Paid for the Land, Still No Deed: Codrington Estate Tenants Say They Have Waited More Than a Decade

• Residents of former Codrington estate lands in Barbados say they paid but never received title deeds
• Some say they have waited more than ten years
• Tenants say they were not told about a low-cost legal route through the National Housing Corporation
• The trust’s executive secretary says it wants every qualified tenant treated fairly

Families living on former Codrington estate lands in Barbados say they paid the Codrington Trust for their plots but still have no title deeds, Barbados Today reported in September 2023. The affected areas include College Savannah, Blades Hill, Consett Bay and the districts around the Lodge School. Some residents said they had been waiting more than a decade.

The Codrington Trust administers estates that Christopher Codrington left in the early eighteenth century to establish an Anglican theological college. Many of the families on the land have rented or farmed there for generations.

Speaking for the tenants, Junior Mayers and Ras Ian of the Tenants and Farmers Union said residents had not been told about an affordable legal route through the National Housing Corporation, which the report put at $10. They also alleged that some tenants had paid more than they should have under the freehold and tenantry laws. Barbados’ 1980 Tenantry Freehold Purchase Act lets eligible tenants buy at 10 cents per square foot after five years, and the Agricultural Holdings (Option to Purchase) Act of 1983 allows agricultural tenants to negotiate a price.

Kevin Farmer, executive secretary of the trust, said it was prepared to work with residents and the government. “The Trust looks forward to working with all tenants along with the relevant ministries of government in ensuring that those who are qualified are given their fair and equitable share and that no one is disadvantaged,” he said.

The complaint will sound familiar to many Jamaicans: money is paid for a church-linked plot, and the paperwork never follows. A receipt is not a title. Anyone buying land from a church body, trust or estate, whether in Barbados, Jamaica or elsewhere, should confirm who holds the registered title, get a surveyor’s plan, find out which tenancy or freehold laws apply and what they allow, and make sure the transfer is registered. Without that, a family can pay for land and still not legally own it years later.

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