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Homestead policy eased for victims of calamities
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Posted on Apr 14 2005
The Marianas Public Lands Authority has adopted a resolution granting relief to homesteaders affected by typhoons or natural calamities.
The MPLA board resolution authorizes the commissioner to grant one-year extensions to the compliance period given to a village homesteader whose residence is substantially damaged or destroyed by a typhoon or other natural calamity.
Under the law, a homestead recipient is required to complete a three-year homesteading period before he or she can receive a compliance certificate and quitclaim deed.
A homesteader should have built a house and occupied it within the two years after the homestead permit is issued. The law also requires the homesteader to continue occupying that house throughout the third year.
But the MPLA board noted that, “From time to time, typhoons and other natural calamities cause mass destruction in the Northern Mariana Islands, including substantial damage or total destruction to village homestead dwellings during the permit phase.”
For this reason, village homesteaders should be given relief on a case-by-case basis, MPLA said.
