Land Amendment Act a Cause for Celebration for State Land Squatters
It means they will be legal occupiers of the land.
The State Lands Amendment Act 2022 passed yesterday by Parliament is a welcome relief to Fijians squatting on State land.
It gives them certainty of their future. They now have the opportunity to be given proper lease documents.
It means they will be legal occupiers of the land. It provides security and allows them to use the lease documents to apply for bank loans to develop the land and build new structures.
The original lessees may be deceased or cannot be located. The squatters may have moved to the land in question because it was vacant or under an illegal arrangement with the lessee.
The document outlining the background to the amendment says in some instances occupants of the land have, as a result of dispossession of land or due to political upheaval or cancellation or non-renewal of their leases or licences, resorted to seek refuge on other land, for which they were not lessees under the Act.
It explains that lessees who permitted such persons to use the land in these instances, however, did not obtain the consent of the Director of Lands making the arrangement unlawful under the Act.
“Furthermore, many of the lessees cannot be located or do not have the capacity to subdivide the land which they sold a number of years ago. By amending the Act, we will be able to regularise the occupation of these lands and allow the occupants to build permanent homes through the mainstream financial system,” it says.
The Act empowers the Director of Lands to re-enter such land and
cancel any lease, licence or approval notice of lease accordingly. The Director of Lands, however, may only do this upon confirmation of a contravention under the Act by a committee set up for this purpose.
The committee will be chaired by the Permanent Secretary responsible for Housing and Community Development and include the Permanent Secretary responsible for Lands and the Solicitor-General or his or her nominee, as members.
“Section 16 of the Act provides that at the time of making an application for a lease or licence under the Act, any person who makes an arrangement or agreement to permit any other person to acquire land in respect of which his or her application is being made or any part thereof, or his or her interest in such land, and does not inform the Director of Lands of any such arrangement, cannot be a lessee or licensee under the Act and would constitute an offence under the Act.”
The law change is cause for celebration for these squatters. Some might have become victims of unscrupulous lease holders who could have taken advantage of their desperate situations.
If it actually happened, the law change would put an end to it. As the cold season sets in, the Amendment Act will bring a lot of warmth to the hearts of the squatters. They can look forward to a future of hope and confidence knowing they will now own a plot they can now really call home.