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Housing and You…Selling your house lot/property and those scams
By Leonard Gildarie
Over the past two years, we have been focusing especially on moving from being without a piece of real estate to owning a lot, to eventually constructing a home.
Construction to a greenhorn like me was like pulling a tooth, a maddening process that I dread going through, ever, again.
I moved in when the grout was still wet on the tiles and barely three months had passed since actual construction had started. It was in time for the Christmas, just over three years ago.
In some cases persons pay huge sums for vacant land, but that land does not belong to the seller
During the past week, I was in constant contact, like normal, harassing my friends down at the Housing Ministry on complaints that we would have received.
The Ministry has been very receptive to hearing about some of the complaints. I have forwarded emails our readers would have sent and the Ministry has been following up on them. At least, that is what several of our readers have confirmed.
The Ministry has been facing a major problem which it seems to be getting a handle on.
However, even one incident is one too many.
According to Housing Minister, Irfaan Ali, and his Land Administration Manager, Denise Tudor-King, there are still instances where citizens continue being duped by some very enterprising fraudsters.
In one case, a man is believed to have hit his victims for as much as $80M. Wanted bulletins have been issued for a number of fraudsters and several matters are currently before the courts.
Tudor-King disclosed that over the past two years alone, there were about 20 cases in which false receipts were presented to the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA). Some of the documents falsified included even interview letters and acknowledgements, along with allocation letters.
In all cases, the fraud was detected by the control systems in place at CH&PA, the operational arm of the Housing Ministry. In layman’s terms, this means that every time that CH&PA sends any correspondence, it is tagged against your application that is on file. So if you turn up with an interview letter that was made up by someone else, you will get caught.
According to Minister Ali, CH&PA has been battling to tweak its systems continuously to prevent fraud, but the reality is that attempts have been made time and again.
One ingenious operator claimed that he had contacts in CH&PA to get a piece of land. The customer doesn’t even have to attend the application. He would present an application form to the unsuspecting person. The fraudster, the Minister said, would even take the person to the Ministry, and have them wait outside. The fraudster would go inside and pretend to meet with his contact and then come out with an allocation letter or maybe even what looks like a title to the land.
The documents were, of course, manufactured. The monies would then be paid over to the fraudster and he disappears into the sunset.
Still, persons would pay huge sums for vacant land in mainly new housing schemes. The only problem is that the land does not belong to the seller.
But there is another type of illegal sale of house lots. This particular one is being targeted by CH&PA because it involves land that was legitimately acquired.
Under CH&PA’s regulations, house lots acquired through its application process cannot be sold before 10 years. But many persons have sold their land. Those transactions are not official and are fraught with legal dangers. The property owners would sell these, giving the buyer a Power of Attorney.
CH&PA can give permission for land to be sold before the 10 years are up. The reasons can include the homeowner wanting cash because of a medical emergency or maybe even leaving the country. However, CH&PA must be satisfied and a penalty will in all likelihood be charged. This would depend on the market value of the property.
According to Ali, CH&PA has no representatives transacting its business. Rather, all applicants must visit its offices to transact these.
Enjoy the weekend and as Easter approaches don’t forget to warn the kids about flying kites close to those power lines.
Please continue to send those comments to [email protected] or call me weekdays on 225-8491.
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