10 Red Flags Before Buying Land in Kenya, No. 5 is mostly ignored
- Pressure to pay or close the deal fast without proper due diligence.
- Cash only Deals. Ensure you use a traceable transaction like Mpesa or bank transactions.
- Missing land ownership documents or lack of them at all, a sale agreement and a payment receipt doesn’t show that you are the owner of the land.
- Details in the Title deed don’t match what is in the land registry office register (green/white Card).
- Land doesn’t appear on the RIM (Registry Index Map), that’s means there is no land on the ground.
- Road side agreements. Ensure all agreements are done by licensed conveyance lawyer.
- Lack of spouse and children consent. Ensure the spouse signing is the wife or husband of the legal seller, verify marriage or other supporting documents.
- Land under succession, when succession case is active in court, avoid that land if you don’t want to lose your hard-earned money. Wait until the matter is determined and land is transferred to the beneficiaries.
- Lack of a witness when writing the agreements.
- Asked to pay the whole asking price at the initial stage of land purchase process. The law states you pay 10% deposit at the beginning of the process, pay balance at an escrow account.
Ensure you get all required legal deeds required in the transfer process and deal only with the legal owner written in the Title Deed.
