IN Jamaica there is a hard truth many landowners do not realise until it is too late: If somebody occupies your land long enough, the law may eventually help them take it.

Many people believe that once they have a certificate of title, their ownership is untouchable. In reality, Jamaica’s adverse possession laws mean that land carrying deep family, cultural, or economic importance may eventually be lost simply because someone else occupied it long enough and the owner failed to act in time. In a country where so many people live overseas or inherit family land informally, that risk is more real than many appreciate.

The law of adverse possession was originally designed to prevent land from remaining abandoned indefinitely. In principle, that makes sense. Land should be used productively, and owners should not “sleep on their rights”.

In practice, however, the system may now place too many risks on legitimate owners and too little responsibility on those seeking to take advantage of vulnerable or unmonitored property.

What many do not realise is that the process by which ownership may eventually change hands is not always the result of a full court proceeding. Under the Registration of Titles Act (“RTA”), a person claiming title by possession may apply directly to the registrar of titles to become the registered proprietor.

While notices are required, the law still permits notice to be given through newspaper advertisements and
Gazette publications, mechanisms that appear increasingly outdated in a modern digital society. In an era of smartphones, online banking alerts, and instant communication, Jamaican landowners may lose land through notices published in newspapers they never read. That concern is especially serious given the large number of overseas-based proprietors who may never realistically come across such notices at all.

More worryingly, the RTA does not expressly require mandatory personal service on the registered proprietor in every case. Nor does it provide for modern tracing measures such as email notifications, digital alerts, mandatory attempts to locate overseas owners, or enhanced protections for deceased proprietors and unadministered estates.

The timelines for the landowner to raise an objection may also be surprisingly short. The RTA allows the objection period to be fixed at “not less than two weeks or more than twelve months”. In practical terms, therefore, a registered owner may lose land through a process initiated administratively and advertised publicly, with as little as two weeks to respond. For many, these realities create obvious risks.

What is particularly concerning is that the law may unintentionally reward opportunism. Modern adverse possession claims do not merely arise from long-term occupation. In some cases, they may involve deliberate attempts to identify vulnerable, unoccupied, or poorly monitored land for eventual capture.

Other jurisdictions have recognised these outcomes and moved toward reform. England substantially changed its law through the Land Registration Act 2002, strengthening protections for registered owners and making it more difficult for squatters to quietly obtain title to registered land. The registered proprietor must generally receive notice of the application and is afforded a meaningful opportunity to object and recover possession.

Closer to home, the Cayman Islands Law Reform Commission has also recommended significant reforms aimed at restricting adverse possession claims against registered land and strengthening certainty of ownership in a modern registration system.

Jamaica should seriously consider comparable reforms. At minimum, legislative reform should include:

– mandatory and verifiable personal notice requirements to registered proprietors;

– enhanced protections for overseas owners and family land;

– longer mandatory objection periods;

– stricter evidentiary standards for possessory claims;

– and greater judicial oversight before registered title may be displaced.

This is not merely a legal issue. It affects investment, development, estate planning, lending, and public confidence in Jamaica’s land registration system.

For landowners, the lesson is clear: Holding a certificate of title is not enough. Property must be monitored, occupation arrangements formalised, and encroachments addressed early.

For lawmakers, however, the broader issue remains unavoidable.

A modern system of registered title should not permit ownership to be lost too easily, too quietly, or too unfairly.

Joshua Page is an associate at Myers, Fletcher & Gordon and is a member of the firm’s Litigation Department. Joshua may be contacted via joshua.page@mfg.com.jm or through the firm’s website at www.myersfletcher.com.