A 86‑year‑old Christ Church pensioner has been left without a home after High Court marshals demolished the house he had lived in for three decades, despite a bid through the courts to buy the land he lived on under the Tenantries Freehold Purchase Act.
Through his attorney, Lalu Hanuman, Brian Chester of Gillian’s House, Lot 3, Walls Tenantry, Silver Sands, Christ Church, on Monday applied to the High Court for an indefinite stay of an eviction and demolition order, which was originally scheduled to be carried out on Friday but was brought forward to Wednesday.
Chester wanted the court to stop the demolition until it had heard and ruled on an urgent application for him to buy the land under the landmark 1979 land tenure law enable former plantation tenants to own the land they occupied for generations.
But Justice Patrick Wells rejected the request.
Chester is said to be staying with a friend following destruction of his home.
Chester had brought the action against a US‑based landowner Barry Clarke, represented by attorney Branford McGline Taitt, the Chief Marshal and the Attorney General.
In his court filing, Chester claimed he faced eviction because the landlord had flagrantly breached the Tenantries Freehold Purchase Act by failing to honour his obligation under the law to facilitate Chester’s purchase of the land since June 17, 2016, when an application was made to buy it.
The document said that in the interim Chester had been paying land rent, which he wanted to reclaim.
“Prior to the claimant’s right under the Tenantries Freehold Purchase Act being recognised by the Ministry of Housing on November 23, 2023, as a ‘qualified tenant’, the first defendant obtained an eviction order on June 2, 2021 against the claimant,” the claim read.
“The eviction order has lain dormant for some four and a half years until, on October 29, 2025, the claimant was informed by Ms Bernedette Williams, the marshal at District B, Oistins Magistrate’s Court, that the eviction would take place on Friday November 7 2025 and the claimant’s house would be demolished. Hence, the urgency of this matter.”
The claimant had also told the court that under the law, a Small Holdings Committee ought to handle disputes under the legislation for the District B, Oistins Magistrate’s Court jurisdiction.
“However,” Chester said in the court filing, “negligently, the state has failed to have such a committee in place. Had there been such a committee in place since June 17 2016, when the application was made by the claimant to purchase the said tenantry land and subsequently ignored, this matter could have engaged the committee and been resolved.”
Chester asked the court for a series of declarations, including that the land be conveyed to him on payment of the appropriate sums of money, that he be reimbursed all ground rent paid since 2016, and that there be a finding of negligence against the Attorney General for failing to adhere to statutory obligations to establish a Small Holdings Committee. (EJ)
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