fp Turks and Caicos

The fourth and latest Crown Land Allocation Register was released Nov. 1 showing how government land has been granted to individuals and companies over the years.

Since the U.K. suspended elected government in August 2009, there has been a moratorium on granting Crown land while a new policy was developed and approved earlier this year. However, Crown land advisor Jon Llewellyn told the fp that the moratorium could be lifted by the end of the year if necessary laws are enacted to put the new policy into force.

Meanwhile, nearly 300 transactions including leases and grants have occurred since the moratorium for several reasons, Llewellyn said:

• People who already had conditional purchase leases satisfied their leases and received title to the land
• Expired leases were recorded when all fees and rent arrears were paid
• Extensions of expired conditional purchase leases once all fees and rent arrears were paid
• Contractual grants were made under existing agreements with developers and the former TCI governments

Many of those transactions are included in the latest Crown Land Allocation Register, which adds 500 transactions not previously published in the last update in November. The newly added transactions include 318 on Grand Turk, 86 on Providenciales, 62 on South Caicos, 22 on North Caicos, six on Salt Cay, four on West Caicos and two on East Caicos.

Now totaling approximately 4,500 transactions dating back to 1968, the register is a work in progress and is updated as new information is available. Because of inconsistent record keeping in the past, many Crown land allocations may not be included in the register.

The register and accompanying maps are available on the Turks and Caicos Islands Land Info website (www.tcilandinfo.tc), a joint effort from the Survey & Mapping, Land Registry, Land Valuation and Planning Departments. The information is available as a PDF document and as a spreadsheet for computer analysis.

Owners of parcels listed in the register may already have changed. Information on current ownership is available from the Land Registry upon application and payment of a fee.

The Crown Land Unit is encouraging everyone to help with this process. If your name, or the name of your company, has been included in error in this register, let the Crown Land Unit know in writing in order that the error may be corrected.

If you have not been included in the register but have been the recipient of Crown land, or if there is an error in the spelling of your name, please inform the Crown Land Unit in writing at:

Crown Land Unit
Government Square
Grand Turk

or at:

Crown Land Unit
Palmco Building
Leeward Highway
Providenciales

The register has a single record for each time a person or corporation obtained a lease or grant of Crown land.

Parcels transferred to multiple owners will have an entry for each owner in relation to the same parcel. Someone who obtained a lease and then purchased their freehold may have two entries, one for the lease and one for the grant (or transfer) of Crown land.

Prices or rents shown do not imply that actual payments were actually made as arrears may exist.

Click here to read the Crown Land Policy