Titles Office goes online

In addition to the online facility which allows customers to check the status of their applications, the Titles Office has also embarked on the conversion of Bound Title Volumes and other documents to electronic format, for placement on its website.

Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister, Daryl Vaz, made the disclosure during his contribution to the 2008/2009 Sectoral Debate on Tuesday, May 12.

Mr. Vaz said the government’s drive to streamline the operations of the Titles Office, comes against the background of an understanding of the emotional impact of land ownership on the vast majority of Jamaicans, who have a history of marginalization and exclusion from land ownership. He said the country could not hope to build a strong economy based on social justice, or to improve the quality of life for the Jamaican people without fundamental land reform.

The Minister said that only 55% of the land parcels in Jamaica are registered and that this should not continue, as Jamaicans need to have legal titles to their property. He said the government will be targeting focused interventions in every aspect of the land titling process, with emphasis on how quickly and fairly unregistered parcels could be brought under the Registration of Titles Act.

Minister Vaz said the public will be the ultimate beneficiaries of these new measures, which include significantly reduced turnaround times and the elimination of the possibilities of fraud.