Imagine this scenario for a moment.
Your boss tells you he or she wants to buy something from you. Let’s say it’s your 1963 Corvette Sting Ray, mint condition, first-edition, candy apple red. It’s a beauty.
He or she doesn’t have the money right now, but tells you they’ll pay later when the car is in their garage. This sounds strange, but you go along with it. After all, your boss is loaded; he or she is good for it.
Two years later, the largest known collector of Corvette Sting Rays loses its entire fleet in a hurricane that hit Miami, Florida. The value of your car just went up!
The boss keeps the Corvette in their garage for the next six years. They don’t really do anything with it, it just sits there. You eventually ring up your boss and ask them what happened to the money.
He or she tells you they need to drive it before negotiating with you on price. And by the way, the purchase price will be equal to the Corvette’s value eight years ago, before it increased.
Sound like a good deal to you?
Probably not.
But it is what’s happening to private landowners when government has to take their property via compulsory acquisition for road construction projects.
Soon after a new road is gazetted, maps drawn and landowners notified, the National Roads Authority can begin construction of a brand new highway.
The government agencies involved don’t need landowner’s permission; they don’t need to pay the landowner right away; they don’t even need to negotiate a price until after the road is built. The Caymanian Compass has learned there are some property owners that had land taken in the Esterley Tibbetts Highway extension who are still in purchase negotiations with government years after the road was built.
We believe this is a bad system.
The Compass understands that on a small island land for public projects, particularly roads, is at a premium. We also know the importance of these projects; we have to sit in traffic too.
However, we believe negotiations for a piece of property should, in all cases, be completed, with the landowners fully compensated, before any public works are begun on those properties. If the government can simply come in, seize land, start work and say ‘we’ll pay you later,’ what’s the point of residents owning land at all?
Also, projects that drag on for years can cause the property owners to lose money. In a case where land is gazetted for a project in 2002, where a purchase isn’t finalised until, say, 2009, the owner cannot negotiate for the real estate at its current market value.
This is simply not fair.
The Caymanian Compass has learned there are some property owners that had land taken in the Esterley Tibbetts Highway extension who are still in purchase negotiations with government years after the road was built.
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