- The agreement however requires the sectional property owners to show proof that they have initiated the process of geo-referencing their apartments before qualifying for the titles.
- The agreement is aimed at unlocking the difficulty experienced in registering and getting long-term leases for sectional properties over the last three years.
Image: TWITTER
Lawyers, bankers and surveyors have signed a pact with the State that gives a six months moratorium to investors who own apartments to obtain titles for their properties.
The agreement however requires the sectional property owners to show proof that they have initiated the process of geo-referencing their apartments before qualifying for the titles.
The agreement is aimed at unlocking the difficulty experienced in registering and getting long-term leases for sectional properties over the last three years.
In December 2020, a new law on sectional title deeds was enacted.
The law was passed with the purpose of enabling individuals who owned apartments to get their individual titles.
The implementation of the law was however slowed down by other challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic and sectional property owners who could not comply with the requirement to get their flats georeferenced.
As a result of the challenge, individuals who wanted to buy or sell flats through bank financing could not succeed.
According to the Kenya Bankers Association, the value of the transactions that were stuck in banks because of this challenge ranged between Sh100 billion and Sh200 billion.
Early this year as the new Administration was settling into office, the Law Society of Kenya brought a petition to the Ministry of Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development.
The petition, which was received by Cabinet Secretary Zachariah Njeru and the PS for Lands and Physical Planning Generali Nixon Korir, wanted the State to address the issue as well as other challenges faced by users of Ardhisasa, the new online system created for processing land transactions.
The CS and the PS have been convening meetings over the past three months, sometimes on a weekly basis, bringing together the State Department and Land Sector Actors including the LSK, bankers and the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya.
The Department and the land sector actors formed technical working groups to suggest improvements to the Ardhisasa platform and work closely with the developers to rectify system errors.
The team also reached an agreement to give apartment owners a new window so that they can comply with the law and unlock financial transactions involving sectional properties.
The agreement was signed at Ardhi House Thursday by CS Njeru, LSK President Eric Theuri and Raimond Molenje who is the Head of Legal at the Kenya Bankers Association. Officials of ISK, currently attending a conference in Mombasa, gave consent for the event to proceed.
CS Njeru said the agreement gives developers six months to georeference their properties while the State Department begins progressing with the title.
The CS besides addressing Ardhisasa's challenges said the teamwork with the land sector actors was also used to address other bottlenecks to enhance the efficiency of services.
Korir thanked the bankers, lawyers and surveyors for working closely with the department in addressing challenges.
The PS said the State Department will soon roll out a sensitization campaign to educate the public on how to use Ardhisasa.
The LSK President said they had extensive collaboration with the Ministry and he was happy that most of the challenges that existed have been resolved.
The LSK President and Molenje, who spoke during the joint press conference at Ardhi House, praised CS Njeru and PS Korir for their dedication and honesty that has seen stakeholders cooperating to resolve challenges.
"We are delighted that the three months consultations we've had has born fruits and we are happy for the significant progress made and the challenges solved so far," said Theuri.
Molenje said the pending transactions related to sectional properties will soon be cleared following the signing of the MOU.
"I appreciate the Ministry for being transparent. Since the new government came into place we have seen tremendous changes in bank transactions. We had Sh104 billion pending transactions in the banking industry, as of June this year we were at Sh 55 billion," said Molenje.
LSK Vice President Faith Odhiambo was among those who attended the event.