Discuss the matter of people seeking to acquire property back home while living outside of the Caribbean and the stories become tales of horror.
And that’s true whether the overseas nationals are doctors, college professors, bus drivers or plumbers. The stories being told end up the same way: people in the Caribbean taking money from hardworking immigrants in the United Kingdom, Canada or the United States but failing to live up to their commitments.
At the top of the list of alleged abusers are some members of the legal profession who stand accused of either misappropriating the funds of overseas clients or simply not doing the work for which they have received handsome fees.
Now Barbados’ Prime Minister, Owen Arthur, has focused attention on the thorny problem, which in some cases involved large sums of money, which Bajans abroad want to invest in real estate, acquiring a “piece of the rock,” is the way they state their goal.
What Arthur wants is for the Barbados Bar Association to do something to help Barbadians who are running into roadblocks and impregnable hurdles when they try to secure title to land they have paid for.
“It is a grievance that the Bar needs to deal with,” said Arthur in an address at a meeting of the St. Philip North constituency branch of the Barbados Labor Party.
The Prime Minister told party supporters that he had received too many complaints about the way lawyers abused returning nationals on land deals.
But attorneys aren’t the only ones who stand accused of taking advantage of “returning nationals.”
Talk to Bajan grouping in London, Toronto, New York, Boston, or Miami, and the litany of woes include documented allegations of wrongdoing by relatives and contractors. Some immigrants complain about relatives taking their money to buy land but instead use it to refurbish their own properties in Barbados. Others agree to oversee the construction of houses for their relatives but start the construction to show good faith but never complete the job, leaving relatives with unfulfilled dreams, broken promises and empty pockets.
