300 to get certificates of comfort

Randall Mitchell
Randall Mitchell

Three hundred squatters are expected to receive certificates of comfort by year’s end.

In a statement yesterday, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development said 18 people who had been occupying state land since before October 1998 received certificates of comfort on Wednesday from Housing Minister Randall Mitchell.

The ministry said five of these people were at an advanced stage in the squatter regularisation process and eligible to receive statutory leases. “It is expected that 300 additional Certificates of Comfort will be processed and delivered by December 2017.”

The presentations were made at the Land Settlement Agency’s Tacarigua offices.

The release quoted Mitchell as telling recipients the decision to provide them with the document was in keeping with the ministry’s mandate to facilitate home ownership for the most vulnerable.

The minister said the provision of the documents was mandatory under the State Land (Regularisation of Tenure) Act 1998.

Mitchell promised that as minister he would “ensure that the process from application to the procession of certificates of comfort is completed so that those who are qualified get the opportunity to move forward in the home ownership process.”

Mitchell, the statement said, told the new certificate holders that once they had reached the next stage of the process and were eligible to receive statutory leases, they “can pay the premium (25 per cent of the market value) for the land they occupy and become owners of a very valuable asset.”

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