Late last week I saw a report of a man complaining that someone had sold his property in the city. That wasn’t all. Either the same person or someone else also sold his home on East Bank Demerara.
He was in the interior, working he said. When he came out he found people occupying his hotel in the city.
One individual claimed to have owned the property. It was the same with his house.
What was frightening was the fact that these people presented what purported to be titles to the property. The owner also produced his title which he said was the original document.
Suffice it to say that he was not the first person to find himself in this predicament. It begs the question of what goes on in the Deeds Registry. It would seem that some corrupt people are in the registry. For a fee they would facilitate a request for a document.
Indeed, the law provides for people who own property to scan the Official Gazette or the newspapers to see when titles are being declared. Properties being sold are advertised. The owner of the property has an opportunity to object to any sale that he or she didn’t approve or sanction.
The truth is that the vast majority of people do not see the Official Gazette, nor do they scan the advertisements in the newspapers.
There have been many cases of properties owned by someone being sold from under his or her nose. There was the case of the woman now dubbed the Robb Street granny. Her name was Clementine Fiedtkou.
She was shot and killed in her home when she approached the door. An individual produced a document which suggested that a woman who was a power of attorney sold him the property. This person was not resident in Guyana, but in New Jersey.
A businessman who picked up the story travelled to New Jersey to seek out the woman who, someone claimed was the power of attorney. I travelled with him and went to the address. We asked about the woman and after spending some hours until late in the evening this individual never turned up.
The idea was to question her but the opportunity never arose. We were not even sure that the named woman ever existed.
In the end the local person who claimed to have bought the property backed off. He never tried to occupy the property. It was said that he offered the dead woman’s brother a sum of money to acquire the property.
There have been numerous other cases. In Guyana there are many absentee landlords. Properties are left abandoned because the owner probably died intestate. And the descendants being reluctant to take control for fear of others barging in to make a claim, simply let the property remain idle.
It would be interesting to see how many such properties were sold without the knowledge of the owners or their heirs.
There was a case in South Ruimveldt. Someone attempted to sell a piece of property. As fate would have it, someone notified the heirs and they came to Guyana. They were provided with the name of the person who attempted to effect the sale.
There was a confrontation. The person selling the property had no way of claiming ownership. This matter was put into the hands of the police.
I am not clear about the law when it comes to property fraud. One lawyer told me that if someone successfully sells a property that is not his, the rightful owner would be hard put to get it back. Whether this is so, I cannot say.
What I do know is that it appears to be easy for people to get a fraudulent copy of a title or transport from the Deeds Registry. On one occasion, the Registrar actually said that if someone produces the necessary identification then he or she can be provided with a title, something we call transport.
If the property being fraudulently acquired owes back taxes then the person seeking to acquire it would only have to pay the taxes, produce a receipt and the deed is done.
But there are people at City Hall who would be hesitant to accept taxes from people other than the owner. I know this.
One of my sisters owns a property in Lodge. Another sister lives in it. When the sister occupying the property attempted to pay the taxes City Hall wanted to see documentation from the owner. It was not until City Hall took the resident to court for outstanding taxes that the matter was resolved.
Another way some real estate agents go about acquiring property is by way of applying for prescriptive rights. Unless the owner is there to challenge, the applicant can succeed.
This situation caused the government to modify the legislation concerning prescriptive rights. No one can get government land on an application for prescriptive rights. Property owners are not so protected.
It is worrying. Unless I am vigilant I could be sitting in my home and get a visit from someone claiming to have bought the property. This could end badly because an individual having paid his money for the property, would not be averse to using force to acquire what he believes is his.
The police are often reluctant to become involved. They would simply ask the parties to face the courts. Meanwhile, the lawful owner, having been evicted by someone with more might, would have to seek alternative accommodation until the matter is resolved one way or another.
It was a good thing that my long dead grandmother kept all her documents. She was not very literate but she knew what she got to establish ownership of her property. Her meticulous hoarding of such documents helped establish that she owned land at the back of Beterverwagting.
Justice Gino Persaud proclaimed in the court, last week, that the fact that people were able to present transports helped them stave off a challenge by private investors to acquire lands that were rightfully owned by my grandmother and now her heirs and descendants.
