FALMOUTH, Trelawny — As large-scale development accelerates across Jamaica’s Trelawny parish, the local municipal government is sounding the alarm over a growing wave of illegal land encroachment and fraudulent property reselling that threatens to upend orderly growth in the region. At the regular monthly gathering of the Trelawny Municipal Corporation (TMC) held Thursday, Falmouth Mayor and Councillor C Junior Gager issued a sharp public warning, urging all landowners across the parish to step up vigilance against bad actors illegally seizing and subdividing private property for profit.
Gager told attendees that the TMC has received multiple formal complaints about land grabbing incidents across different communities in Trelawny, including the district of Scarlet Hall, where schemers have repeatedly targeted unmonitored private land. He explained that these illegal activities often fly under the radar of municipal authorities until the encroachment has already advanced significantly, leaving rightful owners and regulators scrambling to address the damage.
“Right now, we are seeing repeated cases where unscrupulous individuals enter private land, carry out unofficial surveys, and lay claim to property that does not belong to them,” Gager said during the meeting. “More often than not, our officers only find out about these illegal subdivisions long after the work has been done.”
The mayor stressed that without immediate action from landowners and stronger oversight, Trelawny risks sliding into widespread disorganization as illegal squatting and unregulated development spreads. He urged both large and small landholders to implement routine checks of their holdings to catch encroachment early.
“I am appealing to large landowners to assign someone to patrol your property at least once a month; take a drive around your land and check for any unauthorized activity,” Gager said. “Small landowners need to do the same – you cannot afford to ignore what is happening on your own land.”
Gager warned that unregulated illegal development creates unsafe, unplanned communities that lack proper infrastructure: without formal roads, the areas cannot be effectively patrolled by police, and emergency services cannot access properties in crisis. He added that even landowners will face official action when illegal construction is discovered, noting “when our team goes to serve eviction notices on these illegal structures, we also have to notify the legal landowner, because as the title holder, you have a responsibility to monitor your property. We cannot allow Trelawny to become a parish defined by chaos and squatting.”
To illustrate how brazen these land-grabbing schemes have become, Gager shared details of a recent high-profile incident in Scarlet Hall, where a large landowner discovered that a man from St Catherine had started clearing his property for illegal subdivision. In that case, the encroacher exploited a single year of missed property tax payment by the rightful owner: the schemer paid the outstanding one-year tax bill, then tried to use the receipt as fraudulent proof of ownership to claim the entire parcel of prime real estate.
“To show you how cunning these people are, a large landowner – who we are not identifying – got word that heavy equipment was on his property clearing land,” Gager explained. “He blocked the access road and went to investigate, and found an excavator clearing his prime land to be split up and sold illegally. The rightful owner had paid his taxes consistently for years, but missed payment for just one year. That was all the window the schemer needed – they paid that single year’s tax, and claimed that gave them full right to the land. They planned to subdivide it, make a huge profit, then disappear.”
Under Jamaican law, individuals can legally claim ownership of a property through adverse possession if they occupy the land without challenge for at least 12 consecutive years. Gager noted that simple preventative steps, such as putting up clearly visible “no trespassing” signs, can block these claims and protect a landowner’s title.
Beyond warning current landowners, Gager also urged prospective property buyers to carry out full due diligence before completing any land purchase, noting that buying fraudulently listed land can lead to total loss of investment.
“If you cut corners on verifying ownership, you stand to lose not just the land, but every dollar you put into building a home or developing the property,” he said. “I hope people will take this warning seriously. Stay vigilant.”
The mayor also warned buyers to be deeply suspicious of deals that seem too good to be true, calling these obvious fraudulent schemes run by organized criminal actors. “There is no seafront land in Trelawny selling for $600,000 per lot – everyone knows that cannot be real. These are criminals running sophisticated scams. When you see a seafront lot that looks like a steal, and you hand over your hard-earned $600,000 as full payment, you are walking straight into a trap that will leave you with nothing,” he added.