By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government’s land reforms promise “a massive transformation” that will ultimately “clean out the system” and better secure property ownership rights for all Bahamians, it was asserted yesterday.

Andrew O’Brien, the Glinton, Sweeting & O’Brien attorney and partner, who specialises in conveyancing, told Tribune Business that the planned switch to a system of registered land “is an opportunity to go from a 1985 Ford pick-up truck to a 2025 model” and adopt more efficient practices that will speed-up real estate transactions and create greater certainty for all parties involved.

And David Morley, broker/owner of Morley Realty, said the land adjudication process and creation of a Bahamian land registry - the key changes that will be introduced by the reforms - will help “wash out” problems with the existing system for securing title such as the growing number of “bogus conveyances” and those failing to pay either their VAT transaction tax or real property taxes.

Both men, speaking after the Government tabled the Land Adjudication Bill and Registered Land Bill in the House of Assembly on Wednesday, warned that the changes “will not take place overnight” as it will take years - even decades - before all land parcels and properties can be adjudicated and accepted on to the registry.

However, once “in full swing”, Mr Morley said the land registry promises to be of “tremendous benefit” given that real estate-related issues touch all Bahamians at some point in their lives. And Mr O’Brien said The Bahamas would now be following many of its Caribbean neighbours who have already transitioned to a registered land system and away from attorneys having to conduct title searches going back 30 years.

The Land Adjudication Bill, if passed into law by Parliament in its current form, provides an adjudicator - who must be an attorney with at least seven years’ conveyancing experience - and two other persons with the authority to form an adjudication tribunal. This tribunal will then assess and determine claims to land ownership in a particular area designated by the responsible minister.

Once these claims are adjudicated, they will be entered into a Land Registry whose creation is backed by statute law as opposed to the present system of lodging and recording conveyancing deeds in the registry of records at the Registrar General’s Department. The two Bills tabled by the Davis administration will thus work hand-in-hand, complementing each other to bring Bahamian land administration into the 21st century.

“That’ll be a massive transformation, and I believe necessary,” Mr O’Brien told Tribune Business of the proposed reforms, “but they will probably take decades to implement fully. That’s just going to take time and resources, both qualified persons and the Government directing funds to get it done.

“I think we’ll have a two-tiered system for quite a while, but when implemented it will create much more certainty, and speed up transactions, and likely reduce the cost for consumers. It’s just a dramatic change in how land will be administered and addressed, so the process will be much different from what we have now.

“Title searches will still be necessary, but will be much quicker, easier and reliable. We won’t have to chase down the original deeds once they are accepted by the land registry. You have that measure of confidence. Rather than going back 30 years, you go as far back as the present owner to see what activity is occurring.”

Backing the reforms, Mr O’Brien added: “I definitely support the move. I think it will help commerce, it will speed up transactions and banks will have more certainty from a lending perspective. I’m sure the banking community will be happy to see it introduced, and buyers and sellers will like it down the road....

“It’s a big improvement. You can still drive your 1985 Ford pick-up truck, but this is an opportunity to have a 2025 pick-up. Let’s upgrade. Many of our Caribbean neighbours have made the transition. We know it can be done. We’ve got some templates on how it’s going to be done.

“I’m pleased to see there’s the political will to get it done, and at least get it out of the gate, and hopefully it won’t be something that languishes once passed into law because there’s a lot of effort that needs to go behind it.”

Concurring, Mr Morley told Tribune Business: “I think eventually, when the land registry is in full swing, there’s no doubt there will be tremendous benefits. One of the things a land registry is going to do is clean up the existing registry, which contains a lot of bogus conveyances. I’ve seen several, including one affecting one of my father’s companies.

“It’s amazing the forged signatures on those conveyances, and they’ve not even met the minimum criteria to get into the registry [of records]. It makes one question how they got into the registry in the first place. The land registry is intended to clean that up. Once title is adjudicated, and gets into the land registry, it deals with bogus claims.”

Mr Morley agreed that getting all land parcels adjudicated, especially in the Family Islands, “will take time” especially if competing, rival claims are involved. “The end result is going to have tremendous benefits,” he reiterated, “but one of the things I perceive is challenges with the transition period, and that’s not going to take place overnight. We all have to be patient in that regard.”

For the Government, he added that the reforms will create a land administration system that will work similar to a “blockchain”, where all real estate-relates taxes can be tied into specific properties, their assessment numbers and owners. “Everything gets tied in together as it relates to real estate becoming a very small world,” the Morley Realty chief explained.

“If anyone is not paying their transfer tax [VAT] it’s all right there. It’s all going to be cleaned out; it’s going to wash the system out... It’s all part and parcel. To me, it’s a step forward. It’s regularising the system, levels the playing field, and makes sure that, if you have title to the property, you have it. If it gets on the land registry it makes it very difficult to come back and make bogus claims.”

Mr Morley said the adjudication process will likely start with long-established New Providence subdivisions such as Blair Estates, where virtually all properties have homes built on them and competing/bogus title claims are almost zero. That, he added, will enable multiple properties to entered into the land registry very quickly, thus building critical mass. The Family Islands, though, will likely take longer.

“I think it can only benefit the property owners in this country, the Government and all different stakeholders,” Mr Morley added. “It’s good to take the first step, and I applaud the Attorney General’s Office and the Committee for moving it forward again.

“Two Caribbean countries adopted The Bahamas’ draft legislation as their own laws, and The Bahamas has still not done it. I applaud the Government for moving forward with this.” The Land Adjudication Bill, in its ‘objects and reasons’ section, explained the rationale for bringing the legislation forward.

“The Land Adjudication Bill 2025 seeks to establish a comprehensive legal framework for the systematic adjudication of rights and interests in land within The Bahamas,” it said. 

“The Bill seeks to address the long-standing challenges associated with land disputes, unclear ownership, boundary ambiguities and informal occupation of land by establishing an orderly, efficient and transparent system for the identification, demarcation and recording of land ownership and interests.....

“Ultimately, the Land Adjudication Bill 2025 is intended to promote confidence in the landholding system and facilitate land transactions by providing a clear, reliable and legally-recognised basis for land ownership across The Bahamas.”

And its counterpart, the Registered Land Bill, added: “The Registered Land Bill 2025 seeks to modernise and streamline the system of land registration in The Bahamas by introducing a comprehensive legal framework for the registration of titles to land and the regulation of dealings in registered land.

“Its primary purpose is to provide certainty and security of title, reduce disputes over ownership and boundaries, and promote efficiency in land transactions. By establishing a central Land Registry, defining the legal effects of registration, and setting out clear procedures for transfers, leases, charges and other interests in land, the Bill aims to facilitate transparent, reliable and accessible land administration across the country.”

The last Ingraham administration led similar legislative reform efforts more than one decade ago to develop a three-strong package of Bills that would have overhauled the existing system.

These Bills - the Land Adjudication Bill, the Registered Land Bill and the Law of Property Bill - would have created a land registry in the Bahamas, and given commercial and residential real estate buyers greater certainty that they had good title to their properties. However, they were ultimately shelved and no one saw fit to revive them until the Davis administration. 

Sharlyn Smith, senior partner at Sharon Wilson & Company, who co-chaired the land reform committee, in 2022 referenced an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) report which “found that 15 percent of the parcels in the country were in dispute.

“This is particularly significant given the observation that, by and large, 70 percent of the land is controlled by the Government,” she said. “That leaves only 15 percent of the land, which is in private hands, not in dispute. Expressed differently, an IDB study in the early 2000s found half the land in private hands was in dispute.”