Landowners and Lawyers Can Take Advantage of Services Provided By LAMD

Landowners and private Attorneys-at-Law can take advantage of numerous services provided by the National Land Agency (NLA), through the Land Administration Management Division (LAMD).

Among the services offered by the Division are waivers on subdivisions, duties, exemption and the registration and updating of land titles.

Manager of the LAMD, Nickoy Young, detailed some of the services during an interview with JIS News on Tuesday, May 9.

As it relates to subdivision waivers, he explained that “this is where a smaller parcel [of land] is cut from a larger parcel and the process wasn’t properly done”.

This subdivision, also referred to as an informal subdivision, “is a widespread practice where persons will sell a piece of land… and the only thing that they’ll do is get a surveyor to survey the land,” he added.

In instances where a piece of land has been informally subdivided and the owner wants possession of the title, they will have to go through the Municipal Corporation for the subdivision to be done properly.

Mr. Young pointed out that there are a lot of instances where persons cannot afford this undertaking, as it requires them to put in place infrastructure, among other things.

To help alleviate this issue, the LAMD can grant a subdivision waiver for someone to get a title, given that the informal subdivision is more than seven years old.

Speaking to duty waivers, the LAMD Manager explained that if a person is married and wants to add his or her spouse’s name to a title, they are usually required to pay the Transfer Tax, which is two per cent of the market value.

However, through the LAMD, “you pay a fee and we will stamp the documents, have the duties waived and you can proceed to register your spouse on the title,” he said.

In addition to these services, the Division also processes matters for amendment to names, addresses and occupations as well as offering certification to external parties.

“The certification process is where we have attorneys whom we sensitise and expose to our processes, and once they have a matter they can submit it to us. We [will] certify it for them and return it to them and they can then lodge the matter independent of us and actualise all the benefits that they would have received, had the matter been submitted directly through us,” Mr. Young said.

“The external entities will provide all the benefits once the LAMD certification seal is visible on a document, just as they would have done if the matter had been handled by us directly,” he told JIS News.

Persons interested in learning more about the services offered by the LAMD, may visit the National Land Agency’s website at https://www.nla.gov.jm/content/land-administration-and-management-division.