Ownership of Spectacle Island under microscope
Robert Hirtle
MAHONE BAY - An Austrian hotel developer who purchased a Mahone Bay island two years ago is having his ownership of the property questioned by a local environmental group.
Bernt Kuhlmann, who reportedly also owns a resort in Colorado, bought Spectacle Island for $300,000 from a Bridgewater-based company, 115 Jubilee Road Investments, in 2001.
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Two weeks ago, a newly-formed environmental group called the Mahone Island Conservation Association discovered that the island may be Crown land and contacted the provincial government.
Association member Ron Myers said the possible discrepancy in title was uncovered when chairman Michael Ernst performed a search in Halifax in order to do an inventory of exactly how many islands belong to the government.
"We found out that there were two, and that Spectacle Island was still listed as Crown owned," he said. "We verified that. We knew there had been some recent activity on the island, so we put that in a letter and we addressed that to Natural Resources in Bridgewater."
He said he has been informed by that office that the issue has shifted from a local to a provincial matter, and said that his group will not pursue it further.
"The fact that we identified the problem and it is being dealt with is good enough for us," he said. "We feel that is a major accomplishment for our organization right off the bat."
Chris Allen of the Department of Natural Resources in Bridgewater would not speak specifically about the situation with Spectacle Island.
He said that ungranted Crown land, which is also known as land that is subject to claim, is in Crown holdings.
"Individuals might have acquired use and occupation of the land, and have acquired a deed and title that they passed on from person to person, without really going to the original owner of the land, in this case the Crown," he explained.
He said to get squatter's rights on Crown lands, an individual must express use.
"You have to have some sort of structure or be using it on a continuous basis," he said.
Mr. Allen said that with private land, a claim to title may be laid on the portion of the land that an individual is using after 20 years.
However, in the case of Crown land, it takes 40 years, a period that was just recently reduced from 60 years.
Susan Mader-Zinck of Natural Resources in Halifax said that issues such as this occur fairly frequently.
"This may be more high profile because it's an island and it's coastal," she said. "Quite often we get them through public inquiries or complaints."
Spectacle Island appears in the lower right corner of a section of a Crown Land Grant map obtained from the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources. Mona Stevens, whose grandfather purchased the island in the early 1900s, said that on a map "it looks like a peanut." According to DNR spokesman Susan Mader-Zinck, provincial records indicate that Spectacle Island is ungranted Crown land "meaning, we never gave up our title to it." Robert Hirtle photo
She said that in order for squatter's rights, or what the province calls adverse possession, to occur, there cannot be a break between two individuals using the land, "and that they were doing so without the knowledge of the landowner, such as the Crown."
She said, however, that other factors in determining continuous use are also taken into consideration.
"Some of it could be showing documentation, deeds, different things like that [or] people were paying taxes on it over the 40-year period," she said. "All those things have to be looked at, and they are actually reviewed by a solicitor."
Ms Mader-Zinck said the onus is on the current owner to provide the necessary information to prove that there were 40 years of continuous use.
"If that legal determination was in the current individual's favour, then we would do the proper legal process to extinguish our legal title to it," she said.
In the meantime, the province may post the island as being once again Crown land until Mr. Kuhlmann can substantiate his right to title.
In the event that he is unable to do so, the province would consider themselves owners of the land.
"Unfortunately, that's how it would stand," Ms Mader-Zinck said. "Like I say, it is a legal process we go through."
According to a spokesman at Service Nova Scotia in Bridgewater, readily attainable records of property assessments at their office date back only to 1979.
In that year, records show that Spectacle Island was assessed to a woman named Lahlia Freda.
Ms Freda's daughter, Mona Stevens, who currently lives in Chester, said that her mother left the island to her when she died and that she did indeed sell the property in 1991.
She said the island was originally divided into six lots and her grandfather obtained the land in the early 1900s by purchasing it in parcels from the other owners.
"He had to buy out from all [of] them to get it," she explained.
Years ago, Ms Stevens said her grandfather used to haul gravel he had removed from the centre of the island to the mainland by boat.
"There's land up on one end and land up on the other end, and in the middle it's kind of dug out," she said.
After her grandfather died in 1919, the island was passed on to her father, then to her mother, and finally to her.
"It makes me laugh, in a way, because when I sold that, I said to the real estate lady … maybe the government would buy it for a place for the public, because it has a nice little beach," she said. "She came back and she said 'I inquired, but [the government] said they wouldn't buy anything like that because it wasn't accessible to everybody,' because everybody doesn't have a boat."
She said that if she would have had the money, she would have given the island to the province.
"But the old saying is, I didn't have any money and it was nice to get some."
Efforts to contact Mr. Kuhlmann, who last year purchased another property on Main Street in Mahone Bay, were unsuccessful.
Robert Hirtle
MAHONE BAY - An Austrian hotel developer who purchased a Mahone Bay island two years ago is having his ownership of the property questioned by a local environmental group.
Bernt Kuhlmann, who reportedly also owns a resort in Colorado, bought Spectacle Island for $300,000 from a Bridgewater-based company, 115 Jubilee Road Investments, in 2001.
