DO NOT PANIC IF YOU LOSE YOUR LAND TITLE!
1. It is common for Land Title’s to get lost or
misplaced especially whenever it is returned to the Land Office to register a new transaction.
This is due to the fact that the Land office system or process flow is manual and disorganized and slow. So often if the chain of custody of your title is broken, or if by some tough luck your title gets out of the hands of the person handling it, it is like a needle falling in a haystack! It is close to impossible to trace it because of the very many disorganized files.
Unfortunately, this loss/misplacement of your Land Title can happen even if you happen to have the most diligent Lawyer handling your transactions.
Your Land Title could also be destroyed somehow, by water, Fire, by accidentally tearing or stolen.
The good news is that When this happens, your Land Title can be replaced by applying for a special Land Title. This process can take upto two months.
What can you do to mitigate the risk of losing your Land Title?
1. Always use a Lawyer to follow up any transactions you are doing on your Land Title because lawyers know the process and will usually plug any loopholes that can cause the loss of your land title.
2. You can register a caveat on your Land Title to prevent any fraudulent entry from being made on your title without your knowledge. This means that even if your title got lost, misplaced, destroyed or stolen it can not be fraudulently transferred. Ask a lawyer to help you register the caveat. The process of caveat registration takes 3 working days.
You can easily remove your caveat if you want to transfer or register another transaction on the Land.
Steps for obtaining a special Land Title;
1. Application is made to Registrar of Titles
2. Affidavit detailing circumstances of loss is attached to application
3. Gazette Notice is issued by Registrar of Titles
4. Gazette Notice is published in Gazette
5. Processing of new Deed Prints
6. Issuing of Special Title usually after one month after publication in gazette
