Stop the squatters early - Property owners warned to take charge of their land
Published:Friday | June 1, 2018 | 12:00 AM
Owners of unoccupied houses and unused land are being cautioned to periodically monitor their properties to prevent squatters from taking over.
Senior director for housing and land administration at the Ministry of Job Creation and Economic Growth, Luthrine Scarlett, has found that squatters sometimes settle on properties for years unbothered.
"Even if you are overseas, or you are elsewhere, have somebody in the vicinity who is close enough to the property to monitor it, because that is part of the draw for potential squatters. They will look around and they would observe and then say, 'Oh, but nobody seems to be paying attention to that, so let me move on'," said Scarlett.
She said the squatters are often very strategic in how they go about setting up their houses, and so efforts should be made to stop them once they put up the first post.
"They normally have this thing (where) they will start with a little wiring. So they will put up posts at the four corners and will put up barbed wire around it. They then watch to see what is going to happen. If nothing happens and nobody says anything, then they move to building," she explained.
"At the very first sign of anything, like somebody moving on, take steps to move them from that early stage. Don't wait until they go and then construct a house or several houses," she urged.
A rapid assessment conducted in 2008 has found that there are about 500,000 squatters living in Jamaica. Scarlett said that while it is unfair for homeowners to lose their properties to these squatters, individuals will need to be more vigilant.
In Jamaica, a squatter can get legal claims to land through adverse possession. This means they can get a valid title for the property after living on it for 12 years, in the case of a privately owned property, and 60 years if the land is owned by the Government.
"It is really your property, and so if you leave it for 100 years, nobody should go on it, it is stealing really, but unfortunately, that is our reality," said Scarlett.
"I would urge landowners to do what you can to protect yourselves," she advised.
"Things like no-trespass signs, they might seem trivial, but you should put up your no trespass signs because that, too, is one of the considerations in addressing these matters," Scarlett said.
Director of the Squatter Management Unit, Basil Forsythe, said that sometimes squatters feed off the fear of owners who sometimes decide not to fight for their land because they believe they might be putting their lives at risk.
"If they realise that you are so afraid, that would give them more strength to do what they are doing," said Forsythe, before adding, "You can get the support of the police, especially if you have a court order."