The National Land Agency is rolling out Systematic Land Registration, a titling method used in many countries to regularise land tenure at scale, with a stated goal of issuing 20,000 certificates of title within three years. Shalise Porteous, senior director of the NLAs Adjudication Services Division, told JIS News the process will revolutionise land title registration in Jamaica.
The method works area by area rather than application by application. The NLA identifies an adjudication project area, starting with the parishes showing the lowest registration rates, and works through it systematically, assisting residents who have lived undisturbed and undisputed on land for twelve years or more to actually obtain the title they may already be legally entitled to but have never formally claimed.
The process has real procedural teeth. Once an area is surveyed, the NLA publishes a determination of interest and an adjudication record, posted on public buildings for 30 days and in a daily newspaper, giving anyone with a competing claim a defined window to object, either to an adjudication committee or in court. If no objection is lodged, the certificate issues as conclusive.
For residents in the identified parishes, most immediately Portland and St Thomas, the shift means title registration is coming to them rather than waiting for them to navigate the process alone, a meaningful change for a country where informal, undocumented land occupation has been a structural problem for generations.
Follow Jamaica Homes on Youtube @jamaicahomes and Instagram @jamaica_homes and on Facebook @jamaicahomesnews Send us a message or email us at onlinefeedback@jamaica-homes.com or editor@jamaica-homes.com
Visit our YouTube Community ↗