Land Registry rumblings

MILLIONS of dollars' worth of land deals are jeopardised by the poor functioning of the systems used at the Land Registry at South Quay, Port of Spain, alleged the Abstractors Association of TT at a news briefing yesterday.

Association president Wendel Rigsby and vice president Bobby Ramsahoye joined former minister Peter Taylor, an attorney, at his office on Maraval Road, Port of Spain.

Amid allegations of ministerial neglect, Taylor declared himself de facto Minister of Legal Affairs, saying, “Al-Rawi may reign, but Taylor governs.”

Rigsby said many people who were buying property could end up losing their initial deposits if they were unable to do a title search within the required 90 days.

Further, he said if an attorney declared a plot of land to be free of encumbrances, but this was on the basis of a faulty search at the Land Registry. when in fact the land was subject to a mortgage, the attorney could find himself in deep legal liability.

Rigsby said that while previously many people could have been fitted into a room to do a mostly-manual search for land-title recorded under the Real Property Act, today this has been limited to three people at a time, some whom may need to do hours of work there.

While saying this change was blamed on the need for security, Rigsby disputed this justification, saying the public in an enclosed area could be adequately policed by the staff.

Secondly, Rigsby said while previously 20 people could be accommodated to use computers do another type of search for common-law title, today this is limited to the use of just six computer terminals. He urged that that number should be restored to 20.

He said while it is fine to promise a new computerised system of searches, until then the existing systems must not be allowed to crash.

Rigsby explained that a land registry is not a phone book, but that each deed represents a bundle of rights, with one land plot possibly having freehold, leasehold and petroleum rights. He said several senior counsel had asked him in amazement why staff had not yet walked out in frustration.

The situation facing search staff at the Ministry of Legal Affairs building on South Quay, he said, was “chaotic, hard, nerve-racking and strenuous,” while he lamented that registry sub-offices at San Fernando and Arima had shut down, creating the strain of diverting the general public to the Port of Spain office.

Saying the date for the registry to move to the AGLA Tower had been pushed back from July to September, he urged the authorities to let staff know what was happening. Further alleging that every day something is changed in the office’s layout or procedures, Ramsahoye said the authorities must explain, saying nothing had come of meetings held with the AG.

“One day women staff were banned from using the toilet after 3 pm. Every day something changes. On Thursday the cashier broke down.”

In contrast to his term heading that ministry, Taylor lamented seeing individuals line up under the sun in a queue snaking around the building and onto Abercromby Street. He said the Land Registry, along with the Civil and Companies Registries. together made up the country’s nerve centre and economic life blood, and urged the association to lodge a complaint to the Ombudsman.

Taylor said he had left the office working well in 2010 and his successor. Prakash Ramadhar. had likewise done well, but today the office has regressed.

“Businessmen and private citizens are being held to ransom. Millions of dollars may be lost.”

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