TWO ELDERLY women who have lived at Parris Tenantry, Scarborough, Christ Church, all their lives are in a quandary because they have no security of tenure for the land, even though they paid up money for ownership under Government’s Urban Tenantry Programme.Eloise Sandy and her neighbour, who did not want to be identified, both completed payment back in 2004 to former attorney-at-law Mortimer Clarke, but they never received their title deeds.To make matters worse, Clarke was disbarred two years ago for misappropriating a client’s money, and the women said they had not been able to reach him since then, even though they had sought assistance from the Bar Association and the Registrar of the Supreme Court.Sandy, 80, produced receipts showing that she paid Clarke more than $9 000, while her neighbour paid more than $7 000. The Urban Development Commission (UDC) apparently paid the remaining monies on their behalf.The women said they were very upset because all of the other tenants living in the tenantry had received their title deeds.“All of us consulted Mr Clarke but the others went and got other lawyers and did not tell us anything. I called the land registry and was told that the titles are not registered,” Sandy stated, pointing out that it took her two years to pay Clarke all of the money.“We went to the Bar Association and they advised us to get another attorney to write Mr Clarke. We did that but he never responded to the lawyer. We also went to the registrar and we were informed that he was written but he never replied to them either,” she said.The mother of three said she also complained to the UDC but it informed her that it had paid its half of the money and could not pay it out again.Sandy said what upset her more was that the landowner’s attorney had since written them informing the rental for the land was in arrears, so now they were each paying land rent again. “I paid him my money faithfully. I want somebody to go for me and find Mr Clarke and face him and ask him what is his intention – to give me back my money or the title deed.
“I just want to know if he think it is fair what he did. I study that so much that my pressure went up. I does pray for him every night because I know that God’s payment is better than man’s,” the elderly woman cried.When contacted at his home, Clarke explained that the reason why the two women had not received their deeds was because there was a problem with the layout of the tenantry.He charged that another tenant, whom he also represented, had blocked a path, and as a result the land had to be surveyed again, so he decided “to stop things” until that situation was sorted out.“They complained for me to the Bar and the Bar told them that what I had done was the correct thing,” Clarke stated.He said that the two women had a new attorney and he would speak to the attorney to see how soon the matter could be resolved.“I can have it resolved for them on or before September 30,” Clarke promised.