M&CC to enforce occupational certificates for buildings

The Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) will be clamping down on businesses operating within the capital city or those subletting from an establishment without the requisite occupational certificate.

Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine informed during a press conference on Tuesday that the city’s bylaws state that businesses should possess an occupational certificate, issued by the City Engineer’s Department, before operating on the premises.
This extends to sublets operating out of malls and other similar businesses. Despite being in effect for some time, the Mayor acknowledged that it was not enforced by officers of the municipality. A committee was identified to tackle this issue and will be meeting today, June 29.
“The laws here are very clear and I believe there will be a special committee meeting. The committee will deliberate and give a way forward. We will go after those buildings because the laws are very clear before you occupy any building within the city of Georgetown. If you’re going to rent a sublet within a mall, that individual has to get an occupational certificate from the city, which comes at a fee,” Narine outlined.
Persons are required to notify the City Engineer before a building is occupied, so it can be inspected. If it operates according to the bylaws, a revaluation of the property will be requested and thereby increasing the taxes to be paid. Once the taxes are paid, the certificate will be issued.
According to the Mayor, this will reduce the number of persons paying residential taxes despite operating a business from their property. The Committee handling this matter will deliberate before deciding on a fixed fee for acquiring this certificate.
“It wouldn’t be plenty of money, maybe $5000 or $10,000. The fee may be an administrative fee to process and so on.”
Nevertheless, Narine pointed out that the Council will approach the court for businesses that fail to provide this document once enforcement commences.
“If you do go ahead and occupy that building, the Council or the City Engineer has to move to the court so that you can be able to justify why you went ahead without following the laws of the city of Georgetown. We will move to the court to have the building closed,” Narine stated.