After raising chickens and working alternating day and night shifts to build her own home, single mother Subrina Ragubir says she is now paying rent again and faces an order to demolish the concrete house because housing authorities say she constructed on the wrong lot.
In a TikTok video, Ragubir described the sacrifices she made to leave rented accommodation and questioned how she was expected to finance another home. The Ministry of Housing, however, maintains that she occupied a commercial parcel which was never allocated to her and denies that its surveyors misdirected her.
“Do you know what I went through to pay for this place and build?” Ragubir asked.
She said she reared 200 chickens while working shifts, tending to them when she returned home as she struggled to finance construction.
“As a single parent, these people don’t care. They don’t care,” she said.
Ragubir said she obtained her house lot in 2023 after waiting approximately 17 years. She referred to documents which, she said, showed that she paid $1.1 million for the land, and described further expenditure to prepare the swampy location for building.
She maintained that she followed the instructions given to her when identifying where to construct. According to her account, it was only three years later that officials told her she had built on a commercial lot instead of her allocated residential parcel.
“After three long years, do you know how much I do at that place?” she asked.
In a statement issued yesterday, the Ministry of Housing and the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) said Ragubir was allocated residential Parcel 394 at Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara, but built on Parcel 460, a designated commercial lot.
“The Ministry categorically rejects any suggestion that its surveyors misdirected the allottee or showed her the wrong house lot,” it stated, adding that Parcel 460 was never identified, assigned or allocated to her.
The ministry said its monitoring and enforcement team discovered the unauthorised construction and subsequently engaged Ragubir on the steps required to address it.
A Notice of Contravention issued on September 18 gave her one month to relocate to her allocated lot and demolish the structure. The period expires on October 18.
Ragubir said she was told that if she did not demolish the house, officials would do so. She expressed concern about her belongings and repeatedly questioned who would help her rebuild.
“My place is a concrete place,” she said.
The ministry said Ragubir requested ownership of the commercial parcel but that the request was denied. It also said that during an engagement with a ministry staff member at Better Hope on September 24, she admitted being aware that she had constructed on the wrong lot.
Ragubir acknowledged in her video that officials had informed her of the discrepancy, but disputed responsibility for it, maintaining that she had followed their instructions.
According to the ministry, arrangements have been made for surveyors to identify and show her the allocated residential lot. It said she was also provided with a Steel and Cement Housing Subsidy voucher to assist with commencing a foundation there.
Ragubir questioned how the assistance would replace the house she had already financed and built. She said she was back in rented accommodation, with no resolution to her concerns about rebuilding.
She also complained that attempts to obtain assistance, including approaching a minister at a community meeting and contacting her through social media, had not resolved the matter. A secretary subsequently told her that officials were looking into it, she said.
“So we don’t have a voice in this country,” Ragubir said.
The ministry’s statement did not address her account of the costs incurred in preparing the land and building the house, or who would meet the expense of replacing it.
It maintained that an allocation did not permit an allottee to occupy another parcel and urged persons to confirm the precise location and boundaries of their lots with CH&PA surveyors before starting construction.
Discussion