We have a problem!

With nearly one million parcels of land on the Government’s valuation roll, minister with responsibility for Land and Titling Robert Montague predicts it will take up to 20 years for Jamaica to fully sort out its titling issues. Montague also warned that this will only be possible if the Administration has the full cooperation of the public, and would take “longer without it”.

“We have a problem,” he declared Tuesday during his contribution to the sectoral debate in the House of Representatives.

Montague shared that of roughly 970,000 parcels of land, 550,000 have titles. He also pointed out that because of informal subdivisions, “most of our lands do not have a registered title and more do not have the title registered in the current occupant’s name”.

The minister told Parliament that there are 379 land settlements, a combination of land lease and settlements with 62,690 formal parcels of land.

“Our checks have so far revealed that approximately 35 per cent have been informally sub-divided,” he said.

“Between the untitled lands, informal subdivisions, nonowner occupants and land settlements, we need approximately 600,000 new titles to completely solve the land challenges we face,” said Montague.

The minister told the Parliament that, as a result of the current challenges, land cannot be properly passed down through generations, and there are property disputes resulting in death and broken families. He lamented that, as such, the true benefits cannot be realised from the land.

“Government cannot get the right amount of taxes and citizens cannot get the services they need — like regular garbage collection, fire services, and streetlights,” said Montague.

He outlined a raft of measures to address the long standing problem. These include the elevation of the land titling portfolio to Cabinet level. There is also the bolstering of the human resource capacity through partnership with the government of South Korea in the opening of a school to train surveyors, draftsmen, readers and checkers, along with all the related professions in land matters, except lawyers. The US$9-million undertaking is funded by the South Koreans.

“The impact of this partnership will be enormous as the bulk of the funds will be used to invest in our people and expand the pool of available professionals. It will also introduce new technologies and will increase our capacity to produce more titles,” said the minister.

Montague also pointed to the signing of an agreement with the Certified Commercial Investment Member Institute (CCIMI) to further train and certify realtors. He noted that the CCIMI is a globally-recognised professional certification only available in 32 countries and will result in more highly-trained and skilled professionals in the local real estate sector. Additionally, more workshops are being held for lawyers on how to complete land applications, with the courses being accredited.

During his presentation, Montague also spoke of plans to appoint more adjudication committees and to explore the option of referring adverse possession applications to these bodies. He also pointed to the benefits to be gained by more reliance on technology.

“We intend to digitise all our processes, including surveys, so that we can begin by next September the issuing of e-titles. This will make the process smoother, easier, and more secure. This will then allow us to do upwards of 30,000 or more e-titles per year,” he said.

Montague also shared that the Administration has partnered with Fujitsu to digitise records and introduce new technologies into the processes to make them faster and more secure.

He advised that the e-title system will also protect landowners who will be alerted if someone applies for a title to their land.

“This will reduce the instance of persons moving to take over your land by adverse possession,” he said.

The minister noted that this property watch service will come with a fee.