Are land titles from real estate agents genuine?

 

There is a real fear that land being bought from some real estate agents is not genuine. Ida Nantaba the junior minister in the land ministry says, “Some leading real estate dealers collude with officials in the lands ministry to fraudulently acquire land titles which are subject to be cancelled.”  

 

However, Denis Obbo the spokesperson for the lands ministry refutes the claim that some officials from the ministry collude with the public to engage in fraudulent acts.

 

“I would like to challenge anyone to bring any evidence that can stand the test of time proving that any land official engaged in fraudulent acts,” says Obbo. He, however, stresses that it is the public and real estate dealers who engages in the fraudulent acts. 

 

Minister Nantaba recently said, “We cannot spare real estate dealers who are involved in procuring land titles fraudulently because they are tax payers.” She urged the public to be cautions while procuring land titles from them. 

 

 

The minister is championing a campaign that focuses on cases of fraudulent land transaction, illegal evictions, titles cancelled illegally and multiple titling- where one piece of land has more than one title. However, Ivan Muleme, the manager of Rabai Real Estate refutes claims that also estate dealers fraudulently transact land titles.

 

 He explains, “We go through the normal process of title registration beginning with the Local Council officials to confirm the ownership of the land title and then proceed for the land title search in the registers’ office in the ministry of lands with the intent of verifying the title deeds and any kind of encumbrances. If there are no encumbrances on the title we proceed with the registration process of transferring the title names to the company’s names or client’s name depending on the circumstance.” 

 

He, however, says cases of forgery cannot be ruled out if official documents like passports and transcripts can be forged. 

Muleme appealed to the minister to sensitise the public and estate dealers on how the whole process should be done. In doing so, she will be helping the public and parties concerned from falling prey to  land fraud.  

 

In the same way, Irene Serabidde of Paflo Property Services in Wandegeya says, “The whole process begins with the search process at the ministry of lands. But if the land in question involves the Administrator General Verification, we urge the parties concerned to bring the will, any of the witnesses on the will and a letter from the local council. Then we proceed to put the notice in the News Papers for any possible complaint.” 

 

“If the stipulated time elapses without complaints we proceed with the registration. There is no way we can put money in a land title which is not cleared by the ministry. At the end of the day we stand to lose if the title is cancelled,” she says.

Nonetheless, Obbo, the spokesperson in the lands ministry says, over the years the land registry has been cancelling titles which were acquired fraudulently.

 

Obbo, however outlines the proper process, which the lands register office follows to cancel a land title.

He says one has to look at two documents in the law while cancelling the land title, they are; the registration of Land Act (Cap 230) and the land Act (Cap 227). 

 

He says when there are complaints they must be sent to the commissioner of the land registration; Sarah Kurata Basangwa who  then forwards the case to the office of the land titles. First she considers the cancelling application. Looks at what is at the register and the circumstances that are submitted seeking for the cancellation of the land title. 

 

The commissioner then communicates to the other parties involved informing them to make their case known during the public hearing.

 

The commissioner sets aside time to hold and public hearing and she does this by putting in place a public notice usually on the lands notice board and sometimes we place those notices on the lands’ website. The commissioner listens to both parties in the meeting and they both agree on the way forward. The obvious option is the cancellation of the title. 

 

However, there is a certain period she gives and after that period elapses she again places a public notice informing the general public that so and so is no longer the registered proprietor of the land in question and the registration has been cancelled. 

 

After that she informs the general public though public notices that anyone who deals with those people whose titles has been cancelled do so at their own risk. In doing so she would have informed the public on the updates she had made on the register to avoid any further fraudulent acts.  

 

As a rule, once a title is cancelled then it must be brought to the land office, but some people stubbornly refuse to surrender their land title for cancellation. Fortunately, the process of searching begins at the register, so it is easy to apprehend cancelled land titles. .

 

Land office not a den of fraudsters 

I don’t believe what some people say that fraud is done by people in the land office. 

This business of saying our staff are corrupt should stop as it has been proved over and over that fraud is done by the land dealers outside. 

 

As a policy in the land office, in case anything close to fraud is detected we capture the document and then take those documents for investigation. Secondly, we have computerised the system making it hard for unscrupulous people to manipulate. Just in case of any connivance it is easy to detect. 

 

Fate of cancelled 500 titles

The 500 titles and many others that have been cancelled have to go through the same procedure as stipulated in the Land Act 230 and the land Act Cap 227. 

 

If those land titles fail to pass the ground for the cancellation then they are cancelled. But before the cancellation is done, one would need to establish grounds for the cancellation. 

 

The grounds are; there must be an grieved party who might go to court seeking resettlement and the reasons must be justifiable. Obo says, all-in-all, land officials aim at fighting fraud, forgeries and corruption in the land sector. And most fraud cases come from outside the ministry. 

 

 

 

According to the president of the Uganda Private Property Developers Association Anatoli Kamugisha, the cases of transacting land title fraudulently can be eliminated if normal procedures laid down by the land of office are followed properly.

 

Kamugisha says the processes of acquiring land titles under mailo land are easy since the land is already registered.  

 

The buyer or the land dealer just has to fill the mitigation form which allows the buyer to subdivide the land, issued a blue print from the ministry of lands which bears the permanent numbers of the subdivided plots.

 

Then the process of pursuing land titles for those subdivided plots begins.  Kamugisha says, “The process is easy since you just cut off the piece of land from the big chunk of land with a registered land title.” 

  

Kamugisha says the thriving high cost of mailo land, which is largely found in the central region where businesses are concentrated. Similarly, Kamugisha says the process of transferring the land title takes the normal process where a transfer form is filled in and submitted to the land office, land committee; thereafter the legal process begins before a land title is issued out.

 

Jomayi officials when contacted on the matter declined to comment. “Do we have to share our business dealings with the media,” they asked this reporter. 

 

However, Kiganda Ssonko, an independent real estate broker advises those intending to buy land to consider buying land from reputable real estate dealers.  “If a land buyer follows the normal process of getting a title as outlined by the ministry of lands, chances of acquiring the land fraudulently will be minimal,” he said.

 

Joseph Kisitu, a manager of Fundi Property Agencies and Developers, emphasises that once the right procedures  are laid down by the ministry of lands and followed there is no way one can be in possession of an illegal land title. 

 

Vicent Kafero, the proprietor of Hossana Real Estate Dealers, says his company makes proper ground work and then follows the normal channel of acquiring the land title.

 

“As a policy, we don’t go through the back door. We follow the right channels,” he said, adding, “Perhaps, it is because of the way we do our business that we have not been implicated in fraud scandals.”