New legislation afoot to deal with persons failing to build on govt. issued house lots

Sep 06, 2017 News

Guyanese who are issued house lots from the government are given a specific time by which they must begin constructing their homes on the land. However, a number of persons would have failed to honour this obligation even as there

Junior Minister of Communities, Valerie Adams-Yearwood

are thousands that want land on which to build their homes.
As a result, Minister within the Ministry of Communities with responsibility for housing, Valerie Adams-Yearwood, has announced that in the new year, legislation will be taken to the National Assembly to address the issue of persons failing to build on their land within the stipulated time, which is six months.
The Minister visited the Region Two Democratic Council (RDC) on Thursday to address the housing concerns of residents. “The agreement that you are going to sign, gives you a certain time by when you have to start building, and by when you have to pay.
“So you have one month to pay half of the cost for the land and you have six months to pay off the balance. You don’t have to wait for the six months; as soon as you get the money bring it. The earlier you bring it, the better, so that we can begin to process your title.”
She added that persons have a period of six months to one year to start building their homes from the date they were issued the house lot. The Minister said that upon visiting the region it was observed that there were a number of house lots on which nothing is being done.
“We’re gonna take a piece of legislation to parliament early next year to deal with that, because if people don’t want it, don’t come and just collect it and put it down. Other people want it. Wait until you are ready and then come for the house lot.”
The Minister explained to the residents that the CH&PA will be constructing 40 houses in the region. Twenty of those will be elevated units while the remaining 20 will be single flat concrete two bedroom units.
She said that the single flat units will be approximately three feet off the ground. She advised residents that regarding the elevated units, if it is their desire to enclose the downstairs area, they can do so at a later date.
“The two-bedroom concrete flat costs $6M for the house and $100,000 for the land; the elevated unit costs $7M and $100,000 for the land. That’s a deal because if we are to put in the cost of the roads, the cost of the drains, the cost of the electricity and water, it is going to go way above that but Government is subsidizing the cost of the infrastructure.”
She explained to the residents that the money being used to build the houses is through a revolving fund. “So what is happening if you want one of the houses, we give you a letter; you take it to the bank— Republic, GBTI and NBS are already on-board with us.
“When the bank approves, it will give you a letter saying it has approved and when they (CH&PA employees) come you give the letter to them which means you have qualified for a house.”
The issue of land that would have been sold years ago to private citizens and developers and left unattended without any sign of construction has been described as unacceptable since there are a number of persons that would have applied years ago and still cannot be given a house lot.
The latest figures coming out of the CH&PA is that there are over 20,000 live housing applications in the system.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, Chief Executive Officer of the CH&PA, Lelon Saul, said that the Authority is currently engaging some private developers that have not honoured their end of the agreements signed with the CH&PA. He said, too, that some of these developers still owe the Authority money for the lands that were handed over.
One such case is the land that sold by the CH&PA to Sunset Lakes, a company owned by businessman and contractor Brian Tiwarie in 2014. That land, a total of 100 acres was sold to Tiwarie for approximately $440M.
However, eight weeks after that transaction, Tiwarie who owned the company, Sunset Lakes, sold it to Bai Shan Lin for $1.6B.
Making the repossession difficult is the fact that Sunset Lakes has announced that it is in receivership and is being advertised for sale.

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