Land transactions are serious business and must not be taken lightly. There is this erroneous impression that when you have built to lintel level, a court cannot rule against you in a land litigation.
Remember that whoever owns the land owns everything on it. In order to avoid some of these problems, it is important that you conduct some basic important checks before buying a land in Ghana.
These checks might not be full proof in all situations and so you are advised to consult a lawyer (or a reputable land seller like ourselves) in any land transaction you intend to undertake.
PHYSICAL INSPECTION
The first thing to do when buying a land is to identify the land. You need to know the size and dimensions of the land which you are interested in buying. The general advice is that you go with your own surveyor.
When the Owner (grantor) points the borders of the land to you, you let your surveyor pick the coordinates of the land in order to prepare a site plan for you. It is very dangerous to rely on the grantor's site plan only without getting an independent surveyor to prepare a site plan for you.
At Inspection
During the physical inspection, it is important to look out for certain red flags. For example, if there is an uncompleted building on the land, you need to investigate to find out who put up that building. If there is sand, gravel and construction materials on the land, you need to find out who put them there.
If there are trees which do not naturally grow on their own, you should find out who planted them. If you fail to do these investigations and you go ahead to buy the land, a court would tell you that you failed to do the minimal due diligence and so you had constructive notice that someone was already on the land before you bought it. When a court tells you this, it means you are not a bonafide purchaser for value without notice, and you will lose your money.
BACKGROUND CHECKS
In addition to the physical inspection, it is important that you do some background investigations in the area. There are always people in the area who know the real owners of the land. Even if there are others claiming ownership, it is important to know so you don't buy litigation.
So, you will have to go back to the location after the owner has shown you, either by yourself or by someone you have sent to ask questions about who is the owner of the land and whether or not there is any information about it such as litigation.
It is important to involve a qualified lawyer with domain expertise in all of these. Lawyers by their training are usually able to spot red flags quickly and save you from entering a transaction that will end in loss of money or litigation in the future.
STATUTORY SEARCHES
There are two main statutory searches that you need to conduct before buying the land.
First is the search at the lands commission. This will give you some important pieces of information. First is whether or not the land is a state land. Second is whether the land has been earmarked for a state project and finally whether the person purporting to sell it to you is the rightful owner.
There are situations where the land will come out as free land after the search. You may not find the owner's name on it and you will not find any other name on it. In such situations, it means the original owners have not registered it, you will have to be extra careful to be sure the person selling to you has the right to sell.
For Stool Lands it is always the Chief together with his elders who have the power to sell the land. Therefore if the Chief signs, the elders must also sign as witnesses.
For Family Lands, it's always the Head of Family together with the elders who have the power to sell. Therefore if the head of family signs, his elders must also sign.
Extra due diligence is also needed at this point to be sure, the persons signing are the real persons with the requisite authority to sign. If the wrong people sign, you have paid money in vain.
ENCUMBERED STATUS
It is also important to check if the land has not been encumbered by any charge. You need to be sure whether the land has not been used for collateral by anyone. Banks do not necessarily register a piece of land in their name before giving the owners a loan. Therefore, it is important to run a search with the collateral registry to confirm if anyone has registered that particular land as charge over any loan with any bank.
CONCLUSION
If upon your due diligence, you are satisfied that the land is for the person who is trying to sell to you, then you can go ahead to pay for it. You should always take your indenture upon payment for it is the basic and most primary document showing that you have bought the land in question.
RELATED PAGES
Land Registration Process in Ghana
Land Litigation in Ghana