A legislative proposal was submitted to the Parliament to lengthen the statutory deadline which protects trapped buyers as provided under the provisions of Part VIB of the Law of Transfer and Mortgage of Immovable Property 1965-2001.[1]
According to the proposal made, the aforementioned provisions will be applicable when a buyer submits a contract of sale of real estate in the land registry by virtue of a court decree issued in accordance with the provisions of the Law on the Sale of Real Estate (Special Execution) of 2011 (Law 81(I)/2011), which was issued on the basis of an application filed in the court until the 31st of December 2022 (instead of until the 31st of December 2021 as provided in the existing regulation). Previous amendments of the same provisions and the motive behind them: Importantly, an amendment of this nature is not proposed for the first time. When the statutory deadline for protecting trapped buyers was previously extended until the 31st of December 2021, was mentioned to the Parliament that the aim of extending the statutory deadline was for the protection of buyers who bought real estate from entrepreneurs and even though they have fulfilled all their obligations or they had to a large extent fulfilled their contractual obligations to the seller- businessman, unfortunately were not successful in completing the transfer of the real estate they bought in their name. Notably, it was also highlighted that the amendment took place to counterbalance delays caused (amongst others) by the restrictive measures adopted to deal with Covid-19. Undoubtedly, this is also a contributory factor that has led to the current proposal being put before the Parliament.
Moreover, while extending the statutory deadline until the 31st of December 2021 was supported, there were concerns raised in December 2020 that the statutory deadline would need to be re-extended in the future. As, it can be observed those concerns were not without merit, as recently, a law amending the aforementioned statutory deadline was proposed in the plenary session of the parliament.
[1] <23.02.062.159-2021Metavivaseos-kai-Ipothikevseos.pdf (nomoplatform.cy)>, accessed on 11/10/2021
By Andronikos Theophanous and Georgia Karamalli.
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