How to Carry Out Due Diligence When Purchasing Land in Kenya

This article has been sponsored by Wezesha Real Estate

Due diligence means doing your homework before buying any form of property. Today, it is very difficult to know the right process to go through especially when there are many fraudsters in Real estate. More difficult is knowing which land company is genuine.

1. First, before purchasing any land make sure to weigh all your options. Look at different properties and take time. Do not make a haste decision since you will end up making an uneducated and emotional decision. The state of the marketusually affects the pricing of property. When there is a low demand for property with a high number of supply then prices of houses tend to be low and vice versa.

However, a large supply of housing that is in high demand translates to higher pricing as there might be buyers in the market who are willing to pay whatever it takes to acquire the property.

Knowing what the market offers will ensure that you do not end up paying more than you should. For example having information like large supply of apartments in certain counties will help you get a good bargain than anticipated.

2. Get to know your real estate agent/ broker. Ask for their record of their identification card and confirmation of their registration with Estate Agents Registration Board. If they fail to produce their identification your chance of being defrauded becomes high.

3. Get an advocate. Advocates play an important role as they ensure your purchase price is not released to the seller before a successful registration of the transfer to your favor.

4. Be acquainted with the seller of the piece of land. If the seller is being represented by an advocate, make sure they give you full disclosure of the details. You can also go further to examine the Power of Attorney.

5. Confirm that the land actually exists. Go and visit the lands office, do your research at the county government office and find out if the rates have been paid and if the title deed reads at the County council. A few years ago, the City Council of Nairobi increased the rates of properties that had failed to remit rates.

Buyers should be aware of such property because the payment of rates on land is a legal obligation of landowners and the seller should clear any pending rates on the land before completing the transaction.

Your advocate or you can ask for the original receipts of the property taxes. You can also employ a land surveyor to confirm if the land exists on the maps and if it’s the measurements indicated by the seller. Make inquiries of the land.

Additionally, visit the neighborhood and speak to the people around about the land. Some land put for sale are sometimes under disputes and may put you in more expense than you actually want. Visit the local chief or administrators for information, previous transactions may have gone sour and actually moving to court.

When the transaction is completed, retain the receipts of the complete documents from the seller. You as the buyer are obligated to exchange the documents, to pay to the seller the entire balance against the land through his advocates and to finalize the registration of the documents after paying the required stamp duty.

Another pointer should be if you are buying land from a company or a Sacco make sure to ask the registration certificate of the company to prove that the company actually exists. It is prudent to ask for the pin certificate to know the authenticity of the directors and the companies themselves. Your advocate can help you maneuver to know if the company has been in other land fraud cases or have been sketchy to be precise.