WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2011-03-16 Time: 05:00:03 Posted By: News Poster
By Anne Kiunuhe
It is not unusual for records at the Lands Registry to “disappear”. Such a “disappearance” is often attributed to many reasons.
Sometimes, the disappearance is blamed on the carelessness or negligence of one or more of the officers handling documents relating to a transaction.
The officer either deliberately or inadvertently fails to properly file documents or to return the file to its proper filing room or cabinet.
Other times, the loss of documents is blamed on fraud by third parties, with or without the connivance of Lands Registry officers.
Poor record keeping as well as lack of computerisation of the Lands Registry has also contributed to loss of records.
File disappearance
Unfortunately, the disappearance of a file in respect of a property or key documents relating to the file such as the Lands Registry’s copy of the title deed, whether due to calculated or inadvertent reasons means that no further transactions can be conducted in respect of that property unless the file or the missing documents are located.
The effect of pertinent records being misplaced or otherwise disappearing at the Lands Registry is to bring all dealings in respect of the relevant property to a grinding halt.
For instance, a prospective purchaser or lessee of the property is unable to conduct official searches in respect of the property due to the missing file or records.
This makes it difficult to independently verify the ownership of the title as well as other key issues relating to the title such as the existence of any mortgages registered against the title.
Similarly, no transfers or other dealings in the property can be registered against the title.
To counter this problem, a practice of opening what are known as “temporary files” was developed several years ago at the Lands Registry.
The registry would request the owner of the property or whoever is believed to be the owner of the property to provide it with a photocopy of his title deed together with a letter requesting that a temporary file to be opened as well as an indemnity in favour of the Commissioner of Lands pursuant to which the purported owner of the land undertakes to indemnify the Commissioner of Lands for any loss that he may suffer for opening the temporary file and agreeing to register any future transactions against the temporary file.
Real estate
This practice remains in place. It has the benefit of bringing the transactions in respect of the property out of limbo, and permitting them to be concluded.
The practice, however, raises some fundamental problems. Firstly, it creates an avenue through which fraud relating to real estate properties can be propagated.
The effect of opening a temporary file in this manner, means that more than one file exists at the registry in respect of the same property.
It is possible for someone masquerading as the owner of the property whilst in fact he is not, to collude with other like-minded persons and arrange for a temporary file to be opened.
Such a fraudster can then proceed to sell the property which he is passing off as his, to unwitting third parties.
Secondly, in the case of genuine property owners whose records have been misplaced by the Lands Registry, it is unfair to require them to indemnify the Commissioner of Lands while it is in fact the Lands Registry that has lost or misplaced the land owner’s title.
If anything, the land owner should be the one receiving an indemnity from the Government or the Commissioner of Lands, since it is the Government’s responsibility to take care of records at the Lands Registry vests in the Government.
For instance it may turn out that the property is simultaneously sold to more than one purchaser and the two transactions in respect of the same property are registered against the multiple files that exist at the registry due to temporary files being opened.
In such an eventuality, legal proceedings may be instituted against the Commissioner of Lands by one or more of the purchasers for the loss suffered.
In such a case, the initial landowner who gave an indemnity in favour of the Commissioner of Lands can be called upon to compensate the Commissioner, even though the initial owner had no role to play in the scam.
Full computerisation
It is also the case that even though the reference to the files as “temporary files” connotes the impermanent nature of such files, in practice, temporary files can remain in use for many years from the date on which they are first opened.
This practice therefore needs to be revisited and measures which do not put landowners at an undue risk developed.
The first of this is to improve record keeping at the Lands Registry.
The need to improve record keeping and processes at the Lands Registry cannot be gainsaid.
Full computerisation of the Lands Registries in the country is urgently needed to speed up transactions and make it easier to find information at the Lands Registry as well as retrieve missing records.
Ms Kiunuhe is a Nairobi Advocate.
Original date published: 15 March 2011
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201103160201.html?viewall=1