‘This is so wrong’

Wooed by the prospects of living in a gated community with a promise of several amenities, residents of Culloden by the Sea in Whitehouse, Westmoreland, have been left holding the bag in an unsecured scheme with several undeveloped properties targeted by squatters and thieves more than two decades later.

The residents, many of whom have returned to the country to retire after working overseas, expressed their disappointment and frustration to The Sunday Gleaner, hurt that their dream of owning a house on the rock for a quiet, peaceful, comfortable retirement has been upended.

According to them, development firm Tropical Sunshine Properties (TSP) Limited reneged on its commitments, leaving the homeowners in the lurch.

“What we expected is not what we got. We thought by this we would have a proper gated community,” said returning resident Marsha Mitchell*. “People are coming in from all ends, tying their animals and squatting on unoccupied property. My home has been broken into enough times for me to want to go back to the US where I lived in a safe community.”

Added to that, she said that the residents have been struggling with water issues and were told “to deal with the water issue as a homeowners association, and just like that, Tropical Sunshine washed their hands from the development”.

“We are caught between a rock and a hard place,” lamented Mitchell. “I never knew I could feel safer in a foreign country than in my homeland, even after the millions of dollars that I spent to build my home.”

The residents say they have made several unsuccessful attempts to discuss their concerns with former government minister and attorney-at-law Ronald Thwaites, who not only represented the vendor TSP in the sale, but also acted on behalf of several purchasers.

“My wife and I were the first to buy property in Phase Two of the development in 1998,” said Caleb Burke. “Mr Thwaites and I signed the agreement for sale on June 4, 1998. He actually acted as attorney for the buyer and the seller in my case.”

Burke recalled that at that time, the residents were being encouraged to form an association for the future management of the scheme.

Promises made

“During these few initial meetings, it was clear that some owners felt strongly that promises made by TSP had been broken and many questions and concerns had remained unanswered. Infighting among owners, or by those looking after their own interest, did not help the cause either,” he said.

It was also discovered that commitments on the sale agreements differed in many cases. When the details of the scope of the proposed development was being given to prospective buyers in 1993, for example, a purchaser was promised a seven-acre beach park, with an 18-hole championship golf course. The letter was signed by TSP Peter Probst and identified Thwaites as the TSP chairman. Other buyers were offered a five-acre beach park, but this never materialised and was eventually sold by TSP.

Companies Office of Jamaica records name Thwaites and his daughter, Mary, among the shareholders. The former education minister was registered to TSP on September 1, 1989, the same day the company was officially incorporated.

However, in his response to questions by The Sunday Gleaner, Thwaites described his interest in the company as “minor”, but said he remained a director in the now-inactive firm.

“Design of the scheme, construction and marketing of the lots were not part of Daly, Thwaites & Company’s remit,” he said, referencing his law firm. “Those professionals at the time are not and were not represented by or affiliated with my firm.”

But the residents do not believe Thwaites can wash his hands of the matter with that explanation.

“He was very involved in the establishment and management of the TSP scheme. Although this would not be part Daly, Thwaites & Company’s remit, as a director, chairman and shareholder of TSP, he would be directly responsible for the actions of professionals involved in design, marketing and construction of the TSP scheme,” Burke argued.

Prospective buyers were advised that “roads, water supply and other facilities are now being introduced and outline approval of the scheme by government authorities has been obtained”, and that each lot would be supplied with metered water from the National Water Commission’s (NWC) 12-inch service on the main road, but very few owners have reliable, potable water from the NWC.

Carmen Wright* has since aborted construction of her three-storey dream home and returned to the US.

“I cannot return home without basic supplies such as water, road and street light. Returning home is still a dream for me, but even after spending millions, I can’t,” she told The Sunday Gleaner from her home in the US Midwest.

“I have thought of putting it on the market, but I have a conscience. How could I do this to anyone, knowing the conditions?” she added. “I have told my friends and family not to return to Jamaica. We are not accounted for … . We are not welcome.”

On November 8, 2002, Chairman Thwaites advised the residents that the company was arranging for water from the main along the highway to be lifted to the top of the property and to be available to all lots, but this never happened.

“The National Water Commission has been asked to make individual meters available to all lot owners and each homeowner should approach the NWC to make their own arrangement,” he said a decade later in a memo to all residents on June 25, 2012.

“The ongoing maintenance and governance of the Culloden scheme resides, by contract, in a community organisation, which, to my knowledge, was established, an executive democratically elected, vested and empowered to manage the affairs of the homeowners in the community ... ,” Thwaites told The Sunday Gleaner.

“All legal obligations to purchasers have been completed in accordance with signed contracts,” he added.

In need of rehabilitation

The roads in the higher elevations of the property have also been in need of rehabilitation, but in the said document, Thwaites advised the residents that the then Westmoreland Parish Council (now Westmoreland Municipal Corporation) had agreed to take over the scheme roads, but this could not be confirmed when The Sunday Gleaner contacted CEO Marvalyn Pitter. She declined to comment on the matter without documentary proof that this was so.

But one local government official familiar with the matter said that it was highly unlikely that a council could agree to take over a development that had not completed its infrastructural work.

“Taking over means that the developer would write to the council and inform them that the infrastructure work is complete, an amount would be agreed on and paid over to the council, who would then take responsibility for the maintenance of roads, garbage collection and so on, but every developer knows that it is their responsibility to have the requisite infrastructure in place before the scheme is handed over, so it is very unlikely that such an agreement was reached,” the source said. “The developers are obligated to ensure that their clients are satisfied. You are developing a scheme. You have to put in all the necessary infrastructure that people can live comfortably before the council can take over any development.

“Signage, proper drainage, water, light, you name it. It must all be in place because they know that if the council should take over something that is incomplete, it is like giving basket to carry water and will cost the council millions of dollars, so it is the responsibility of the developers to do that.”

But having waited more than two decades, residents are prepared to wait a bit more before deciding on their next course of action.

“Where does the uncertainty leave the residents who have invested and continue to invest millions of dollars into the economy?” asked Wright. “No water, many unkempt bush lots, squatters, bad roads, no proper beach access as promised, and one can walk away? This is so wrong.”

* Name c hanged.

mark.titus@gleanerjm.com