Housing Ministry Assisting Persons to Get Titles

Beneficiaries of Government housing schemes in St. Mary who are without certificates of title, are being assisted to procure these documents.
A team from the Legal Department of the Water and Housing Ministry visited Annotto Bay on Friday, March 7 to facilitate the process.
The schemes involved are Dover, Cape Clear, Gibraltar, Fort George and Fort Stewart. Many residents of these schemes are without titles, rendering them devoid of security of tenure.
These certificates of title are currently in the name of the Ministry of Water and Housing, although the relevant properties were purchased by persons and have been, in many instances, passed on to several other persons over the years.
In addition to overseeing the process of the signing of the Instruments of Transfer by eligible persons, members of the team also provided legal advice to assist them to procure their titles. Dave Domville, Senior Legal Officer in the Ministry, said the initiative is being undertaken in keeping with government’s commitment to speed up the process through which people who own land on government housing schemes are provided with certificates of title. He noted that there are currently over 10,000 titles in the possession of the Ministry, which need to be delivered to their rightful owners, adding that the Ministry is imploring persons to whom those titles belong, to make an effort to procure them as early as possible.
Mr. Domville said he was pleased with the response of the residents of St. Mary, and that officers of the Ministry are prepared to visit the homes of the targeted persons, to ensure that all those in need of titles are given the opportunity to acquire the documents.