The Nine Searches Every Nairobi Property Purchase Needs Before You Pay

Property fraud in Nairobi rarely involves a forged document. It usually involves a genuine document and a person with no right to sell — which is why looking at the title deed is not due diligence.

What follows is the sequence we run before a client parts with money. It is not exhaustive for every transaction, but a purchase that clears all nine is very unlikely to be the one that goes wrong.

1. The official search

Conducted at the Lands Registry holding the parent record, against the title number. It returns the registered proprietor, the tenure, the term and its commencement for leaseholds, the acreage, and any registered encumbrances — charges, cautions, restrictions, inhibitions.

Two things it does not tell you. It does not confirm that the person offering to sell is the registered proprietor; you have to compare the identification. And it reflects the register at the moment of search, which is why a fresh search immediately before completion is standard practice rather than optional.

2. Historical title investigation

The official search is a snapshot. It does not tell you how the current proprietor acquired the property or whether that acquisition was sound.

Where the property has changed hands recently, has been subdivided, has passed through an estate, or was transferred under a power of attorney, trace the chain backwards. Defects in an earlier transfer can affect the current title, and a transfer registered shortly before a sale is a pattern worth understanding rather than assuming.

3. Land rates clearance

Rates are payable to the county. Arrears attach to the property, not to the person who incurred them, so unpaid rates become your liability on completion. A rates clearance certificate is required for registration in any event, so this is both a diligence step and a completion requirement.

4. Land rent clearance

On leasehold titles, land rent is payable to the national government. The same principle applies: arrears follow the land, and clearance is required for transfer. Persistent non-payment can in principle expose the lease to forfeiture, so significant arrears are worth understanding rather than simply settling.

5. Physical inspection

Visit the property. This is skipped surprisingly often by diaspora buyers relying on photographs and by investors buying at a distance.

Establish who is in occupation and on what basis. Tenants have rights, and a property sold with tenants in situ is a different asset from a vacant one. Occupation without title can, over time, found an adverse possession claim, and those claims do succeed in Kenya.

6. Survey verification

Confirm the beacons on the ground match the survey plan and the acreage on the title. Boundary discrepancies are common where land has been subdivided informally, and a parcel that is smaller on the ground than on the title is not the parcel you agreed to buy.

Where the property is part of a scheme, obtain the mutation and confirm the subdivision was approved and registered rather than merely drawn.

7. Seller identity and authority

Compare the seller's identification against the registered proprietor named in the search. Where the seller is:

• A company — obtain the CR12, confirm the directors, and obtain a board resolution authorising the sale and the signatories.
• An attorney under a power of attorney — confirm the power is registered, that it authorises this transaction specifically, that it has not been revoked, and that the donor is alive. A power lapses on death, and a transfer executed afterwards conveys nothing.
• A personal representative of an estate — confirm the grant has been confirmed. An administrator cannot validly sell before confirmation.
• A married individual — consider spousal consent where the property may be matrimonial property, which can otherwise be a route to challenge later.

8. Encumbrance review

The search will show registered charges, cautions and restrictions. Each needs a plan.

A charge to a bank must be discharged, and the discharge must be registered. The usual mechanism is that the purchase price, or part of it, pays off the outstanding balance directly to the lender against a discharge — not paid to the seller in the hope that they will settle it.

A caution indicates a third party claiming an interest. Understand what it is before proceeding; some are protective and readily removed, others reflect a genuine dispute.

9. Planning and change of user

For commercial property, or residential property intended for commercial use, confirm the permitted user and that any change of user was approved. A building operating outside its approved use is exposed to enforcement, and one without a valid occupancy certificate is not lawfully lettable — a fact that no valuation report will mention.

Confirm approved building plans exist for structures on the land. Unapproved development is a liability that transfers with the property. Our property and leasing team treats this as standard on any purchase with buildings on it.

What consents does the transfer require?

Consents are the most common cause of delay in Nairobi conveyancing, and almost all of that delay is avoidable by applying early rather than at completion.

Land Control Board consent is required for transactions in agricultural land. The Board sits periodically, the parties must attend, and consent lapses if the transaction is not completed within six months. A transaction in controlled land completed without consent is void.

Lessor consent is required on most leasehold titles before a transfer or a charge. Where the lessor is the national or county government, the application runs through the Ministry of Lands. Where it is a private lessor or a management company in a sectional scheme, the lease will set out the process and often permits a reasonable fee.

Spousal consent arises where the property may be matrimonial property under the Matrimonial Property Act. A disposal without it is open to later challenge by the non-consenting spouse, and buyers should obtain it rather than rely on the seller's assurance about their marital status.

Company approvals where the seller is a corporate — a board resolution, and members' approval where the articles or the value require it.

Apply for all of them at the point the sale agreement is signed. Transactions that stall for months almost always stalled at a consent nobody applied for in week one.

Buying off-plan or in a development

Off-plan purchases carry a distinct risk profile that standard title diligence does not address, because at the point of purchase there is often no title to search.

Establish who owns the land the development sits on, and whether it is charged to a financier — if the developer fails, that lender's charge ranks ahead of purchasers. Confirm the development has approved building plans and, where applicable, an approved sectional plan. Ask what happens to your money if the project does not complete: is it held in escrow, is there a completion guarantee, or are you an unsecured creditor? By default you are an unsecured creditor, and that default is what most off-plan contracts leave in place.

For completed sectional developments, confirm the sectional plan is registered, the management company is properly constituted, and service charge accounts are current. Arrears attach to the unit, not the departing owner.

How the money should be handled

Diligence protects you only if the payment structure does too.

The deposit — commonly 10% — should be held by the seller's advocate as stakeholder, not as agent for the seller. The distinction is not semantic. A deposit held as agent can be released to the seller; a deposit held as stakeholder cannot be released until the conditions are met. Insist on the word.

The balance is paid on completion against delivery of the executed transfer, the original title, clearances and consents. Money paid before those documents exist is money at risk.

Timeline and what delays it

A well-run Nairobi conveyance completes in about 60 days. The delays are predictable: consents applied for late, rates or rent arrears discovered at the end rather than the beginning, and stamp duty valuations that come back above the agreed price.

On that last point — stamp duty is assessed by the Ministry of Lands valuer at 4% of value in urban areas, and the valuer's figure is not bound by your contract price. Budget on the assessment.

Instruct your own advocate

The seller's advocate acts for the seller. This is obvious when stated and routinely ignored in practice, usually to save a fee that is immaterial against the exposure. On any purchase of consequence, instruct separately.

Where the transaction is financed, note that the bank's advocate acts for the bank. Their diligence is directed at protecting the bank's security, which overlaps with your interests but is not the same thing. Our dispute resolution practice sees the consequences of that assumption more often than we would like.

The short version

Search before you pay. Trace the title backwards where anything is unusual. Clear the rates and rent early. Visit the land. Verify who is selling and whether they may. Deal with encumbrances by mechanism rather than by promise. And keep the deposit with a stakeholder.

Nine checks, most of which take days rather than weeks, standing between a sound purchase and a total loss.