By Musyoki Kimanthi
Q:I lost the title deed to my property recently. I have exercised all due diligence in looking for it but the same is lost without trace. I am worried that someone may use it to appropriate my land if I don’t act quickly.
A:The question may sound unfounded or simplistic but it is indeed a matter of grave concern. We have heard of cases where fraudsters, upon laying their hands on a misplaced title deed, use all manner of tricks to grant themselves authority to effect a transfer of the land in question. The commonest method nowadays is where the fraudsters try to make identification documents — a national identity card and a PIN certificate — in the names as shown in the title deed so that they purport to be the real owners and proceed to sell.
A title deed must be kept safely to avoid the rigorous process of acquiring a new one in case of loss. Photo/ Jennifer Wachie/ Standard |
Fake powers of attorney
The other day, I saw in the news a case where a relative of a proprietor residing abroad had granted himself powers of attorney in dealings over some property and proceeded to sell it. It turned out that the alleged powers were fraudulent. It is a real problem.
If the property whose title deed is lost is registered at the Land Registry, then the ‘deeds’ are not in fact the real deeds at all; they are just copies of the ones kept at the land registry. So in principle, there is no problem at all, and one can just get a new copy.
In practice, however, the Land Registry will not just hand out a new title deed willy-nilly. The procedure for getting a replacement is as was given by the then Chief Land Registrar, B. C. Murage in a Practice Direction addressed to all Land Registrar Inspectors and Land Registrars in his memo, Reference 79696/Vol. 11/146 and 158 dated 23rd July 1973.
Where the Registrar is satisfied that the evidence produced by a registered proprietor as to the loss or destruction of the previous certificate, he will make arrangements for a notice to be published in the Kenya Gazette. The notice normally provides that at the expiry of 60 days from the date of the publication of such notice, a new certificate may be issued.
The procedure
There is no hard and fast answer as to how one may prove loss of a title deed. Ordinarily, one may write to the Land Registry to explain what has happened and the Registry then advises what it will require as proof. As a general rule, however, a police abstract will be required and, therefore, it behoves anyone who loses his deed to make a report to the police. One will also be required to make an affidavit or a statutory declaration detailing, when the deed was lost, the circumstances, the searches and or efforts made to trace it, what other people that have been approached to help in the search, whether anybody else has ever challenged the ownership among other things.
The proprietor is also required to make payment of Sh3,000 (it was Sh30 in 1973), which is normally forwarded to the Government Printer as his fee for publishing the intended notice.
Having stated the above, title deeds should still be kept safe to avoid any inconveniences to all parties concerned.
