The House of Representatives plenary unanimously passed legislation, on Friday, aiming to resolve a problem faced by many property owners, who having bought and paid for their property have not been able to acquire a title deed in their name.

House of Representatives President Demetris Syllouris said that the matter also concerns him as he owns an apartment the payment for which has been fully settled but is not able to acquire a title deed, adding that therefore he has “personal knowledge of other parties.”

He also informed the plenary that during two different visits to London, British MPs raised the matter with him, adding that the House of Lords had also established a committee about this social and economic problem.

An initiative by AKEL MP Aristos Damianou, the legislative proposal was tabled at plenary bearing the signatures of MPs from nearly all parliamentary parties.

The final text was drafted by the parliamentary committee on legal affairs, with the help of the Land Registry. MPs discussed the draft legislation over 18 months in 16 different meetings of the parliamentary committee, its president Giorgos Georgiou said.

Damianou said that the problem concerned approximately 30,000 people and that through implementing legislation already in place a solution had been found so far for 6,500 families.

After the legislation was found anti-constitutional at first instance, the parliament acted in order to protect the rights of bona fide property buyers.

According to DIKO Deputy President Christiana Erotokritou the new legislation will concern buyers who have either paid in full or the greatest part of the property’s purchase price, have submitted their contract to the Land Registry and whose inability to acquire a title deed is not due to their own omission.

At the same time, the legislation seeks to also protect the rights of the borrower providing that the Land Registry should notify them and invite them to take part in the process.