The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Opposition’s Senate leader yesterday argued “nothing infuriates Bahamians more” than obstacles to land ownership amid bipartisan agreement that reforms in this area are “a vexing issue”.

Senator Darren Henfield, addressing Parliament’s upper chamber, argued that “a proper Land Registry” - something that has been debated since at least the last Ingraham administration but never acted upon - would resolve many of the issues surrounding land title in The Bahamas today.

Asserting that such concerns “must be addressed expeditiously”, he praised the Davis administration for “prioritising” this through the creation of a Land Reform Working Group featuring public and private sector figures whose identities were not disclosed.

The group’s formation had earlier been disclosed by Senator Ryan Pinder, the attorney general, who said it was consistent with the Government’s election campaign pledges. “Without wasting time, the Cabinet of The Bahamas has agreed to appoint a public-private sector committee to review land reform issues in general with a view to analysing a land registration system,” he added.

“As we all know land reform is an urgent issue, and title matters in The Bahamas, throughout the entire country, is a vexing issue to many.” He was backed by Senator Quinton Lightbourne, the Bahamas Development Bank chairman, who said many Family Island residents were unable to secure electricity and water utility connections to their homes because they possessed no title documents to confirm land ownership.

The Government’s move received backing from Mr Henfield, the former foreign affairs minister, who said the impediments to land ownership were inhibiting wealth creation among Bahamians, as well as wider economic and social development objectives.

“Access to land by Bahamians remains too challenging in a country like ours,” he told the Senate. “Land reform has been a troubling issue, a vexing issue in our country. I cannot agree more.... A lot of these challenges will go away with a proper land registry as it would give us certainty on land ownership.”

There will be, though, much scepticism as to whether a land registration system will ever get off the ground. For the last Ingraham administration led similar efforts around one decade ago to develop a three-strong package of Bills that would have overhauled the existing system.

These Bills - the Land Adjudication Bill, the Registered Land Bill and the Law of Property Bill - would have created a land registry in the Bahamas, and given commercial and residential real estate buyers greater certainty that they had good title to their properties.

A land registry would contain all information relating to a specific parcel of land in one database, including its location, dimensions, ownership interests and all encumbrances, such as mortgages and other liens/charges.

Moving to a such a system - and registration system - would remove the need for attorneys to conduct expensive, time consuming title searches that are sometimes prone to error, and move the Bahamian real estate market away from being based on “first to record” title deeds.

Many have referred to the present system as “a lawyer’s dream”, with attorneys earning a set fee - normally equal to 2.5 percent of the purchase price - for conducting title searches and providing “opinion on titles”. Those not employed in the legal profession find it virtually impossible to navigate the system as structured and perform their own title searches.

Courts at all levels have previously warned how the present land system is wide open to abuse. Appeal Court justice, Stella Maureen Scott-Crane, warned in a 2016 ruling that the Bahamian court system was susceptible to being “an unwitting pawn” in the commission of land thefts/frauds.

She said the Quieting Titles Act, in particular, was effectively being employed as a tool to steal land, given that “material facts” relating to title applications were often hidden from the courts.

Ruling on a family-related land dispute in Exuma, Justice Crane-Scott wrote that the case “exemplifies the kinds of egregious abuses - ranging from the fraudulent concealment of material facts to the deliberate manipulation of the statutory requirements of the Quieting Titles Act - which can occur in the course of quieting proceedings”.

Turning to the implications for Bahamian society, Mr Henfield said yesterday: “Nothing infuriates Bahamians more than the apparent inability for them to access land in this country. Land is expensive, particularly in New Providence, and even in Abaco I find the cost of land prohibitive.

“There’s this further frustration about the inability to access Crown Land. This really angers Bahamians. I hear it all the time as I go about politicking.” Mr Henfield said a further source of consternation for Bahamians is that foreign investors seemingly find it much easier to acquire desirable land tracts.

“Bahamians wonder why we don’t put the same energy and effort into helping them acquire land,” he added. “Putting land in the hands of a young family immediately gives them wealth. They can take their papers to the bank, a young husband and young wife, show what the land is worth and the amount of savings they have built up.”