Call for leases review
REASSESSMENTS of leased land should be done every five years and any new developments on a leased property must financially benefit landowners as well.
This was the view expressed by the head of the tokatoka o Mataiqereqere and yavusa
Nayavuamata of Suvavou Village, Atunaisa Mocelutu.
Speaking to The Fiji Times, he claimed landowners were at a disadvantage with the 99-year lease period given for residential lease of their land.
“In most cases, we lease out a residential
olot for someone to build their house on it but after four, five years’ they have developed their house and are now operating a shop, rent-a-room, or flats for rent from the same residential lot,” he said.
“When they do this, they could be earning around $800 a month, but meanwhile, they’re still paying us landowners $400 every six months. “Our yavusa is made up of more than 800 members and when that $400 is divided amongst us, a member receives 50 cents or less.”
Mr Mocelutu said in some cases, the lesee developed their residential lot and rented it or sold it to another party and when the 99 years were up, the lot would have changed hands more than once.
He claimed the iTaukei Land Trust Board (TLTB) has not been conducting reassessments of leased lots to determine their true value.
“The board should be doing reassessments every five months so that they can see the types of businesses and developments that these lesee’s are doing on the residential lots.
“If a tenant/lesee is operating some sort of business from their residential lot, then they should pay more to us landowners.
“Sometimes TLTB does the assessments, but they receive money from the lesee and so they keep the landowners out of the loop,” he claimed.
Mr Mocelutu said another issue they faced was the TLTB not giving them a breakdown of who has paid lease monies.
“They simply give us the lease money without letting us know which tenant has paid and which one hasn’t.
“This is why the lease money we receive every six months fluctuates.”
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