A binding street widening scheme does not take your land, and you keep the strip until you build. When you cede it, hardship is compensated, even if you never objected.
The news usually comes with a planning or building application: part of the plot lies inside a binding street widening scheme, and the permit will require that strip to be left for the road. Sometimes it comes as a notice that new plans for a street have been published. Either way the scheme runs under sections 12, 13 and 18 of the Streets and Buildings Regulation Law, Cap. 96, and the owner has more room than the first letter suggests.
A scheme is not an expropriation, and it does not take the land on the day it is published. When the state formally acquires land for a road, that is a different procedure, covered in our note on expropriation letters from a ministry or municipality.
How a scheme becomes binding
A scheme becomes binding three months after it is published, and from then on no permit may be issued except in accordance with it. Section 12(1) lets the competent authority, with the agreement of the local authority, prepare plans showing the width of a street and the line it is to take, for the purpose of widening or straightening it.
Under section 12(2) the authority deposits the plans at its own office and at the local authority's office, and publishes a notice in the Official Gazette and in one or more local newspapers that they are open to public inspection. They stay open for three months from the Gazette notice. Under section 12(3), when that period ends the plans become binding on the authority and on everyone affected, subject to any decision on an appeal under section 18.
Since the local government reform, section 2 of Cap. 96 defines the competent authority as the Director of Development Licensing of each District Local Government Organisation (EOA).
The three months: an appeal to the Minister of the Interior
The time to challenge the plans themselves is while they are on display. Section 18(1)(b) lets anyone who objects to plans prepared under section 12 appeal in writing to the Minister of the Interior, setting out the grounds, at any time while the plans are exhibited for inspection.
Under section 18(2) the Minister examines the appeal, may hear the appellant, and must decide and notify the decision within sixty days. Under section 18(3) a person dissatisfied with the Minister's decision may file a recourse within seventy five days.
Not appealing does not cost the owner compensation later. In Christodoulides (1961) the Supreme Court held that failing to appeal under section 18 does not affect the right to compensation under section 13(1), whose proviso operates independently, and in Makrosellis (2017) it repeated that not challenging a binding scheme does not affect a claim for compensation.
What the scheme does to your land, and what it does not
The strip remains yours until you build. In Sergides (2014) the Supreme Court, following its earlier judgment in Sofroniou (1976), held that no part of the land is ceded to the road until a building permit is applied for and granted. Until then the owner continues to own and enjoy the affected land, except that it cannot be built on, and for that reason a scheme cannot be equated with an expropriation.
The scheme does affect value. In Kyprianidi (1997) the Supreme Court, following Demades (1977), accepted that a willing buyer would take for granted that the area available for development excludes the part affected by the scheme. Anyone buying a plot is better off knowing about a scheme before agreeing the price.
When you apply for a building permit
The building permit is the moment the strip passes to the road, and the moment compensation can arise. Section 13(1) provides that when a permit involves a new line for a street under a binding scheme, the space between the new and the old line becomes part of the street without compensation, unless it is found that hardship would result. If it would, the authority pays such compensation as is reasonable in all the circumstances. Under section 13(2) the District Land Office then amends the registrations on the application of anyone interested.
The permit that triggers section 13 is a building permit. In Sergides a condition attached to a demolition permit did not count: the Supreme Court held that the permit in section 13(1) means a building permit, and the owner, who had never obtained one, had not lost the strip.
Hardship is a question of fact. In Georgallidou (2001) the Supreme Court said that it is not the same as losing the affected strip, but means a particular consequence the owner could not reasonably be expected to bear. In Christodoulides (1963), as quoted there, ceding over 43 per cent of a plot in the commercial centre of a town was hardship. In Georgallidou itself, a strip close to the size of a building plot, worth £31,395, with no gain in value to the rest of the land, was hardship too.
There is no free percentage. In Georgallidou the Republic argued, and the District Court accepted, that a strip within a reasonable 15 per cent of the plot is ceded without compensation. The Supreme Court rejected any fixed percentage: what matters most is the value of the strip itself, together with the loss of building ratio and coverage on the rest of the plot.
The scheme decides where the road goes. Whether you are paid for the strip depends on what ceding it actually costs you, and that has to be shown.
The evidence has to carry the claim. In Stylianou (2024) the Supreme Court held hardship not proved where the owners' valuer had stated a percentage of injurious affection without explaining how he reached it, and had described the change in the plot's shape and the nuisance of the road without comparable sales or other support.
