THE EDITOR, Sir:
SOME YEARS ago the Titles Office was inefficient and sometimes corrupt, with bogus titles being produced, documents lodged being lost and difficulty being experienced in retrieving titles, deposited plans and other documents. The department was crying out for changes.
About four years ago the department was reorganised under the National Land Agency, executive agency status. There was phenomenal improvement in document retrieval, processing of titles application, registration and mortgage and transfer and the ambience of the office, which came along with the phenomenal increase in user fees.
There were also procedures put in place which is unnecessarily hostile to the customers and seem to be only beneficial to the Titles Office staff. This had lead to numerous confrontations with customers and the delivery of the worst customer service I have seen from the Titles Office in my 30 years of using the department.
After much complaint from the Land Surveyors Association of Jamaica (LSAJ) and the Bar Association, which culminated with a meeting at the Knutsford Court Hotel with senior management, there were some concessions given and certain changes made.
THE REFUSAL
However, because of the refusal of some middle managers to even listen, much less entertain any action, the glaring, inefficient customer service is being exacerbated.
In an effort to have an improvement in the customer service, I wrote the Registrar of Titles and the Director of Surveying and Mapping (DSM) outlining the many policies that contributed to this poor service, with suggested changes, which would lessen the confrontation with customers and staff members. I got a reply only from the DSM which states "we are acting on your letter."
Instead of seeing changes in customer service the Titles Office has seen it fit to post signs in the office stating that boisterous behaviour, abusive language etc. will not be tolerated from customers. The Titles Office cannot see that the necessity of this notice, for an office that is not dispensing mind altering drugs, is an indictment on the poor customer service that they deliver.
However, with the examples below no wonder management expects bad behaviour from the public.
Although the Titles Office closes to the public at 3 p.m., they stop accepting requests for title searches at 2:45 p.m. Even if you are in the cashier line for 30 minutes waiting to pay for the search fees, one particular cashier is refusing to process your request unless someone from the search section vouches that they will do the search.
RIGMAROLE PROCEDURE
Because of the rigmarole procedure to get your refund for title search when the title is not found, many repeat users of the service accept a credit note for use on another occasion. However, a policy has been instituted that the credit note cannot be used unless a manager for the section authorises it on the search request form. If none of them are available you have to pay again and use the credit note another day (this is due to an auditor request, I am told).
A request for a general title search (i.e., when no volume and folio is known) costs $800 with copies made of all pages of the title if it is located. However, if the land is found to be unregistered you are told so, and no refund is given. If, because of some legal requirement or otherwise, you need documentary proof of that fact (i.e., a copy of the request form stating so) the policy is that you are required to pay another fee to obtain it.
As many government agencies only respond to roadblocks or media exposure, I am doing so now (after unsuccessfully trying other avenues), hoping that this will prod the Titles Office management to implement the many no-cost policies, that will allow a few of the frontline staff to improve their customer relation skills and improve the service delivery at the Titles Office.
I am, etc.,
AINSWORTH DICK
Commissioned Land Surveyor
