Buying land and building on it?

[Chris Runciman]

We have been offered a plot with an incredible view in a village on a 20 year re-newable lease. Has anyone and experience of this? We know the people and the village very well now having been there 4 times . I have seen other houses built and under construction by the same family company.
Having heard horror stories about land being sold without title etc.( I am advised that this is not the case here ) I would like to benefit from any feedback from the group.

[Julia C.]

Hi Chris - I can't give you any feedback as I have no experiance of this, but just wanted to say how exciting!!!
I'd love to know where the plot of land is, but I understand that you might not want to make that public at the moment. Do let us know how it all goes.

[Brian Taylor]

no matter how lomg or good you know this family, do nothing without a local lawyer. you might only now part of tha family and just before you get ready to sign another branch of the family tree shows upand everything is upside down again....
wish you luck with your project

[Joanne Kassie Foehner]

I totally agree with Brian et al. No matter how incredible it sounds, find yourself a good attorney either in Tobago or Trinidad.

Better be safe than sorry!

[Gisela Grell]

Dear Chris,

like Julia I don't know much about this but I thougt about buying a house or a piece of land there years bevore and everybody told me to engage a lawyer.
Good luck and let us know how it works.

I am jealous!!!!

Cheers

[Helena]

Hi Chris

I have been through something similar, in that I bought land and then built a villa on the land, in Bon Accord. We were perhaps fortunate in having lots and lots of really good guidance from Caribbean Estates and Richard Wheeler at Lex Caribbean (lawyer). We bought land from a developer, who had himself purchased the plot with a plan to build on it. Ultimately, we agreed on what we wanted and now have a wonderful villa, which we use whenever we come to Tobago, but also rent out. (website coming soon!)

If you need any more info, I'd be happy to help. Mail t'other half on studiomunch@mac.com

Helena

[Brian Taylor]

having a little secret advertiser here, do we?!
by the way that is one of the reason it gets harder for foreigners to buy land. they say they build a house for their holidays and soon start business in between... dey no like dat here...
still all the best for chris project... keep us informed if you made it or got ripped of...

[Helena]

Nope, not at all. I am just explaining what I did when I went through a similar situation. There are lots of nightmare stories of people getting ripped off, which would be terrible for Chris to have to go through, so just thought it might be helpful info! I am certainly not endorsing either organisation mentioned!

For the income that it generates in rentals, it certainly isn't a business but rather much appreciated considering the increase in visitor numbers and the availability of accommodation. It means that there are lots of tourists around to go on tours

[Brian Taylor]

did not mean any offense... thought I signaled that with the laughing smiley!
did not say we have a problem with it... just explained how many people here see it. a lot of villas belong to foreigners and people fear that they are not increasing the number of visitors, but take them from local businesses, keeping most of the money made in some other country. that makes it more and more difficult to buy land from private persons here.
let's talk about tours in private or almighty steve sends us a virus