Continued from Page 1
Two weeks ago, a newly-formed environmental group called the Mahone Island Conservation Association discovered that the island may be Crown land and contacted the provincial government.
Association member Ron Myers said the possible discrepancy in title was uncovered when chairman Michael Ernst performed a search in Halifax in order to do an inventory of exactly how many islands belong to the government.
"We found out that there were two, and that Spectacle Island was still listed as Crown owned," he said. "We verified that. We knew there had been some recent activity on the island, so we put that in a letter and we addressed that to Natural Resources in Bridgewater."
He said he has been informed by that office that the issue has shifted from a local to a provincial matter, and said that his group will not pursue it further.
"The fact that we identified the problem and it is being dealt with is good enough for us," he said. "We feel that is a major accomplishment for our organization right off the bat."
Chris Allen of the Department of Natural Resources in Bridgewater would not speak specifically about the situation with Spectacle Island.
He said that ungranted Crown land, which is also known as land that is subject to claim, is in Crown holdings.
"Individuals might have acquired use and occupation of the land, and have acquired a deed and title that they passed on from person to person, without really going to the original owner of the land, in this case the Crown," he explained.
He said to get squatter's rights on Crown lands, an individual must express use.
"You have to have some sort of structure or be using it on a continuous basis," he said.
Mr. Allen said that with private land, a claim to title may be laid on the portion of the land that an individual is using after 20 years.
However, in the case of Crown land, it takes 40 years, a period that was just recently reduced from 60 years.
Susan Mader-Zinck of Natural Resources in Halifax said that issues such as this occur fairly frequently.
"This may be more high profile because it's an island and it's coastal," she said. "Quite often we get them through public inquiries or complaints."
Spectacle Island appears in the lower right corner of a section of a Crown Land Grant map obtained from the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources. Mona Stevens, whose grandfather purchased the island in the early 1900s, said that on a map "it looks like a peanut." According to DNR spokesman Susan Mader-Zinck, provincial records indicate that Spectacle Island is ungranted Crown land "meaning, we never gave up our title to it." Robert Hirtle photo
She said that in order for squatter's rights, or what the province calls adverse possession, to occur, there cannot be a break between two individuals using the land, "and that they were doing so without the knowledge of the landowner, such as the Crown."
She said, however, that other factors in determining continuous use are also taken into consideration.
"Some of it could be showing documentation, deeds, different things like that [or] people were paying taxes on it over the 40-year period," she said. "All those things have to be looked at, and they are actually reviewed by a solicitor."
Ms Mader-Zinck said the onus is on the current owner to provide the necessary information to prove that there were 40 years of continuous use.
"If that legal determination was in the current individual's favour, then we would do the proper legal process to extinguish our legal title to it," she said.
In the meantime, the province may post the island as being once again Crown land until Mr. Kuhlmann can substantiate his right to title.
In the event that he is unable to do so, the province would consider themselves owners of the land.
"Unfortunately, that's how it would stand," Ms Mader-Zinck said. "Like I say, it is a legal process we go through."
According to a spokesman at Service Nova Scotia in Bridgewater, readily attainable records of property assessments at their office date back only to 1979.
In that year, records show that Spectacle Island was assessed to a woman named Lahlia Freda.
Ms Freda's daughter, Mona Stevens, who currently lives in Chester, said that her mother left the island to her when she died and that she did indeed sell the property in 1991.
She said the island was originally divided into six lots and her grandfather obtained the land in the early 1900s by purchasing it in parcels from the other owners.
"He had to buy out from all [of] them to get it," she explained.
Years ago, Ms Stevens said her grandfather used to haul gravel he had removed from the centre of the island to the mainland by boat.
"There's land up on one end and land up on the other end, and in the middle it's kind of dug out," she said.
After her grandfather died in 1919, the island was passed on to her father, then to her mother, and finally to her.
"It makes me laugh, in a way, because when I sold that, I said to the real estate lady … maybe the government would buy it for a place for the public, because it has a nice little beach," she said. "She came back and she said 'I inquired, but [the government] said they wouldn't buy anything like that because it wasn't accessible to everybody,' because everybody doesn't have a boat."
She said that if she would have had the money, she would have given the island to the province.
"But the old saying is, I didn't have any money and it was nice to get some."
Efforts to contact Mr. Kuhlmann, who last year purchased another property on Main Street in Mahone Bay, were unsuccessful.
2 comments:
Mr. Kuhlman certainly can't claim possessory title since his claim dates only back to his 2001 deed. Posessory title requires 40 years of continuous ownership. In any event, it's always a shame when someone buys something in good faith only to discover it's soured for one reason or another. That being said, one would have expected the purchaser to have had a good titles earch done and that their legal counsel would have picked up the issue.
Mr.Kuhlman knew there was a gray area to this sale, but bought it anyway.Not only that, there is a certain local person who has been involved in selling crown land Islands here in Mahone Bay for a very long time. He had his Realestate license evoked for missuse.He's now involved with another man selling other Islands in Canada and the World.I don't give pitty to people who manipulate others when money and land is involved. This sort of practise has been going on for many long years.
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