Change in mindset needed at land registry says audit office

The waiting time for a site or cadastral surveys from the land registry averages out at 17 months, and in some cases it can take 16 years, the auditor-general said in a damning report published on Tuesday.

A cadastral survey is a type of land survey that defines, maps, and marks the legal, physical boundaries of property parcels for registration and ownership purposes. It determines the exact location, size, and dimensions of land, often used to establish ownership, facilitate sales, or resolve disputes.

In a special report on the department of lands and surveys, the Audit Office found that in the case of boundary disputes between neighbours, the average waiting time for a decision comes to 125 months.

And in a number of cases, the on-site survey for such disputes was carried out only six to 10 years after the interested parties filed the application; with the final decision notified to the interested parties 15 years later.

At the end of 2023, pending site surveys numbered approximately 25,000. Around 15,000 applications are received each year, with the land registry able to process 13,000.

Meantime the processing of cases involving expropriated land takes 90 months on average.

According to the Audit Office, the land registry continues to suffer from excessive workload and manpower shortage – making dealings with it a nightmare for the average person.

In the preface to the report, auditor-general Andreas Papaconstantinou called for a “deep change in mindset and approach”.

He noted that the delays are evident across all functions of the department, translating into inconvenience for the public, but also loss of revenue for the state.

“Citing chronic delays, and acknowledging the problem, is not enough,” the report said. “What is needed is a deep change in mindset and approach, if we are to have an effective, transparent and modern public administration.”

The report moreover cautioned that the bottleneck at the land registry often impacts the functions of other government departments.

The Audit Office also flagged the military’s use of private land without a decree in force, as well as long-running land requisitions instead of using a formal expropriation order. Concerning decrees for use of private land for military purposes, their average duration came to eight years – resulting in delays in compensating the owners.

Elsewhere the dossier highlights issues with the handling of state land. In particular, the land registry takes too long to investigate illegal interventions on state land.

As at the end of 2024, there were 1,127 documented cases of illegal interventions on state land pending examination. From a sample taken from Nicosia district, some of these cases had been pending for 15 years.

The report stressed that not all such cases have been documented – meaning the real number could be much higher than 1,127.

Also at the end of 2024, amounts receivable at the land registry amounted to €18.5 million – compared to €15.5 million a year earlier.

Of the €18.5 million, around €13.6 million concerned leases on state land, owed by private individuals.

In the Nicosia district, at the end of 2023, just 10 individuals who were leaseholders of state land owed €2.6 million. These cases were eventually – after much delay – forwarded to the attorney-general’s office for legal action.