Court action against errant land developers...

25 and 15 acres, respectively, were acquired by Navigant Builders Inc., while Windsor Forest Inc. acquired 40 acres.

Queensway was sold 35 acres of land at Block 22 A, Block Y Golden Grove. This newspaper was unable to ascertain in which year the purchase was made.

A total of six developers purchased land in the Little Diamond/Great Diamond area. Queensville Housing acquired 12.5 acres; A&R Jiwanram Printery Inc, 7.64 acres; RayDan Housing Enterprise, 16.9 acres; Hi Tech Construction Inc., 20 acres; and Romel Jagroop General Construction Services, 12.5 acres. All of these purchases were made during the year 2014.

Last on the list was Mohamed’s Enterprise, which purchased 14.94 acres of land in the same area in early 2015.

These lands were supposed to be developed for the construction and sale of homes.

Since the APNU+AFC administration took office in May, 2015, the 18 developers who bought almost 600 acres of prime housing lands, stretching from Providence to Golden Grove, have been repeatedly warned to get their act together and to honour the agreements that they had signed with the CH&PA. The recent court action to reclaim land sold to one of those developers, businessman Brian Tiwarie, is a clear sign that the Authority is serious.

Saul had told this newspaper in an interview earlier this month that while the Authority intends to take legal action to repossess the land from the errant developers, he would urge the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to ensure full tax collection from those who have opted to sell the lands allocated to make a sizeable profit.

A court action has already been filed to repossess the land sold to Tiwarie.

According to the available information, Tiwarie had signed an agreement via his Sunset Lakes Inc Company with the CH&PA to purchase and develop the 100 acres of land at a cost pegged at $475 million. He paid a quarter of the sum and had six months to pay off the balance.

In 2014, Tiwarie went into partnership with Chu Hongbo of Baishanlin and it was agreed that Chu would pay him US$8 million and develop the site. As part of the agreement, Tiwarie would also get to keep some of the house lots in the gated community for his personal use.

However, Tiwarie took Chu to court in 2016 for the balance of US$4 million on the agreed purchase price. It is unclear if this matter has been settled.

A local bank which gave a loan to the new owners of the land is also seeking to recoup its money.