed.

If the seller refuses, the deposited contract is the basis of a specific-performance claim. Without the deposit, the buyer has a personal claim for damages. A personal claim is worth little if the company has no assets and the land has been sold again. This is why the six-month period is not a formality.

Court proceedings have their own time limits under the law. Missing them is not cured by a strongly worded email. If a transfer is stalling, ask the lawyer who deposited the contract to look at the limitation period before it expires.

Bought off-plan, years ago

Many buyers are waiting on a building that is finished and still undivided, or unfinished, with a deposited contract and a developer who is slow. The deposit remains the protection. Ask for an updated search of the mother title every so often, so you see new memos. If you sell your contractual rights before the deed is out, the vesting contract and the capital-gains clearance have to be deposited too. The person who buys from you does not inherit your protection automatically.

If the developer is in liquidation, the deposited contract is what the liquidator and the court have to deal with. It is not a guarantee of a quick deed. It is the difference between being a secured claimant on that unit and being one unsecured creditor among many.

Names, shares and couples

The deed will show the names on the transfer. If two people buy equal shares, say so in the contract and at the transfer. Transfer fees are computed on each share. A later argument about who owns what is expensive if the deed says something else. A non-EU couple’s acquisition permission is joint, on the Ministry of Interior’s description, and the limits on how much they may buy apply to them together.