Legislation

A Gleaner reader pointed out that Airbnbs may already fall under Jamaica’s Rent Restriction Act, a law that predates the platform. Nobody has ever enforced it against short-term rentals.

The BOJ cut its policy rate 125 basis points in a year, but commercial banks have been slow to pass the savings on. Even the central bank governor has publicly called out the lag.

Oregon’s House Bill 2964 would give congregations up to $200,000 to cover early housing costs on church land, as many Methodist churches in the region have 25 or fewer weekly worshippers.

The Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey, which financed the sale of 20 closed churches to other congregations over 15 years, announced it would leave the mortgage business after finding the loans had not always been monitored carefully.

Cameroon sealed 200 of 615 churches in Yaoundé’s 4th subdivision after a ministerial warning to unregistered congregations, in a country where only 47 are registered and approval requires the president.

The Central Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists installed a 60 kW solar system at its Spanish Town offices, cutting its electricity bill by about 70 per cent since it was switched on in March 2024.

Egypt legalised 2,815 churches in five years under its 2016 Church Building Law, with a committee of officials and church leaders reviewing unlicensed buildings and the state funding churches in new cities.

Nearly one in four United Methodist congregations, 7,659 in all, left the denomination by the end of 2023 under a rule that let them keep their buildings if they paid apportionments and pension liabilities, though some had to go to court.

A court ruled a Jamaican gated community’s own citizens’ association wasn’t a legal body, meaning it had no power to compel anyone to pay maintenance fees. The gap a new Shared Communities Act is now trying to close.

California’s SB 4, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, lets churches and nonprofit colleges build affordable housing while skipping most local permits and environmental review, with more than 170,000 acres of religious and campus land potentially eligible.

A letter writer who lives more than a quarter-mile from a church said its Sunday loudspeakers drown out conversation at home, and asked whether churches are exempt from Jamaica’s noise law.

A newcomer’s complaint about 600 night-time chimes led a French town to vote on silencing its church bells, a lesson for anyone buying a home near a church in Jamaica or abroad.

Planning and development are essential components of land use management and urban growth, particularly in Jamaica. This guide will delve…

An Observer columnist criticised the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship for opposing a push to clarify the ‘immoral purpose’ wording in Jamaica’s Rent Restriction Act, citing tenants evicted over their sexuality and asking why Christians would deny shelter.

Attorney Bert Samuels explained Jamaica’s offence of sacrilege, under which breaking into a church or other place of worship and committing a felony there carries up to 10 years, double the maximum for simple larceny.