Seven steps of acquiring litigation-free land – Expert’s advice

A Legal Practitioner, Lamtiig Apanga has advised Ghanaians on what to do when acquiring lands to prevent the numerous instances of land ligations.

He has done so by prescribing easy-to-follow steps in acquiring lands.

Mr Apanga has noted that land litigation was on the rise, adding that by law, it is the duty of the buyer to do the necessary checks before attempting to purchase a piece of land.

Mr Apanga advised potential land buyers to rely on lawyers with significant experience in land dealings to assist them with such acquisitions to prevent such avoidable litigations.

Procedures to follow before buying a land:

Providing a response to Adom TV Legal show host Afia Pokua (Vim Lady) on how to get a genuine piece of land and its owner, Mr Apanga said to do so:

1. Identify the Land: A buyer must first do a cursory assessment about the piece of land of interest to see if it is barren land or someone has started something on it. He can do so by asking people around to get some information about the land.
2. Get your own surveyor to search the land of interest because sometimes the land given to you might not be the exact parcel of land and a search may reveal it is in a different location.
3. Do another search at Lands Commission to identify the exact name of the land given to you and send the site plan to Land Survey and Mapping Division and Land Title and Registry to find out if the land has been given as collateral.
4. Get the identity of the person selling the land by requesting for tgheir Voters ID, Driving License, Passport or even NHIS to avoid confusion.
5. Make sure the person signing the land documents for you is the head of the family in case the land you are buying belongs to a family when paying for the land.
6. Always be careful to make only part payment of the land.
7. Take possession on the land by starting something on the land to find out if someone will come and fight you over the land before paying the rest.

Even though Mr Apanga has admitted it is not easy going through all these steps, he said it was better to go through them or seek the advice of a lawyer to avoid the stress that comes with land litigation.

Another legal practitioner, George Abban, blamed Ghanaians for the misfortunes they face with land acquisitions because of a lack of patience when lawyers are doing the necessary checks for them.

He posited that the Land Acquisition Project (LAP) by the government is the ideal solution because when government registers lands in its name it curtails multiple sales.

Source: Ghana|Adom News|Emmanuel Kofi Nkansah