30/05/2024
When Buying Land, Many Kenyans believe that once you have a Title in your Hand, then the Process of Land Acquisition is Finally over!!!
The Truth of the Matter is that you may be holding the most Useless document among all the documents involved in the paper trail of Land Acquisition!
Before you crucify me, Let Me Explain:
The process of Land Acquisition is abit Tedious and requires one to be keen:
1.The First Step you need to do is is Conduct a Search of the Ptoperty you intrested to buy.
There are 3 Types of Searches:
a) Search of Title deed- This should be the first search you should conduct, you need to be armed with the copy of Title deed of the land in question and or the copy of Id of the vendor.This search is conducted to ascertain if truly the land belongs to the said vendor and also to ensure the land does not have any encumberences:either used to secure a loan via a bank or has some pending levies owed to the Government e.g the S.F.T(Settlement Fund Trustee) normally charged on settlement schemes by Government. This search should be conducted Independently, it costs about Ksh.500.
b) :This is the most important document in the Process of Land Acquisition. A Greenland as the name suggests is a green card that records all the Historical data of the particular parcel including all the previous owners and the Title Numbers, once s new title is made, the information is transferred to this document.
Note:If the Title is not registered on this document, your purchase is Null and Void.The will always use the information from the Green card to register your Title on the Blue Print or cadastral Map.
A is a large-scale map showing the boundaries of subdivisions of land, usually with the directions and lengths thereof and the areas of individual tracts, compiled for the purpose of describing and recording ownership. It may also show culture, drainage, and other features relating to use of the land.
Many Kenyans have been duped in buying property that have a but are not registered on this Map. Its high time you realised that that paper you own called Title deed if not registed on the Cadastral Map(Registry Index Map) Faridah Karooney is coming for you with the Digital Registration of Titles underway.Your Title wont exist anywhere on the new Register.
c) - This search should be conducted separately independent of the other searches.Its aim is to find out if the Land in question owes the County government some Levies and any other penalties accrued, Ensure to apply for Land rates search, get invoiced, Pay Ksh.5000 in case of Kilifi county for the Land Rates Certificate and clearing your arrears if you are the owner or just the rates.This is a very important search since the Land Rates clearance Certificate must be issued together with other documentation during the transfer of Title.
Once you have completed all the Searches , then step no.2 follows:
2.Armed with the copy of Title, which has the registration Index No. Visit the Regional survey offices, in case of Coast Region, its Mombasa city Bima Towers.
Go and purchase a Blue print Map from the survey offices.Ensure its stamped and receipted.
The Bue print Map or the Cadastral map shows the specific parcel its dimensions and all the neighbouring parcels.All parcels are referenced through the Map sheet No. Or the Registry Index Map.
If the title does appear on the Blue print map , that means you've bought air !!!
This is the Second Most Important Document.
If the title is registered on this map, this is a good sign. Head on to step no.3
3.Get a , and visit the particular Land together with the owner and ascertain its physical location. The surveyor will identify the beacons using the Mutation Map or the Deed Map.
4.Until this point in time everything is good, as a greed with the Vendor, Draft a sales agreement with the help of an Advocate,sign it pay the Deposit, and clear the Balance after transfer instruments are signed after which by law you can assume possession of land as you continue the process of transfer.
During transfer the following is Required:
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-Dully filled and signed and documents
-Certificate of Land Rates Clearance
certificate of cleared Capital gain Tax which is 5% of the value of the property
-Regisration of Transfer Instruments
- tax receipts, tax is 4% for Urban Lsnd and 2% for Farmland on the value.
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-Copy of Kra Pin and Copy of ID of both the vendor and Purchaser
- passport photos for the vendor and purchaser.
For the transfer to be completed use an advocate to accelerate the process.
4.Once everything is completed and submitted to the Lands registry for transfer, your title should be out with a matter of days or weeks.
5.Once the Title is out, conduct another search to authenticate to validity of Title.
Also Ensure the
