National Land Agency Implements New Services

Meanwhile, the National Land Agency (NLA) in 2006 redoubled its efforts to be a pro-active and client-focused organization through the implementation of a number of new services to provide speedier, reliable and consistent service to its customers.

            During the year, the agency decentralized its services to address more effectively, the needs of persons in western Jamaica, with the establishment of a new regional Land Titles and Survey and Mapping Office in Montego Bay. 

            Acting Senior Deputy Registrar at the Titles Division at the NLA, Joan Walker told JIS News that some of the services that were introduced during the year included: registration of transfers, registration of mortgages, discharging mortgages, and accepting applications to register land. All of which were only done at the Central Office in Kingston.

            The new regional office has since received positive feedback from those persons utilizing the services. Customers are particularly pleased that they no longer have to travel all the way to Kingston to access certain services.

            Customers utilizing the services of the Land Titles Division of the NLA, during 2006 were also pleased with the addition of an 'express line', which was added to complement the range of services offered at the Titles Office in downtown, Kingston.

            During the year in review, the services that the organization offered previously, were improved tremendously through a complete customer service upgrade, the acquisition of a Land Registration System (LRS) with Parcel Data Management System (PDMS) software, as well as mandatory customer service training for staff. The Land Titles Division further made      significant improved turnaround times for title applications and other memorandum matters.

            In addition to faster service, these changes in service delivery have increased the agency's capacity to deal with a greater volume of documents in less time. The Division in 2006, received an average score of 81 per cent for customer satisfaction in its most recent customer service survey, supervised by the Standards and Monitoring Unit at the Cabinet Office.

            Amendments to land titles, such as a discharge of a mortgage, notation of death or marriage or change of name on a land title, that previously took several weeks, are now done within 48 hours and in some cases in one working day.

            Acting Registrar of Titles at the Titles Division, Sophia Williams informed that this overhauled system has reduced opportunities for fraud. She added that in the past, underhanded individuals could have slipped through cracks and tender illegitimate documents and “beat the system”.

            In addition, during the past year, the Titles Division officially implemented a system, called Simultaneous Lodgements, to reduce the processing time for developers.

            With this new system, there is now more synergy between the Surveys and Titles divisions and developers can get their titles in 40 days, down from 120 days.

            The agency over the past few years has taken strident steps to offer first class service to its customers.  The NLA is pleased with its improvements and intends to continue to implement new measures during the coming year to keep its customers satisfied.