30/01/2026
The Committee on Disaster Recovery, Infrastructure and Planning was the host of a robust, wide-ranging discussion on heirs property, prolonged probate, and vacant/abandoned historic properties.
Attorney Karabo Molyneaux-Molloy began Thursday’s marathon meeting. She explained that heirs’ property refers to land passed down from generation to generation “without clear estate planning or recorded transfer.” This reality makes it difficult for property owners to borrow against property, access permits, and undertake necessary renovations.
“It is a structural condition of ownership that explains why properties become stuck, deteriorate, and especially in historic districts, become vacant and abandoned,” Attorney Molyneaux-Molloy stated. The situation in the Virgin Islands is compounded by “informal” succession practices, high rates of off-island migration, and a “dispersed population of heirs.”
Attorney Molyneaux-Malloy outlined a cycle of loss associated with heirs' property, including loss of wealth and missed opportunities to “pass on something to the next generation.” She also noted that “tax delinquency grows” and properties are no longer maintained, contributing to the blighted areas that many Virgin Islanders know so well. Squatting, the attorney said, is another “symbol of unresolved title and probate bottlenecks.”
The Committee on Disaster Recovery, Infrastructure and Planning was the host of a robust, wide-rangi...
