Sale of $30M property to Town Clerk... Lawyer confirms transport being processed

Sale of $30M property to Town Clerk… Lawyer confirms transport being processed

Oct 09, 2018 News

Town Clerk, Royston King

While there have been inquiries about the purchase of a property located at Happy Acres, East Coast Demerara, (ECD) by Town Clerk, Royston King, officials attached to the Registry of Deeds and King’s lawyer, Andrew Pollard, SC, have confirmed that the transport for the said property is being processed as part of the sale.

The property is currently in the name of two Nadia Ramdin, 6 Glen Grove Drive, Rock Port, Maine, 04856, United States of America, and Helen Tedeschi of 2020 Walnut Street, Apartment 23B Philadelphia, Pennysylvania 19103, United Sates of America.

According to an advertisements publicized by the Deeds Registry, the overseas- based owners were represented by Power of Attorney, Chunilall Williams.

The documents were drafted on their behalf by Attorney- at-Law, Andrew Pollard SC and sworn by Commissioner of Oaths, Ramesh Persaud.

King reportedly moved to purchase the property on January 7, 2017.

The documents further outlined that “the property lot numbered 47 being a portion of Block lettered “T” known as Happy Acres, is part of Montrose and Felicity, in the La Bonne Intention-Better Hope Village District, East Coast of Demerara, in which there is a building and erections valued and priced at $30 M.”
According to an agreement of sale, King whose address was given as Lot 3279 Canal Place, South Ruimveldt Park, Georgetown, Demerara, purchased the property from its original owners through a Power of Attorney held by Chunilall Williams.

The information also outlined that some documents were drafted on King‘s behalf by Attorney- at-Law, Roger Yearwood, who is also the lawyer for the Georgetown M&CC.
Attorney Pollard confirmed that King made a down payment by way of agreement of sale towards the purchase of the house and land being sold for $30M. This agreement was signed by Pollard.

The balance of the money is expected to be paid at the passage of the transport. A ten per cent payment is made when the sale is agreed on. King therefore paid at least $3M to initiate the sale.

However the lawyer clarified that although the transaction has started it was left at somewhat of a standstill as the Town Clerk may not have made all the payments on the property.

As such the lawyer said that it is likely that the owners did not follow through with the sale and King would have forfeited his down payments.

As it stands, Pollard noted that Ramdin and Helen Tedeschi are still the transported owners of the property.

Meanwhile efforts to contact King for a comment proved futile.

He was instructed to proceed on leave last month to facilitate investigations into City Hall by the Local Government Commission, (LGC).
Questions have been raised about the $300M allotted for the Georgetown restoration programme in 2015.

Some $6.2M was expended to purchase a double cab pick-up for the city police; $52.1M for debushing Le Repentir Cemetery and $241.6M for the restoration of Georgetown.
Several payment vouchers were examined and discrepancies observed.
Auditors found 167 instances totalling $159.9M where there was no evidence of the payment vouchers.