Land Investment is a capital intensive venture, so do everything possible to avoid being conned at the point of sale before paying for it. Today let’s discuss on how you can avoid the pitfalls of losing your hard earned money. The secret lies in the details, don’t be hurry to commit until you are satisfied that the land is safe to invest in.
The main reason of carrying out land search is to ascertain the ownership of land, measurements (approximate as per Title) and if the property has any incumbrances (legal dues)or liens.
When doing due diligence, you need not only to do search on land but also make sure the person selling has the rights to transfer ownership of the land.
Use lawyer or advocate who has power of attorney (POT), to scrutinize land documents. The lawyer will forward the documents ( Title copy and ID of the owner) to the local land registry for search.
Once search is out and everything is okay, ensure you get consent from owner and affidavit of the spouse, or the other parties who have any interest on the land you are about to buy. Ensure the owner has not given his ownership rights to third parties such as banks or relatives.
Finally ensure you have original documents when you start the sale transactions. Put the money in an escrow account (neither party should access the funds until transactions are complete or advocate advises otherwise). The account is set up by the lawyer.
Take home, I want we ask ourselves does search certificate expire?, it’s important to note that the status of the land can change anytime and the report you had from registry yesterday can be different today, therefore to be safe, don’t rely on earlier done searches and also use lawyer all through. It’s also important to note that in Kenya today you can carry out search online via Ardhisasa portal.
