A Never-Ending Story

Having got the Completion Certificate from t'Council, the next step was to nip along to the Land Registry to get the penthouse suite registered, something we thought would be straightforward enough. So El Presidente duly toddled along to the local office; only to find that the chappie responsible was 'out' so she'd have to go the central office. After much waiting about, a very helpful lady at the central office looked the property up in their records and discovered, much to our bafflement, that only the land is registered and none of the existing buildings, let alone the penthouse, have ever been. So El Prez was advised that she would have to get loads more paperwork from t'Council to show that building permission had been appropriately given and that a Completion Certificate for the existing building had been issued. This meant a return to t'Council offices where the officials, who were at first reluctant, agreed to dig out their old files (from 1983). El Prez went back this morning and duly collected copies of the papers. (There was a brief hiatus while El Prez took the old plans down the road to get them copied because t'Council doesn't have a photocopier big enough. A worrying equipment deficit as they must need to copy plans on a fairly frequent basis, seeing as they are The Planning Department).

El Presidente then whizzed back to the Land Registry with her mountain of documents but, alas! The Land Registry also require a copy of the plans for the kitchen as they were before amendment. That is, the plans for the kitchen that didn't get built because we changed the layout. They've got the plans for the kitchen that did get built. Everyone is at a loss as to why they should need plans for something that isn't there and never was. But there you go, this is Cyprus. So we have been confounded in getting the building registered. The nice man at t'Council has agreed to dig out the plans for the mystery kitchen and give a copy of them to Niky's cousin, but registration will in any case have to wait now till our next visit. This is annoying but only a practical problem if El Prez should happen to die beforehand, in which case there will be untold difficulties in getting the unregistered property transferred to her beneficiaries. Mind you, you would think that if you've got the title deeds to the land then it can be assumed you own the buildings on it, but I'm not counting on that; this is Cyprus.

Oh, and when we do eventually get the registration done there will be a fee of 85 Euros.