Our next story is about a land dispute in the Lake Garden area of Ladyville. A Belizean American Retiree is fighting against his stepdaughter, and he says he's being forced out of a home that he spent his entire life savings on.
Now, usually don't report on these types of cases because land disputes in general are very messy and involved, and, ultimately, the court is supposed to decide who gets to keep the property. In this case, Justice Sonya Young has ruled that the retiree must move out. He's decided to go public with is story as a sort of warning that he hopes viewers will heed.
Daniel Ortiz has that story:
Daniel Ortiz reporting
Meet 73 year-old Henkis. He's Belizean who migrated to the US try to make a better life for himself, and in the course of doing that, he became a naturalized American citizen.
After he worked 36 years in America, he decided to come to Belize to retire. He says that in hindsight, he was reluctant to do that.
Norman Henkis - Retiree
"I was living here when I came from the States when I retired. My wife encouraged me for us to come down here after I retired. I didn't want to come to Belize, but she encouraged me. She said lets go to Belize because we already built our house down here, so we could come down here and we could retire."
So, he returned and used his life savings to build these 2 houses you see here. He says that he invested approximately 80,000 US dollars to get them to this livable condition.
Norman Henkis - Retiree
"I have worked hard. I have paid people worked on the house and I have also worked with the people who were building the house."
Daniel Ortiz
"So you help build it?"
Norman Henkis - Retiree
"I help building the house too, not only just pay guys to help me build it, I worked together with them."
Now, he's being forced out by distant relatives who have staked their claim to the property. The Supreme Court has ruled that the land and the houses belong to his stepdaughter.
Norman Henkis - Retiree
"The place belonged to Mr. Marsden Skeen, my deceased father wife. My wife's father. He is deceased and my wife is deceased, now after I finish going through this problem and go all the way through and get to this stage now after she has passed away. Before she passed away I had no trouble with no one. Until she passed away and then everybody wants to come and move me off the place after I spent all the money of my retirement to come here."
Daniel Ortiz
"How did the house transfer from your step-daughter - from your wife to your step-daughter? How did that happen?"
Norman Henkis - Retiree
"Well it wasn't for my wife. It was for her uncle. Because my wife was already dead. So she couldn't transfer anything to anyone name. Because dead people don't transfer things."
Daniel Ortiz
"How did it come about that the dispute arose where she, your step-daughter is claiming that these properties should be hers and you should move?"
Norman Henkis - Retiree
"Because, her uncle put Stephanie, his niece, given her name to this because he is the executer of the land. So now they are taking it to the Supreme Court to move me from here."
Daniel Ortiz
"By the judge's decision, she ruled that the property belongs to your step-daughter right?"
Norman Henkis - Retiree
"She ruled that the place belongs to my step-daughter."
Daniel Ortiz
"Sir, we can't question the decision of the court. That is final. But what is the decision of the court in terms of you having to leave here?"
Norman Henkis - Retiree
"The decision of the court having me leave here - they say they will give me a settlement of $4,000 for the property that I am living into and if you could see I can't build a place for $4,000 at this size of place that I am living into. So I am going to appeal at the court and go forward with that. Where am I going to go at my age?"
So, Henkis has decided to tell his story to the general public as sort of a warning, "Don't let this happen to you."
Norman Henkis - Retiree
"Make sure you have all documents before you husband or your wife past away in black and white."
Daniel Ortiz
"Do you regret coming to Belize and spending your money to build the house and having to go through all of this? Has this one bad experience made you feel as though you made the wrong choice?"
Norman Henkis - Retiree
"I have made the wrong choice. Because I put my trust in someone and that was the foolish thing that I did."
We note that even though he asserts that he spent his money to build it, in the case, his stepdaughter, Stephanie Yolanda Guerrero has told the court that it was she and her brothers - not Henkis - who expanded the two houses through their investment.
As we've noted Justice Sonya Young has ruled that it belongs to Guerrero, and she has ordered that he must move out after he is compensated for his contributions to the house as valued by the court. As you heard, he said that the court is only granting him $4,000, which is a far-cry from the $160,000 that he claims to have spent to build and expand the house.
Henkis says that he will appeal the ruling of the Supreme Court. His attorney in this case was Mayor Darrell Bradley.
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