A pressing issue at Kadaster has thankfully been solved. The acting head has been on sick leave for close to a month and there was no authorised conservator to approve mortgage deeds and land transfers, hampering civil notaries and real estate agents, but also others trying to buy or sell property.
Moreover, the already-cash-strapped government was missing out on revenues from transfer tax and other fees. All the related business for local banks, insurance companies, contractors, etc., had been on hold as well.
Finance Minister Perry Geerlings issued a decree to formalise the temporary appointment of Robert Boekhold as proposed by the Supervisory Board effective July 24. It’s only for three months while a permanent successor is sought, but can be extended if necessary.
The signing off on pending deeds and other relevant documents, including certificates of admeasurement and building permit information, has meanwhile been resumed. Hopefully this backlog can be eliminated sooner rather than later.
As pointed out in a letter to the editor on Thursday’s opinion pages, had the problem persisted much longer its negative impact on the island’s crucial recovery process could have been substantial. Such a development would no doubt hurt the investment climate and ultimately the island’s tourism economy.
Questions remain how and why the situation was even allowed to come to this in the sense of not having a readily available replacement in function, but for now a major crisis appears to have been averted. Better late than never.
