A Church and a Boys’ Home on One Acre: The Lease Ran Out, and a Notice to Quit Followed

• A church, boys’ home and mission house sit on one acre in Martha Brae
• The land was leased to a US ministry in 2000
• The lease expired in June 2020 and a notice to quit followed
• The new owner’s side says the land can be bought for US$80,000

A church, a children’s home and a mission house in Martha Brae, Trelawny were caught in an ownership dispute in 2020 after a 20-year lease ran out, the Jamaica Observer reported. The one-acre parcel, part of a larger 10-acre property, is home to Noah’s Ark Children’s Home, a home for boys, and a renovated church building.

According to the report, Holland Farm (Trelawny) Limited, linked to the Muschett family, leased the acre in 2000 to Hour of Grace, an American organisation affiliated with Baptist Church International and run by Mack and Marilyn Locklear. For the first 10 years, the lease was set up so that payments would go towards buying the property. For the next 10 years, it was renewed at a peppercorn rent of US$1 a year. That lease expired in June 2020.

The property was then acquired by a company called Pembroceschett, and the occupants were served with a notice to quit. Custos Paul Muschett supported Hour of Grace’s position that shareholders had agreed the land would go to the ministry. David Muschett disagreed: “The title is clear and free and it was never subdivided,” he said, adding that the company owned it outright. The paper reported that the land had been offered first to the occupants for US$80,000.

The home’s new directors, Dr David Hixon and Jennifer Hixon, an American couple who arrived in February 2020 to take over from the Locklears, retained attorney Leon HoSang. At the time, 10 boys aged eight to 14 lived at the home, which has space for 20; six had been placed there by the State. “It’s been a trial by fire. It hasn’t been easy so far,” Dr Hixon said.

The case shows the risk of building a ministry on land held under a lease or an informal promise. Lease-to-own arrangements, peppercorn rents and family understandings can all work while the original people are in place, but they need to be written down, stamped and registered, and the transfer completed on time. Churches and overseas mission partners investing in Jamaican property should insist on a registered title or a properly recorded agreement before they build, not after the lease runs out.

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