Golding wants reduction of years before a person may claim ownership of government lands through adverse possession

Opposition Leader Mark Golding has announced his intention to introduce a bill to parliament when it resumes, to reduce the number of years before a person may claim ownership of government lands that they have occupied once the required threshold is reach.

Golding, also President of the People’s National Party, raised the matter at the Annual Conference of the party in Westmoreland on Sunday, noted that some families have occupied and cared for the same property for generations, “yet remain one notice or one demolition away from losing it all.”

“That is not security; hat is not dignity, and nearly two centuries after emancipation, it is not justice,” he declared. 

Accordingly, he said, it is for that reason that he has prepared legislation, entitled the Crown Lands Reform Act, “which seeks Parliament to reduce 60 years to 25 years, subject to a fair legal process.”

The current legal threshold for claiming ownership of government-owned land through adverse possession is 60 years of continuous, open, and undisputed occupation.