Steps to be taken when purchasing property
December 9, 2023
These are some of the steps that you should consider taking before purchasing a property:
A. When buying a house that’s already built the basic due diligence steps to take are:
1. Search on title
This will help determine the ownership of the land and to ensure that the seller has capacity/legal right to sell the land
2. Search on the certificate of incorporation
If the seller is a company, ask your lawyer to do a search of the company as well to ensure that it’s legally incorporated.
3. Certificate of completion.
4. Certificate of occupation.
5. Have your lawyer peruse the letter of offer and the sale agreement and explain to you what the clauses contained therein mean.
B. When buying a house off plan, this are some of the documents that you should request for and do a search on: -copy of the title;
– Conditions on land use indicated in the Lease; – A copy of the EIA and/or NEMA Approval for the development;
– Construction Permit by the local county govt;
– Notification of approval for the architectural drawings by local county govt;
– Conditions of the Approval by the local county;
– NCA Project Compliance Certificate – A letter of Authority to commence Development from the local county govt; and – The draft Sub-Lease.
C. When buying land, this are some of the documents you should request for: -copy of title -rates /rent payment receipts (where applicable) -National ID of the sellers.
On top of asking for the documents above, you could also take the following non legal steps:
1. Ask to visit the property;
2. Do not pay any money unless you are absolutely sure that the documents adduced are authentic; and
3. Do not agree to be pressured into a purchase, TAKE YOUR TIME!
