Basseterre, St. Kitts, August 05, 2021 (SKNIS): Minister of Agriculture, Honourable Alexis Jeffers, endorsed the passage of the Land Registry Act (Validation) Bill, 2021, which successfully moved through St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly on Thursday, August 05, 2021.
The Bill validates the Land Registry Act #10 of 2017 and gives retroactive effect to the provisions of the Act, otherwise known as the Land Registry Validation Bill, 2021.
“This is so important because many times persons will purchase a property, for example, not being aware of the difficulties that are associated with that particular piece of property or tract of land. But after all of the necessary transactions are completed … then it is found out that someone would have made a mistake at some point in the past by noting or registering the previous owner’s name incorrectly, and so this leads to various difficulties,” he stated.
Minister Jeffers noted that the Bill is most appropriate as it helps to eliminate some of these contentious issues that may arise with matters related to land sale, inheritance, and the like.
The minister added that the staff at the Land Registry will also be empowered with the necessary procedures and processes enabling them to function efficiently when performing their duties.
“We hear about the ease of doing business as articulated by the World Bank. One of the areas that is important to ensure that we have good management of is our property registration and our land database. It has to be in the best possible shape that it can be in order to ensure that we are improving our ease of doing business in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis,” Honourable Jeffers added.
As a spin-off, the minister said that over time, lives and livelihoods will be improved as real estate management will facilitate increased development. Legal processes will also be expedited, as attorneys can submit the necessary documents online.
“All of the persons who have been looking forward to some improvement in this area of the years, the improvement is now about to come to you and by so doing we are hoping that this will open up an area whereby we can say the real estate sector will improve and certainly the delivery will be much more timely,” Minister Jeffers expressed.
The Land Registry Act (Validation) Bill, 2021, was passed unanimously by the National Assembly.
