Government is expected to move swiftly ahead in clamping down on land fraud by introducing a new law that will make it compulsory for an owner to register their parcels of land.
This was disclosed yesterday by the Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi during his address at the T&T Transparency Institute's (TTTI) 2017 Anti-Corruption Conference (ACC 2017).
The conference — under the theme "Breaking Free from a Culture of Corruption —took place at the Hilton Trinidad.
The law, according to Al-Rawi, proposes to criminalise the failure to register a deed of title.
"The proceeds of crime and corruption…cash…businesses…land. Investment in fronted businesses, where you don't know who the real owner is because the beneficial ownership is not certain because you only know the legal owner," Al-Rawi said.
He said there is an abuse of land trusts because of the fact that there is no mandatory provision in T&T's laws that land trusts must be done by way of deed, therefore registered.
Al Rawi said that in addition to land trusts being registered, deeds must be registered within 12 months and if this cannot be done then the landowner would have to go to the Registry and explain why.
"Tell them why…if it is stamp duty taking long or somebody died…let the Registrar consider the application for the extension of the time and if the Registrar says no then go to the High Court for due process," Al-Rawi said.