MINISTER with responsibility for land titling and settlement Robert Montague has charged that some Jamaicans are abusing the adverse land possession arrangement.

“Some have made an industry out of it,” Montague said Tuesday while making his contribution to the 2026/27 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives.

“While we as a Government support the productive use of land, we do not support wholesale and speculative possession,” said Montague as he urged landowners, including those living overseas, to exercise ownership of their properties.

“We appeal to you to visit your lands, fence it, use it productively, pay taxes or sell it. But do not just abandon it. Do not leave it to chance” added Montague.

Under the present rules, persons occupying Government-owned (Crown) lands can move to acquire the property if they can prove continuous and undisturbed occupation for 60 years.

For privately-owned land, adverse possession can be pursued after 12 years of open, undisturbed occupation.

Montague told the House that the Government is examining how it can refer adverse possession applications to a local adjudication committee for its input.

“This along with the property watch service will help to level the playing field. But the best remedy is for you to use the land productively. We want our lands in production,” he insisted.

Montague had earlier told the Parliament that under a new e-titling system being implemented, landowners will be able to watch their property so that they will be alerted if someone applies to title their land.

“We want to encourage landowners that they must watch their properties and make economic use of them. Paying a little tax does not solve the adverse possession challenge, landowners must also occupy and use their lands,” Montague emphasised.

He explained that the e-titling system will also help the Government by more accurately identifying idle lands.

“Digitising the processes will also help us to identify and flag informal subdivisions whenever we are updating the valuation rolls,” noted Montague who underscored that land titling is a time-consuming exercise.

He explained that there are two major streams for titling: systematic and voluntary or ad hoc.

Under the systematic land registration process, the Government provides surveyors to survey every parcel of land in an area, pays lawyers to do the applications, and produce the title.

At that point a caveat is lodged against the title until the landowner repays the money the Government spent. However, no interest is applied and the payments can be made in instalments.

“The voluntary or ad hoc process is when you have land in an area that’s not declared as systematic, so you do your own survey, pay your lawyer or the Land Administration and Management Programme (LAMP) to do the application,” the minister explained.

He pointed out that a surveyor’s loan is available to occupants of small parcels of land who face challenges finding the surveyor’s fee.

“We are therefore proposing a revolving fund where land holders of two acres and below can apply for a surveyor fee loan. Once the applicant applies through LAMP, a NLA (National Land Agency) trained lawyer or recognised land management services company, they will qualify and the funds will go directly to the surveyor and a caveat lodged against the title so that taxpayers will recover the money.

“This will greatly help many families who cannot afford to pay a surveyor,” said Montague.

He shared that meetings have been held with churches, “and we are working with them to utilise the window that has been established to help get untitled church lands titled”.

“We have trained their lawyers, have listened to and helped to identify the issues as they refer the parcels to us. We are confident that church owned lands, including schools, clinics and community playing fields will eventually be titled and we hope the churches will join us in encouraging others to get their titles,” he said.