Selling Inherited Property in Cyprus

A sale is the last step, not the first

Families abroad usually arrive at this subject in the wrong order. The decision to sell has been taken, sometimes after years of discussion, and the question put to us is how quickly it can be done. The answer depends almost entirely on work that has nothing to do with the sale: whose name the property stands in, who the co-owners are, and what the register and the permits say about the property itself.

In the ordinary case, property that is still registered in the name of a person who has died has to be taken out of that name before it can be transferred to a buyer. Whether anything can be sold earlier, in the course of administering the estate, is a question for the particular estate and for the authority under which it is being administered. It is one of the first things we would establish, because it changes the whole shape of the timetable.

The two pages that precede this one are therefore inherited property, which deals with getting the register right, and administering an estate from abroad, which deals with the authority to act at all.

What to send us in a first enquiry

The registration details or the search certificate if you have one, the names of everyone with an interest and where they live, and any offer or agency agreement already in front of you. If an estate agent has produced a document for signature, send it before it is signed rather than after.

Before it can be marketed

What has to be in order

A buyer, or a buyer's advocate, will look at the same things we would. It is cheaper to find them before a price is agreed than to have them raised as a reason to reduce it.

The registration itself, in the names of the people who are actually selling
Encumbrances and prohibitions recorded against the property: mortgages, memos and similar entries, and whether they can be discharged at transfer
The planning and permit position, and any note recording works carried out without the permit required under the Streets and Buildings Regulation Law, Cap. 96
Whether a separate title deed exists at all, or whether what is being sold is a set of contractual rights
Access, boundaries and whether the parcel is what the family believes it to be
Any tenancy, licence or long-standing family use of the land by somebody still in Cyprus

What a seller has to deliver at transfer, including clearances and the discharge of any mortgage, is set out in the firm's guide, Selling Property in Cyprus: What the Seller Has to Deliver. Where a note about unauthorised works appears on the title, the position is explained in Unauthorised Works and Notes on Cyprus Titles.

What the buyer will want, and what it means for you

A buyer in Cyprus will ordinarily want to deposit the contract of sale with the Department of Lands and Surveys. Under the Sale of Immovable Property (Specific Performance) Law of 2011, Law 81(I)/2011, a contract of sale deposited there gives the buyer the remedy of specific performance, meaning the right to compel transfer rather than settle for damages, and it carries deadlines.

That is the buyer's protection and it is entirely legitimate. What it means for a selling family is that the contract is a serious document with consequences that outlast the signing, and that it should not be signed by four heirs in three countries without each of them understanding what they have promised and by when.

Contract claims are generally subject to a six-year limitation period under the Limitation of Actions Law 66(I)/2012, running from when the cause of action accrued. A sale is not finished when the money arrives; the obligations in it are live for a long time afterwards.

Four sellers, three countries

Running a sale where nobody is in Cyprus

Where the sellers are co-owners spread across the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States, the mechanics rather than the law are what delay the matter. Each seller has to be identified, each has to authorise the sale, and each has to be paid.

Every co-owner signs their own power of attorney, in the country where they live, and the documents arrive here separately rather than together. The chain is set out under acting without travelling
Agree between yourselves, in writing and before marketing, the reserve price, who negotiates, who pays the costs, and how the proceeds are divided
Decide where the money is to go. Proceeds are received in Cyprus and then remitted, and the receiving arrangements are worth settling before completion rather than after
Expect to be asked for identification documents more than once, by us and by the banks, and expect the name spellings to be checked against each other

We do not advise on foreign exchange, and we do not advise on the tax position in your own country. A disposal of immovable property in Cyprus may attract Cypriot tax and official fees, and what applies to a particular disposal has to be established for that disposal rather than assumed from a general figure. Have both sides looked at before you commit to a price, because the answer occasionally changes whether the sale is worth making at all.

Questions we are asked

One of the heirs will not engage with us at all. Can the rest of us sell?

A sale of the whole parcel needs the whole parcel, and a co-owner who will not participate holds part of it. What options exist then depends on the register entry and on the facts, including whether the person is simply out of contact rather than opposed. Tell us which it is, because they are handled very differently.

An agent in Cyprus has a buyer ready. Can we just sign?

Not before the register is right, and not before somebody has read what you are signing. A reservation form or an agency agreement is a contract under the Contract Law, Cap. 149, and it binds you to what it says on its face. The firm's guide to reservation agreements explains what those documents usually do.

Do we have to come to Cyprus for the transfer?

Frequently not, where a power of attorney in the right form is in place and the Land Registry accepts it for the act in question. We will tell you at the start which steps in your particular sale require a personal attendance, so that anyone who does need to travel can plan it once rather than twice.

The property is worth very little. Should we bother?

Sometimes the answer is no, and you are entitled to that answer early. A small share of agricultural land can cost more to put in order than it will realise. The search of the register, described on the overview page, is the inexpensive way to find out what you are actually dealing with before anyone spends anything substantial.

Written on these subjects

Selling Property in Cyprus: What the Seller Has to Deliver

Property

Specific Performance in Cyprus: How a Deposited Contract of Sale Protects the Buyer

Property

Reservation Agreements in Cyprus: What the Deposit Actually Buys

Property

Unauthorised Works and Notes on Cyprus Titles: What They Mean for Buyers and Owners

Property

Buying Property Without a Title Deed in Cyprus: Assignment of Contractual Rights Explained

Property

Back to the overview for Cypriots abroad, and to selling a Cyprus property generally. Related practice areas: Property and Private Client.

Request a consultation

Tell us briefly how we may assist

A few sentences is enough: what the property is, whose name it stands in, and who has to agree. We reply within one business day. Please do not send confidential documents until we confirm we can act.

Kleanthous & Platis LLC, Nicosia. Telephone +357 22 680 330, office@kleanthousplatis.com, or klitos@kleanthousplatis.com.

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