Selling Property in Jamaica While Living Overseas

The first question is not the price. It is whether the person selling is the person on the register. Your attorney searches the title first. If an owner has died, the route depends on how the land was held. The death of a joint tenant is simply recorded on the title. The death of a sole owner or a tenant in common is different: that share passes through the estate, and the person dealing with the estate usually needs a grant from the court before anything can be sold. If the name on the title is not the name on your passport, a spelling slip, a marriage and a change of name are each handled differently, and guessing at the wrong one sends the papers back.

The duplicate may be with you, a lender, another attorney or nowhere anyone can find. If it is lost, the National Land Agency requires a sworn application explaining the loss and the searches made for it. In a suitable case the sale can be lodged together with the lost title application so the two run side by side instead of one after the other.

You need not travel. The documents can be signed where you live, in the way each document and your country require, or by someone in Jamaica under a Power of Attorney, which for land is stamped and deposited at the Office of Titles first. There is no fixed commission every seller must pay; the agency agreement is read before you sign it. At the end you receive a statement showing the price, every deduction and the balance remitted to you.

The gross price is not the amount that reaches your account. The seller's transfer tax, stamp duty, the registration fee, legal fees, the agent's commission where one is engaged, a mortgage to be discharged and anything needed to clear the title all come out of it first. The figure for each is in our detailed guide, or we go through your own sale with you on a scoping call.

Remittance instructions are confirmed through a channel you already know, never through a changed email alone.

Tell your attorney at the outset if a tenant, a relative, a caretaker or anyone else is in the property. What has to be done depends on whether that person is a tenant, someone there by permission or someone claiming a right of their own. A seller who promises vacant possession before that question is answered may not be able to deliver it. Putting someone out by hand creates a second dispute on top of the sale.

The seller's tax comes from the law that governs transfer tax, which also holds the relief and exemption rules. Our selling property page says more. Tell us where the title is and who is in the house, and we will tell you what stands between you and a clean sale.