New building to house deeds and commercial registries in Essequibo, Berbice
Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C.
Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C.

ATTORNEY-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., has announced that the construction of a new building to house the Deeds and Commercial Registry in the county of Essequibo is part of his ministry’s 2022 agenda.

Nandlall, during his weekly television programme — Issues in the News — stated that the new building will accommodate the operations of the registry in a spacious edifice to enable greater efficiency at the office.

“This year also we will be building a new building on the Essequibo Coast that will house the Deeds and Commercial Registry in a spacious physical edifice. Right now, the operations are housed at the bottom of the Essequibo High Court in very cramped conditions,” he said.

The new building will be budgeted for in the 2022 budget, the Attorney-General said. In addition, the Ministry of Legal Affairs is also exploring a similar initiative for the Deeds and Commercial Registry in the county of Berbice.

“Later in the year we are hoping that we can do the same for New Amsterdam as well where the Deeds and Commercial Registry authority is housed beneath the High Court of New Amsterdam,” Nandlall said.

“Again, the conditions there are not acceptable, and it affects efficiency and the staff being able to competently discharge the functions of their office and we are hoping that we can secure a property this year and begin to work on acquiring a new building to accommodate that facility in the county of Berbice,” he added.

The Deeds Registry is an important aspect of the operations of the country’s legal system, particularly in relation to the property as a registry of deeds is where documents that establish property ownership are recorded in official books.

A registry of deeds is often consulted when the history or background of a property needs to be researched, especially in connection with the purchase and sale of a property where both the seller and the buyer need to confirm that the property can be legally transferred from one party to the other.

“The Deeds Registry is a very important institution in our country whose significance, sometimes, is not fully appreciated. It was created in 1919, nearly one hundred years ago, and it performs various and varying functions,” Nandlall told the 34th Sitting of the Tenth Parliament in January 2013.

He told the House that the registry is the repository of all transports; the institution that administers all conveyance in relation to transports; the institution that executes all mortgages passed in this country and it is the official repository of all mortgages.

Further, he had explained that it is the institution where all powers of attorney are recorded and kept, where all patents and trademarks are filed, where all deed polls are filed, where all miscellaneous deeds are filed, where are debentures are executed and filed, where all companies are incorporated and where all business registrations are done.

The Purpose of the Deeds Registry is to efficiently and expeditiously administer the laws enacted by Parliament affecting land, whether by way of transport, leases, mortgages or any other alienation thereof, powers of attorney, contracts and other deeds.

The Commercial Registry is mandated to provide accessible and responsive service and to ensure an adequate system for the administration of the laws enacted by Parliament relating to companies, business names, partnerships, bills of sale, trade unions, trademarks, patents and design, geographical indicator and copyright.

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