The residents, who reside in Meadowsvale, Pitfour Phase three and Retirement Phases one and two, were presented with the titles during a handover ceremony held at the Dawn Christadelphian Bible Centre in Retirement Phase 2, St. James, on May 8.
In his remarks, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator the Hon. Pearnel Charles Jr., encouraged the recipients to be cognisant of the value of their title and to use it accordingly.
“If you have your house on the land, you can use it to go and leverage a mortgage to expand your house. If you don’t want to build or expand, and you simply want to pass it on, you can use the title to pass on officially, in a secure way…. to anyone that you wish. So this is an important day, this is a day when you are handed the authority to organise your own life,” Senator Charles Jr. said.
The Minister informed that close to 1,500 titles are available for residents who occupy properties in the Meadowsvale, Pitfour and Retirement communities.
He pointed out that far too many homeowners are complacent about moving to get the certificate of titles for the land they occupy informally.
“Just in this area, Meadowsvale, you have 73 titles that have already been issued [and] 327 are still available for completion and collection; Pitfour III, 42 that have been issued and 83 available for completion and collection,” Senator Charles Jr. stated.
“In Retirement Phase one, 212 are available for completion and collection and you have 70-odd that have been collected already. For Retirement Phase Two, 69 [titles] have been issued since 2014, [and there are] 871 titles waiting to be collected for that process to be completed,” he added.
For his part, Chairman of the HAJ, Norman Brown, is encouraging informal land owners in these communities, to complete outstanding payments for their lands, so that they can collect their titles.
He noted that there are tremendous possibilities to be derived through owning a land title, including opportunities for community development.
“When you get a title in your hand it is tremendous. I implore all of us today, when you receive yours, don’t keep it a secret. Tell your neighbour, I got mine, you can get yours too and then you start to develop your community because you will have access to adequate resources,” Mr. Brown stated.
Story Credit: JIS