Owning land in Kenya is indisputably a huge success.
In recent times, more often than not, land ownership has been used as a yardstick to measure the level success in life.
Once you have a piece of land, may it be the common plots ranging from 1/8 ha to huge parcels of land; you are deemed to have succeeded in life.
But as demand for land continues to soar, many unsuspecting prospective buyers have fallen prey to rogue conmen who will sell you “air”-non-existent land.
Others have fallen prey to unscrupulous land brokers who sell one piece of land or plot to more than two people and presented both of them with fake title deeds.
But how can you evade this?
Schola Kayugira, a corporate law advocate who extensively deals with land buying and selling recently during an interview with Citizen TV explained the important processes every prospective land buyer should follow to be safe
- Identify the land-You must see what you are investing in.
- Investigate the title to that land to confirm authenticity through a lawyer with expertise in the field. He/she will conduct a search on the said piece of land.
- Bring in a surveyor to ascertain the ground position of the land is really what you have been shown. The surveyor confirms if the title and the land are the same.
- Do a valuation of the property to assess if the cost you have been offered is in tandem with the prevailing market price or it is exorbitant.
- Have a sale agreement drawn by the lawyer containing all terms agreed upon between the seller and the buyer. Things to be captured in the sale agreement include the price of the land, date of payment, deposit, terms of installments to be paid in and at what point the title should be handed over in the event the land was purchased in installments basis.
Having followed all the processes, you are guaranteed to have a piece of land with no after-sale tussles.