TCIG Announces: New Crown Land Ordinances brought into force 

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands-Thursday 1^st June 2023 – The Crown Land Unit, Lands Division of the Attorney General’s Chambers is pleased to announce that the provisions of the Crown Land (Amendment) Ordinance 2023 and Crown Land (Residential Conditional Purchase Lease) (Arrears and Mesne Profit) (Amnesty) Ordinance 2023 are now in force as of today Thursday 1^st June 2023.

The amendments to the Crown Land Ordinance, designed to assist Turks and Caicos Islanders to better access and utilise Crown Land, seek to –

• permit the exchange of land in cases whether the Government has used private land, or a private landowner has used Crown land under a mistaken belief that there was an entitlement to that land and had relied on that mistaken belief to its detriment, subject to certain conditions set out in the Crown Land Ordinance.
• extend the period during which a successful applicant is given to accept an offer letter for the purchase of the freehold title Crown land from 3 months to 6 months.
• permit, where the holder of an expired Registered Residential Conditional Purchase Lease has passed away, the Executor or Administrator of the deceased’s Estate to apply to regularize the land, provided that the property was being used as the primary residence of the deceased.

The Crown Land (Residential Conditional Purchase Lease) (Arrears and Mesne Profit) (Amnesty) Ordinance 2023 is a new piece of legislation creating a new amnesty for persons who owe arrears in respect of Crown land.  This new amnesty seeks to provide for an amnesty period of two years to allow persons to choose one of the new terminal options recommended by the Crown Land Review Report to regularize residential conditional purchase leases and to write-off the arrears and mesne profit in respect of residential conditional purchase leases.

As a result of the above, for a period of two years commencing today, June 1, 2023, a person who holds a current registered residential CPL or a person whose residential CPL has expired but who remains the registered leaseholder or the Executor or Administrator of the Estate of the registered leaseholder, will be able to apply to the Crown Land Unit to –

• Convert a CPL to Freehold title without having to pay anything owed to the Crown (arrears and mesne profit)
• Pay for a freehold title in installments, subject to certain conditions.
• Convert a CPL to a long lease subject to certain conditions.
• Shrink, reconfigure, or in exceptional case exchange parcels as a preliminary step to exercise one of the other terminal options to acquire freehold title.
• Apply for a Utility Service Certificate, where he/she is the holders of a registered but expired CPL holder to apply in order to apply to a utility authority for utility, telecommunication and other services.

The Honourable Attorney General Rhondalee Braithwaite Knowles OBE KC, commenting on the changes stated, “It has been a long and challenging road to arrive at this watershed moment in working with the TCIG and the UKG over three administrations to realise the Turks and Caicos Islands’ Government’s desired goals in this area and we look forward to continuing to roll out other advancements during this financial year as we operationalise more sustainable policies for the use of Crown Land while at the same time establishing more user-friendly processes to enable Turks and Caicos Islanders to benefit from Crown Land, especially to improve housing security in the Islands.”

The Premier Honourable Charles Washington Misick commenting on the amendments to the Crown Land Ordinance stated, “I welcome this first step in a series of actions taken to regularise and facilitate ease access to residential Crown land by qualifying Turks and Caicos Islanders.  While it has taken a while, I am happy to have achieved this step. I encourage qualifying Turks and Caicos Islanders to act quickly to avail themselves of these opportunities during the two years that are being offered.”

Holders of registered Residential Conditional Purchase Leases are encouraged to take advantage of The Crown Land (Residential Conditional Purchase Lease) (Arrears and Mesne Profit) (Amnesty) which is limited to a period of 2 (two) years only, thereafter, strict compliance and enforcement action will be taken to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Crown Land Ordinance so that land is available for use by other Turks and Caicos Islanders.