PROTECTION OF STRANDED BUYERS UNTIL 2021

 Filenews 22 October 2020

An effort to extend the arrangement for stranded property buyers until 2021 is being made by members of the parliamentary Legal Committee. In 2014, the House passed legislation that helped grant title to stranded buyers who fell victim to insolvent land developers.

These buyers were buying properties on paper and could not deposit a sales contract with the Land Registry for special execution purposes. The regulation passed by the House was for a limited period of time, which is why DISY and DIKO submitted two different proposals for a law extending the right of buyers to deposit their contract until 2021, regardless of the court's decision. In fact, the law proposals give buyers who did not go to court to issue contract filing instructions to apply to the Land Registry, even if the court delays issuing its decision.

The proposal for a law of the MEMBER of the DISY George Georgiou provides for an amendment of the Law on the Transfer and Mortgages of Real Estate, which will extend the protection afforded to "locked" buyers who deposit in the Land Registry a contract for the purchase of property following a court order, so that buyers are protected and if the relevant decree was issued after 31 December 2019. With the proposal of a law of the MP of DIKO Panikos Leonidou, the right of trapped buyers to deposit within the specified period a contract for the sale of immovable property in the Land Registry is granted again. All members of the Committee on Legal Affairs are in favour of the proposals. The Services of the House will attempt to make a single proposal for a law, based on the two proposals, and the debate will continue at the next session of the committee.