Vigilance in land trade processes can stop emboldened fraudsters

A while back, a friend of mine identified a plot for purchase and proceeded to draw up the necessary agreements with the owner, whom, for this discussion, we shall call Sungura Mjaja. All the due diligence was done – a survey plan was bought, a field visit was made, an official search conducted, and the identity card of the seller checked out for conformity with the search details.

However, when my friend’s lawyer lodged the documents for registration at Ardhi House, it was found that there was a parallel set of documents lodged by a different law firm, purportedly from yet another Sungura Mjaja, transferring the plot to a different buyer. The lawyer moving the parallel registration was just as surprised as we were.

It dawned on us all that one of the sellers had to be a con man. We called in the police, who laid a trap and, once caught and challenged, the Sungura Mjanja who was selling the plot to my friend owned up. He was the fake. Indeed, he went on to produce his real national identity card, which carried a totally different name. He held a fraudulent title, prepared in the name of the real owner, to facilitate a fraudulent sale. The matter was then left to the police and courts.

But how does this kind of thing happen?

IDENTITY CARD

Sungura Mjaja had obtained a fake identity card in the name of the real plot owner. He knew the physical location of the plot and that the owner hardly ever visited the place. Being undeveloped and strategically situated, the plot would attract quick buyers. He proceeded to obtain its reference details, which he used to print a fake parallel title. He was sure that since prospective buyers would be unlikely to know the real owner, they would be easily duped when he paraded a title and an identity card in the name of the owner. Official searches by interested parties would confirm these details.

Lands offices have since upped the game. Security features on new title deeds have been enhanced, presenting a much more difficult challenge for fraudsters. Indeed, land owners are today required to provide passport-size photographs to support the registration or transfer of property.

This will greatly help. However, millions of ownership documents held in lands offices countrywide belong to the old regime where the images of the owners are not on record. This presents an opportunity for a new generation of fraudsters who obtain titles officially from land registries in broad daylight. But how?

They know that all that is required for land offices to replace a lost title deed or one destroyed, say through fire or floods, is a simple indemnity. So they scout around for developed properties or vacant plots whose owners do not live nearby, are abroad, or are dead. Armed with the details of the registered owner, they obtain fake identity cards in the owner’s names, as our Sungura Mjanja did.

Using the fake ID to pose as the real owners, they obtain police abstracts for loss of title, swear affidavits with a lawyer, then present these to land registries with an application for replacement of the title. The police abstracts and affidavits, meant to indemnify the registry for the replacement of title, are used as the basis of filing Gazette notices. On expiry of the stipulated 60 day statutory period without objection, new titles are issued in their favour. Using such titles, the property is then easily sold by the con cartels. Large parcels of vacant land are at times subdivided to enhance returns.

Now that the government knows what is happening, it should review its processes and tighten the security of land transactions. For instance, advertisement of loss of title deeds could be made through the office of local administrators and checked out with neighbours. Physical verification visits could be made too. This would perhaps smoke out the real owners and make it more difficult for anyone to claim or sell property fraudulently. Property buyers should verify the authenticity of identity cards with the National Registration Bureau.

Ibrahim Mwathane is a surveyor; [email protected]; Twitter: @mwathane.