Dozens of residents of Graham’s Hall are to pay sums of up to $400,000 to the Moravian Church in Guyana to attain transports to lands which some of them say have been occupied by their family for more than 100 years.
Questions however remain as to who are the rightful land owners and whether the church has the authority and right to demand the sums from residents.
The church has for some time claimed ownership of the lands, and has been leasing lots to residents of the area. Residents said that the leases range from about $16,000 annually to as much as $40,000 annually.
Yesterday, at the Graham’s Hall Moravian Church, members of the body’s board, including its Chairman, Brinmore Phaul, met with residents of the leased lands to hear the boards ‘proposal for the acquisition of their transports.’
“A transport shows ownership,” said Phaul, “and can be used for various purposes such as for collateral in borrowing loans. Transport is ownership.”
He was at the time addressing a group of about 20 residents who had all been leased lands by the church. The residents said that they had all been sent letters from the church inviting them to the meeting. The intention of the meeting was to convince lease holders why it made more sense to become owners of the lands which they had been leasing for a significant period of time.
Phaul explained that the process of preparing the transports would most likely take some time because of all the regulations that would need to be complied with. He said that Mayor and City Council officials would need to inspect the drainage, roads, electricity, water, and general surroundings of the community before the area was approved for the distribution of transports.
He said that all taxes owed, if any, would also have to be paid up before the lands are freed up for sale.
Phaul explained that the entire process was both time consuming and costly, and could take anywhere from six months to a year, or even more.
In the meantime, the residents were urged to clean up their lands and surrounding environment. TA Earle, former Lands and Surveys Commissioner explained that if the residents invested in cleaning much of the brush, trees, weeds, and drains, as well as built modern septic tanks this would increase the value of their land.
Some of the residents were visibly in opposition to the idea of having to pay for lands which they said had been in their families for up to 150 years and therefore questioned the rationale of having to pay what was being asked for. “Look how long we living hey, me grandmother born and dead hey, me mother born hey, and I born hey, and me is 61, if you living on a piece of land for suh long it supposed to be yours,” said one woman who said that though she lived on a lot at Graham’s Hall, she had not been officially invited to the meeting.
Earle also took the opportunity to inform the residents that occupying a portion of land for a considerable amount of time does not make it theirs. He said everyone wanted the land for free, but explained that this could not be done.
The woman said that she was told by a church representative that since she was not a lease holder she was not invited to the meeting. She said, however, that since there was an issue relating to her relative’s land, she insisted on attending.
The woman explained that her brother had shared a single lot along with her aunt, 92, who had given him permission to build his house on the land. She said that after this was done, her brother sought permission from the Church Board to build on the land, which was granted. She said that Phaul himself was the one who signed the document granting permission for her relative to construct his house on the shared lot. The woman’s aunt, who was born in the community, has subsequently died.
Representatives of the board argued that every resident had to receive permission before building their houses and said that the woman’s brother had no claim to the lot because he was never granted a lease and added that permission from the owner of the lease to occupy and build on the land was not sufficient enough to grant him ownership.
In fact Phaul denied remembering ever signing such a document granting permission to build the house, and said that he had not heard about the illegal building until after it had begun. He said that there were no formal documents to show that permission was ever granted by the Church Board to build on the lot.
He also explained that in cases where the lots were shared, as was the case in this instance, the transports cannot and will not be sold as subdivisions, but have to be sold as the single lots according to the original surveys which were carried out.
He said that in such cases the transport would most likely be sold to the person who was in possession of and paying the lease.
However residents said that none of the houses in the area were built with the permission of the council. Residents said that the land was given to their ancestors by GuySuCo, and that their ancestors had all squatted. Many questioned the validity of the church’s claim to the land, and by extension the entire idea of having to pay for a transport.
Residents also complained about the lack of upkeep demonstrated by the reputed land owners. Residents said that the Moravian church has been collecting money from them for years, yet the condition of the community remains deplorable. The residents said that the lights, roads, drains and other elements of the community remain in a deplorable condition despite the fact that they have been paying their leases.
Despite evident opposition to the idea, the majority of those in attendance agreed to the arrangement. Phaul said that lease owner will be required to pay based on the size of their lots. He said that in order to find the exact cost for each lot, the various square footage will be multiplied by 100. Therefore, in cases where a resident’s lot comes up to 3000 square feet, this will be multiplied by 100 which would bring the cost for the transport to $300,000.
He added that for those who would have been continuously paying their leases, the amount paid thus far would be subtracted from the decided upon amount to determine what the real price would be.
Phaul said that representatives from the Church Council would meet with residents individually to discuss what the prices would be. He also mentioned that prices can also vary depending on which section of Graham’s Hall the lots are located.
