IF THE OWNER OF LAND/BUILDING YOU WANT TO BUY IS DEAD, ASK FOR DOCUMENTS PASSING OWNERSHIP TO THE SELLER

IF THE OWNER OF LAND/BUILDING YOU WANT TO BUY IS DEAD, ASK FOR DOCUMENTS PASSING OWNERSHIP TO THE SELLER

Where the owner of the land or house you are interested in buying is late, insist on a document that transfers ownership to the seller.

There are a number of legal documents that confer or transfer ownership of land/house of a dead person to a living person.

They are Letters of Administration from the probate registry of a court, vesting assent (document of sharing from a Court), Deed of Assent, Deed of gift or orders of Court in a judgment.

An ownership document in the name of a dead owner is not a proper document to be relied on by a buyer wanting to buy land/house.

Transfer of ownership to a buyer must come from a valid ownership document, even when the person seeking to sell is a wife, son, daughter, sibling or other close relative of the late owner.

Relying on the late owner’s ownership document is wrong. It is an error that should be avoided.

A person who wants to sell can only sign in his own name and not in the name of the dead owner, and that would leave a discrepancy (i.e. the difference in the name of the late owner and that of the person selling.

If you don’t buy from the real owner who has a verifiable proof of ownership, then you have bought nothing.

You cannot place something on nothing and expect it to stay there; it will fall.

Nobody can validly sell as his own, what is not his.

Buyers beware.
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