Undivided property law
is passed by Parliament
Only DP St. Maarten voted against
WILLEMSTAD--Parliament approved the draft law on undivided property last week Thursday. Justice Minister David Dick presented the final draft of the law after almost five years of research. He received the final advice of a committee that investigated the problem of undivided property on all islands of the Netherlands Antilles.
The draft law proposes that a judge to have the liberty to assign an undivided property or parts of it to those who are using it. The person in question must have been using the property for at least the past 10 years and residing legally in the island territory in question.
The law proposes too that persons who aren’t directly using a property, but by all indications are the rightful heirs, be named as the rightful users of the property. The law also deals with possible problems with inheritance; for example, in case the heirs aren’t willing to cooperate or the whereabouts of the heirs are unknown.
According to the Minister, problems with undivided property vary from island to island. It took years to prepare the law because each island had to be consulted pertaining to its specific problems with undivided properties.
The draft law dates from 2001 and a final draft was scheduled to be presented to Parliament on August 16, 2006. However, the Minister had requested on August 14 postponement of handling of the draft law because some issues concerning the draft law still had to be looked at regarding the specific situation of St. Maarten.
Democratic Party (DP) Member of Parliament Maria Buncamper-Molanus told The Daily Herald she still believed the proper advices hadn’t been given concerning the draft law as it pertains to St. Maarten. That’s why she was the sole Member of Parliament who voted against the law. The law was passed with 16 votes in favour and only one vote against.
Buncamper-Molanus said she had voted against because she believed the law didn’t cater to the needs of all islands in matters pertaining to undivided property. She has indication that the committee that had to do research on all the island territories didn’t perform this task. Members of the committee had indicated to Parliament that no money had been budgeted for the committee to go to the other islands and do research.
As Buncamper-Molanus has already indicated in the past, an intern at the Kadaster in St. Maarten was consulted on the draft law and the intern said St. Maarten had no problem with the law. According to Buncamper-Molanus, it wouldn’t be responsible for St. Maarten to agree to the law only based on what the intern had said.
“All Members of Parliament agreed also that the law wasn’t perfect. Subsequently my point is: Why not perfect it?” she said.
She also requested the Minister to include a special clause in the law allowing each island to implement the law whenever it is ready to do so, but this request was denied.
Throughout the Antillean community there are several inheritance properties that haven’t been divided. These are cases where people have died years ago and left an inheritance behind. However, it has become impossible to trace back who exactly has the right of inheritance.
Dick said in Parliament that there were also many cases of properties with large groups of heirs. Because of the cost of investigation of the family tree, notary, measurements of the land and registration, it is impossible to reach a proper division among the heirs.
For a judge to assign a property to the persons that are using it, separately or jointly, they must submit a request for development of the property and guarantee that they will be responsible for the cost involved.
Buncamper-Molanus said she had asked the Minister about the financial consequences of the law and had received no clarity about this. “Should you first develop the property and then go to the bank for finance? And if you are the only heir, why should you develop the property?” she asked.
She added that she had been informed by people at the Kadaster that in St. Maarten the properties are very narrow and long. This was done in the past because the properties were given for agricultural use. However, the properties often are to narrow for modern development, including requests for the building of roads.
Dick finally said that in case no heirs were found, the judge has to turn over the property to the island territory in question, one of the respective housing foundations or any other foundation. The institution that receives the property has the obligation to develop the property and give a privately-owned property or government-owned rental property to those who are using it.
If one of the heirs turns up within five years time after a decision of the court, proving that not everything has been done to find the heirs of a property, the court’s decision can be revised.
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