A Law for a Public Social Registry is proposed as a solution to the legal problems of tenancy in urban areas

The Problem
The negligence of municipal authorities and the court, added to the voracious ambition of many who have declared themselves owners of municipal land, impedes the public enjoyment inherent in public land and deepens the poverty of thousands of Hondurans who have not been able to legalize their plots of land in the marginal neighborhoods where they live.

Sociologists explain that the indifference to problems like illegal land tenancy generates social conflicts that should be attended to quickly by local and central governments, something that has not happened in Honduras.

Illegal land tenancy is one link in the long chain of poverty afflicting thousands of Hondurans. It is largely an urban phenomenon involving men and women who moved to the city from the countryside seeking to improve their precarious living conditions. These men and women came to the "big city" to settle large tracts of land on the edges of the city, with the understanding that these were municipal lands. However, many of the landowners proclaimed themselves the owner of these lands and initiated long court processes to claim their rights, which has slowed the legalization of the land.

The courts' role in the process has not served to facilitate solutions to the conflicts. Rather, the courts have become an obstacle because of the use and abuse of legal resources to impede the expediate handling of the problem.

Lawyers consulted by Revistazo.com urge the creation of mechanisms to guarantee quickly and securely property rights for the most vulnerable members of society. It is a situation that merits urgent action to avoid social breakdowns that will generate greater social problems in the future, they suggest.

In Honduras, more than half a million citizens live on the edges of legality, not by choicel, but because the authorities have not shown the political will needed to solve the problem.

The Proposed Solution

The Association for a more Just Society, together with leaders of the neighborhood councils affiliated with CODEPASC, have produced a proposal for a Law for a Public Social Registry-based on the experiences of neighboring El Salvador, a country very similar to Honduras and with more extreme problems due to the insufficiency of land to meet the growing demands of the population-that would be a viable solution to the land tenancy problem.

The law has been drafted, revised and agreed upon by recognized lawyers who have analyzed similar laws in El Salvador, Peru and Mexico. The proposal offers legal solutions that fully integrate these population in the economic and social development of the country.

In Honduras, according to statistics from business institutions, unregistered investments and properties are worth upwards of $12.9 billion. "The amount is eight time greater than figure of net international reserves deposited in the Central Bank of Honduras," revealed Jacobo Regalado, president of COHEP.

It is also three times greater than the Honduran external debt ($4,600 million) and two times more than the value of exported goods and services from 1998 to 2000. The majority of unregistered goods are illegal, as is the case with the properties on which more than 30,000 families have built their homes in the capital of Honduras.

There would be many benefits from a Law for a Public Social Registry. It would propel the resolution of illegal land tenancy problems and it would reduce the social tensions generated by thousands of people living on land they do not own.

The neighborhood councils in the affected neighborhood have already begun the process that will allow them to present the proposed law to the Congress for their immediate approval and execution.

BASIC POINTS OF THE PROPOSED LAW

· It is a law for order in the social interest that seeks to resolve definitively the problem of land tenancy in urban areas only.
· It guarantees the enjoyment of land rights in urban areas that have not been registered over long periods of time with the Registry of Real Estate due to the undefined legal status of these properties.
· It is a law to applied in urban areas, where there are evident, grave problems with illegal tenancy of land claimed by some over the claims of others who believed the land to be municipal land.
· It creates a Public Social Registry administered by the Secretary of State in the Department of Government and Justice that would have the purpose of guaranteeing the enjoyment of land rights acquired through any title, given that the general legal requirements for issuing titles have been fulfilled and that the registration of the title has not been denied or restricted.
· It creates Registry Offices in the municipal offices that would be in charge of executing the process of registering properties tied up in years of litigation, once the legal stumbling blocks are overcome in establishing the law. These offices will open only in those municipalities that demonstrate a grave problem with the legality of land tenancy within their jurisdiction.
· The proposed law establishes the mechanisms to be implemented to settle land litigations between those who claim ownership and those who occupy the land.
· It establishes the financial mechanisms to support the new administrative structures and defines how the application fees for land registrations will be used:
o Financing for the Central Registry will be budgeted by the Secretary of Government and Justice.
o The operating costs for the Registry Offices will be absorbed by the municipalities in which they operate.
o The State will receive the income from the registration fees and the municipalities will receive the income from legal transfer of properties and the corresponding property taxes.

· It establishes norms and restrictions for the process of registering properties:

Assets that may be registered:
o Real estate rights for urban areas whose area does not exceed 500 square blocks.
o Only one lot may be registered per person in each municipal district, with the exception of those who possess multiple lots through inheritance.

Prohibited registrations:
o The registration of land rights already properly registered in the Registry of Real Estate
o The registration of rights to movable assets
o The registration of personal rights
o The registration of rural properties
o Attempts at real estate claims that affect national resources
o The registration of real estate claims acquired through purchase or through any title issued by the Registry of Real Estate would not be admissible because of the restrictions issued by the registry and because these cases would not fulfill the requirement established in this law.

Requirements for registration:
o Title on which the claim is based
o Map of the property
o Receipt of registry payment for the property

· It is clearly established that the procedures and terms of the present law trust in the Law of Administrative Procedures, and conflicts should be resolved through the administrative procedures to avoid resorting to litigation.
· When an application for registration is entered with all the necessary documents, a resolution must be issued within the indicated timeframe. If the office does not issue the resolution in time, the application will be considered accepted.
· If an individual's claim to land is verified in a dispute, the National Congress should issue a decree regarding the expropriation of the property for the public good and the city should pay the owner the municipal value of the land.
· Once a dispute is resolved, the interested party may solicit registration of the title in the Registry of Real Estate.

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—Index—

Title Search Reveals that the Zúñigas do not own the Land in Dispute

Unregistered property in Honduras totals $12.900 billion

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Siri Zúñiga could get 100 million lempiras due to the negligence of the City

A solution is proposed to the legal problems of tenancy in urban areas