Under section 40 of Cap. 224 immovable property is transferred at the District Lands Office only by the registered owner, or by an estate's executor or administrator, so nothing the family signs moves ownership while the register carries the dead person's name. The register comes before the buyer. An heir's action in respect of an estate is barred eight years after the death, and in some intestate estates a sale within eighteen months is void.
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 rule that decides whose name the register must carry is section 40 of the Immovable Property (Tenure, Registration and Valuation) Law, Cap. 224. Under section 40(1) no transfer of, and no encumbrance over, immovable property is valid unless it is registered or recorded at the District Lands Office, so nothing the family signs moves ownership on its own. Under section 40(2) no transfer and no voluntary encumbrance is effected at the District Lands Office by any person unless that person is the registered owner, with a proviso for the executor or administrator of an estate. That is the whole answer to the question families ask first, and it is why the register comes before the buyer.
Where one co-heir will not sign, section 49 of the same Law is the way through. Under section 49(1), on an application to register property standing in the name of a person who has died, the Director may register it in the name of the person entitled after advertising the application rather than by taking that heir's consent. Under section 49(3), where an objection is filed but the Director considers the registration should still be made, he notifies the objector, who has thirty days from that notice to apply to the Court; an objector who does nothing loses the point. Section 49(4) cuts both ways for a family abroad: where an heir is absent from Cyprus, no registration the Director considers adverse to that absent person is made under the section unless thirty years have elapsed, which protects the absent heir and can also stall the route.
Whether anything may be sold before the register is put right depends on which regime the estate is in, and one of them stops a sale altogether. Section 27 of the Administration of Estates Law, Cap. 189, applies only through a narrow gateway: no grant of administration has issued, the deceased died wholly intestate, and either there are no heirs under incapacity or, if there are, the estate does not exceed the statutory ceiling. Inside that gateway, section 27(2)(a) forbids any sale or transfer of the deceased's property to anyone other than an heir until eighteen months have elapsed from the death, and section 27(2)(c) supplies the sanction: a sale not permitted by the section is void. Not delayed; void. And where a grant is later taken out over an estate that had already devolved that way, section 28(b)(ii) adds a further one month standstill from the date of the grant.
Where a grant has issued, the administrator's own power to sell is narrower than families expect. Section 32(1) gives the personal representative power to sell so much of the deceased's immovable property as is necessary to pay funeral expenses, testamentary expenses and lawful debts. A sale simply because the family has agreed to sell is not within it. Where the estate has to be sold in order to be divided, the power comes from section 33(1), under which the Court may order the sale, letting, mortgaging, division or other disposal of any part of the estate to facilitate distribution among those entitled. And section 21(1) is worth knowing where the administrator is the family member who lives furthest away: if twelve months after the death a personal representative to whom a grant issued resides outside the jurisdiction, the Court may act on the application of a creditor or an interested person.
Two limitation periods sit over all of it, and they are shorter than families assume. Under section 9(1) of the Limitation of Actionable Rights Law, Law 66(I)/2012, no action by an heir or legatee in respect of an estate, a share in it or a legacy is brought after eight years from the day of the death. Under section 9(3), a claimant who was absent abroad has a year from when they learnt, or with reasonable diligence could have learnt, of the death, or from their return to Cyprus. A family that has been discussing what to do for a decade should check both before anything else.
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 facts first: the names of everyone with an interest and where they live, so we can run a conflict check, and the registration details of the property if you have them.
Once we confirm we can act: the search certificate if you have one, and any offer or agency agreement already in front of you. If an estate agent has produced a document for signature, tell us before you sign it rather than after.
If you are selling property that came from an estate, tell us whether a grant has issued and whether the title is already in the heirs' names, at office@kleanthousplatis.com, or the enquiry form. We reply within one business day.
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 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
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 that established 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
PropertySpecific Performance in Cyprus: How a Deposited Contract of Sale Protects the Buyer
PropertyReservation Agreements in Cyprus: What the Deposit Actually Buys
PropertyBack to the overview for Cypriots abroad, and to selling a Cyprus property generally. Related practice areas: Property and Trusts, Wills & Succession.