A search is how you find out whether the person selling a property is the person who owns it, and what is already registered against it.
It is the first substantive step in any land transaction, it is cheap relative to what it protects, and skipping it is the single most expensive decision available to a Kenyan property buyer.
What a search tells you
- The registered proprietor: whose name is on the register.
- The tenure and term: freehold, or leasehold and for how long. See freehold and leasehold.
- The approximate size of the parcel.
- Any encumbrances noted: charges, cautions, restrictions, caveats.
What a search does not tell you
This is where buyers come unstuck, because a clean search feels like a clean bill of health and is not one.
- Whether the person showing you the land is the registered proprietor, or somebody holding a copy of their documents. A search confirms a name on a register. It does not confirm the identity of the person in front of you.
- Whether the boundaries on the ground match the ones on the register. See beacons and survey.
- Whether anyone is in occupation with rights that are not registered.
- Whether there are unregistered dealings in progress, including a sale to somebody else that has not yet reached the register.
- Whether rates and rent are clear. See land rates and land rent.
The verification that goes alongside it
A search is necessary and not sufficient. Alongside it, buyers ordinarily:
- Verify identity against the title. The identification of the person selling, checked against the name on the register, and where a company or an estate is selling, the authority of whoever is signing.
- Commission a surveyor to confirm the parcel on the ground matches the deed plan and to identify the beacons.
- Visit unannounced, more than once, at different times.
- Ask neighbours who they understand owns it and whether anyone else has been showing it.
- Confirm rates and rent are clear, and obtain any consents the transaction requires. See consent to transfer.
The timing point that matters
The registry position can change between the search and completion. A caution can be registered, a charge can be created, and a parcel can be dealt with by somebody else in the interval.
For that reason a search is normally repeated immediately before money moves, not merely at the start of the process. A search done six weeks ago and relied on today is a search of a state of affairs that may no longer exist.
Where searches are done
In person at the relevant registry, or through the government's online platform, depending on the registry and how the title is held. Which applies to a particular parcel is one of the things an advocate establishes early.
The honest limit of this entry
Conveyancing is a job for an advocate. This entry explains what the instrument is and what it does not cover. It is not a method for doing a transaction, and the sequence of a real purchase involves more than a search, in an order that matters.
One thing to hold onto regardless of who is advising: none of it should follow a payment. Search, survey, verification and consents all come first. A deposit paid before the search is a deposit paid to find out whether it should have been.