Gifting Land in Jamaica for Natural Love and Affection

Those words only explain why the land is moving: a gift within the family rather than a sale. They do not, on their own, remove the transfer tax, the stamp duty or the registration fee. Tax Administration Jamaica may assess the gift on what the land is worth, whatever the family wrote on the form. Any relief has to come from the law itself, and the facts have to fit it. Where a valuation is needed, the owner obtains one. A transfer written up with a token value comes back, and the family pays for the work twice.

A parent who adds a child to the title is not holding a place for later. The child owns a share of the land from the day the transfer is registered. That share counts when the land is sold or mortgaged, when a marriage breaks down and when the parent's estate is settled. A promise that the child will give it back one day is not the same as keeping ownership. Once registered, the gift is made.

So the first question is what the title should say afterwards: the whole of the land to one person, a defined share or the land in joint names.

Where two or more people will own the land together, the title records how they hold it, and the two ways lead to different places when one of them dies.

• Joint tenants: when one owner dies, the land passes to the survivor and the death is noted on the title.
• Tenants in common: each owner holds a share, equal or unequal, and a share does not pass to the other owner. It goes into the deceased owner's estate.

A family that chose without thinking finds out when a parent has died and a sibling discovers the house has already passed to someone else, or that a share is locked in an estate that needs a court grant.

A gift cannot be registered around a mortgage or a caveat sitting on the title. The lender or the person who lodged the caveat has rights that must be dealt with before the transfer is signed. Sign first and search later, and you hold a document the Titles Office will not register.

An owner living overseas can sign. The witnessing and authentication needed depend on the country, and a transfer signed the wrong way comes back. A power of attorney is needed only if someone else is going to sign for the owner, not merely because the owner lives abroad.

Your attorney searches the title, settles with the family what it should say afterwards, advises on the tax and sees the transfer through stamping and registration at the NLA. The rules for registering a transfer are in the law that governs registered land in Jamaica, the Registration of Titles Act.

If you are thinking of giving land to a child or putting it in joint names, come in before anyone signs. Bring the title to the first meeting and we will tell you what the gift involves and what the title should say afterwards.