A Viable Solution to Land Ownership Conflicts?

Marina Reconco, has been selling food from her home for almost 40 years in order to earn a living. These earnings have allowed her to pay for her property, however, she has recently found out that it is not over yet. She still has not be given the official property title for her home in Flor del Campo.

Despite her disappointment in hearing this, Marina expresses that she has new hope of finally having her property title in hand. “They say that this is going to become a reality because of the new order that was added to the law in January,” says Marina. She goes on to say that although she does not understand the actual order mentioned, her hope, as well as that of her neighbors in Flor, is tied to it.

Flor del Campo: The Practice Run

A new land embargo was put into effect on February 16, enabling Flor del Campo residents to receive their rightful property titles, but not without having to pay for it.

Honduran President, Ricardo Maduro, stated that this new embargo was put into place in order to legalize the land ownership in areas that for past decades have been unofficially occupied.

Flor del Campo was listed as one of the communities where land disputes have been going on for over many years between the City Municipality and Attorney, Oscar Siri Zúñiga, who both allege that the land belongs to them.

The main purpose of this new embargo is to resolve the problematic situation that families, who do not have their official property titles yet, find themselves in.

How Does This Work?

The new embargo will help determine who the legitimate property owner is when various parties allege that they have legal rights to the land, which, has been exactly the problem lived in Flor del Campo for the last three decades. There are at least six landlords who allege to be the owners of the land which this community is located on.

The Flor del Campo community covers over 500 acres of land, worth over 42 million Lempiras ($2.3 million) according to an appraisal made just this past February.

Advantages Of The Embargo

All agree that the new embargo is the most viable way to enable Flor del Campo community residents to get their rightful land titles after years of living with conflict and uncertainty.

The glimmer of hope found in the middle of this complicated process is that while the trial between the supposed land owners continues on a normal course, the residents will still be able to pay for their property and once the payment is finalized, they will obtain their official land title which cannot be disputed.

Despite some of its benefits, however, the idea of having to make new payments has developed into a major headache for the thousands of individuals who have already paid for their land. Many will have to begin payments again in order that their property title be extended.

Residents Reactions To New Payment Plans

“We already paid the City for this land. I don’t think its just that they would make us pay all over again for our small piece of land,” said Marina when during the interview she was asked if she knew that with the new embargo she would have to repay a percentage of her property to officially extend her land rights.

We look again at Marina’s situation, who only a few years ago finished paying for her small piece of property in this marginalized neighborhood. She describes what the community was like when she first moved there, “When we came here, more than 20 years ago, there weren’t roads, electricity, phone lines, water, nothing.” She goes on to say that it does not seem just that she should have to pay for her piece of property all over again.

After being given this new information, Flor del Campo residents are left with many questions: What are the parameters in which this new payment will be established? Many fear the amount that they will have to pay will be more than their current income.

How Much Will Residents Have To Pay?

The Property Law establishes that the price of the land will be determined by three different accountants who will have to come to a majority agreement on the price estimation of the land. There not being an earlier agreement, whatever price the accountants come up with will be considered the current value of the land. If between the three accountants the difference in price estimation is greater than 20%, the Superior Accounts Court will determine the final price.

There are three main criterion set up to determine how much residents will have to pay for their land: 1) The social value –how much the residents originally paid for the land 2) commercial value –how much the land is now worth 3) catastrophic value established by the municipality.

Using this criterion a new price will be determined for the land in Flor del Campo that residents will have to pay. City officials assure residents that payments will be very affordable and that a plan, agreeable with both parties, will be established between community representatives and the bank administering the payments.

What Those Involved Have To Say

Although this new land titling process is well under way, those who are familiar with the issue say that since the process is full of problems. There still exists a lot of doubt in the system.

“In order to create real jurisdiction the ideal would have been that the Institute of Property Ownership and the Cityhad exchanged information,” says Attorney Ramón Echeverría, Head of the City’s Legal Cabinet. However, he assures that the City has never considered itself the owner of this land throughout any part of this process that was initiated by the Property Institute.

Echeverría goes on to say that when one area of the city (such as Flor del Campo) is handled differently, the Institute Property Ownership must be upfront about these plans and how they will be developed before they are declared official. The public need to be given an opportunity to express whether or not they agree with the.

In this particular situation, the people were not asked their opinion. Echeverría points out that a lot has already gone wrong, which, he believes could lead to more problems in actually facilitating the distribution of official land titles.

Conclusions

Despite the fact that the process presented looks like the best solution to this very old problem on paper, in reality, it boils down to nothing more than good intentions where immobilization, politicization, improvisation and even corruption are allowed to flourish.

AJS Attorney, Gilda Espinal, says, “Not even the State was prepared for this issue to be resolved so quickly, nor the banks who are responsible to administer the payments for the titles, and even less so, city residents, who still have not come to understand the important role that they play in this new land titling process that will finally determine how much they will need to pay to become official owners of the property they live on.”

Other experts say that the process will be very worthwhile and informative for city authorities. They hope to learn from the process in Flor del Campo in order to improve it for administering land titling in other communities in similar situations.

It will be necessary, says Espinal, that city residents actively take part in the process and that above all else, demand that it be transparent in order to learn from its mistakes.

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