If the state acquires the strip instead
When the state acquires land affected by a scheme before any building permit has ceded it, the scheme does not reduce the compensation to nothing. In Georgallidou the District Court had awarded nothing for 483 square metres taken from a plot of 4,325 square metres, on the view that land under a binding scheme is ceded free by law. The Supreme Court disagreed, holding that the restriction is compensated through section 10(h) of the Compulsory Acquisition Law, Law 15/1962, read with Article 23.3 of the Constitution, and fixed the compensation at £31,395.
The position is different where the permit has already been carried out. In Makrosellis (2017) the strip had been laid out as pavement and road under building permit conditions years before it was formally acquired. The Supreme Court held that once the scheme had been implemented, there was no restriction left at the time of the acquisition to compensate at market value; a hardship claim under section 13(1) remained, on its own conditions. In Stylianou (2024) owners who had accepted and carried out such conditions without challenging them could not claim the value of the strip decades later.
What this means in practice
Check for a scheme before you buy or design. The plans are kept at the competent authority and the local authority, and a scheme changes both the buildable area and the price.
Use the three months. When new plans are published, an appeal to the Minister of the Interior under section 18, with reasons, is the way to challenge the line itself.
Assess hardship when the permit arrives. If a permit requires the strip to be ceded, consider what that costs you beyond the strip itself, before you carry out the condition.
Prepare the evidence. A hardship claim is decided on facts: the size and value of the strip, the effect on the rest of the plot, and comparable sales, set out by a valuer who explains the figures.
Know which situation you are in. A strip never ceded and later acquired is compensated in the acquisition; a strip already ceded under a permit you carried out is not, and its compensation, if any, is the hardship claim.
Questions we are asked
I was told part of my plot is affected by a street widening scheme. Have I lost that part?
No. The Supreme Court has held that no part of the land passes to the road until a building permit is applied for and granted; until then the owner remains owner of the affected strip and keeps using it, except that it cannot be built on (Sergides, 2014). A street widening scheme is not an expropriation.
Who prepares the scheme and where do I see it?
Under section 12 of the Streets and Buildings Regulation Law, Cap. 96, the competent authority, with the agreement of the local authority, prepares plans showing the width and line of the street, deposits them at its own office and at the local authority's office, and publishes a notice in the Official Gazette and in local newspapers. Since the local government reform the competent authority is the Director of Development Licensing of each District Local Government Organisation (EOA).
How long do I have to object?
The plans are open to inspection for three months from the notice in the Gazette. At any time while they are exhibited, section 18 lets anyone who objects appeal in writing, with reasons, to the Minister of the Interior, who must decide within sixty days. A recourse to court against the Minister's decision lies within seventy five days.
I never objected to the scheme. Have I lost my right to compensation?
No. In Christodoulides (1961) the Supreme Court held that failing to appeal against the plans under section 18 does not affect the right to compensation under the proviso to section 13(1), and later case law has said the same of not challenging the scheme.
Do I have to give the strip for free when I get a building permit?
Section 13(1) makes the strip part of the road when a permit is granted, without compensation, unless hardship would result. If it would, the authority pays reasonable compensation. Hardship is a question of fact: not the loss of the strip itself, but a particular consequence the owner could not reasonably be expected to bear.
Is there a percentage of my plot I must give for free?
No fixed one. In Georgallidou (2001) the Supreme Court rejected the argument that a strip within a reasonable 15 per cent of the plot is ceded without compensation. Hardship is a question of fact: in that case a strip close to the size of a building plot, worth £31,395, with no gain to the rest of the land, was hardship, and in Christodoulides (1963) so was ceding over 43 per cent of a central commercial plot.
The state is now acquiring the strip affected by the scheme. Will I be paid for it?
If you never ceded it under a building permit, yes: in Georgallidou the Supreme Court held that the scheme does not reduce compensation for the acquisition to nothing. If you already ceded it under permit conditions you accepted and carried out, the Supreme Court held in 2017 that there was no restriction left to compensate at market value at the time of the acquisition, and only a hardship claim remained.
Sources
- The Streets and Buildings Regulation Law, Cap. 96, consolidated text, sections 2, 12, 13 and 18, CyLaw
- The Compulsory Acquisition Law of 1962, Law 15/1962, consolidated text, section 10, CyLaw
- Republic v. Stylianou and another, Civil Appeal No. 311/2015, Supreme Court, 24 September 2024
- Matthaios G. Makrosellis Ltd and another v. Republic, Civil Appeal No. 268/10, Supreme Court, 3 March 2017
- Sergides v. Republic, (2014) 1 AAD 1115
- Georgallidou and another v. Attorney General, (2001) 1 AAD 365
- Kyprianidi and others v. Municipality of Nicosia, (1997) 1 AAD 586
- Christodoulides v. Municipal Corporation of Famagusta, (1961) 1 CLR 129
This article is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
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