High Court Judge Gino Persaud has ruled that the June 20th, 2019 decision of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) to increase the cost for a certificate of compliance to 0.5% of what at that time was the market value of the property was among other things, in excess of jurisdiction, null and void.
The judge said that the increase was not only arbitrarily made by the Council and amounted to a heavy penalty to ratepayers, but was “inordinately” high and not made in good faith; even as he noted that the M&CC seemed not have sought legal advice before making the decision.
The challenge was mounted by the Bar Council of the Guyana Bar Association (GBA) by its then President Teni Housty and Secretary Pauline Chase who had asked the Council for the reasons behind its decision, but were never given any.
