Why you must conduct a litigation search before buying a land in Ghana

Oftentimes, the first thing that comes to the mind of a prospective purchaser of land in Ghana in terms of due diligence is to conduct a search at the Lands Commission on its ownership.

While this is a giant step in ensuring that the Land seller indeed owns the land in question, you need not overlook the essence of conducting a litigation search on the seller (i.e. family, stool, individual, real estate company, or even the state).

Litigation search is a pretty simple but often overlooked critical pre-condition for acquiring an incident-free land and avoid watching your hard-earned real property go to waste because you refused to conduct same before advancing money to a purported Land owner who may or may not necessarily be the actual owner.

It is imperative for a prospective purchaser of land to conduct a litigation search in order to ascertain if there is any pending litigation involving the person or entity that purports to be the owner of the said land which is the subject matter of sale.

This search is conducted in the Court(s) that have jurisdiction over the land in question or in other words, the Courts surrounding the land in Question. For instance, if the land to be purchased is situated at Tema, it will be prudent to conduct a litigation search at the Tema and Accra Courts to ascertain if there is any pending litigation involving your land seller.

The value of the land can inform which of the hierarchy of the Courts to conduct the search because each court has its monetary jurisdiction albeit the High Courts in Ghana have an unfettered monetary jurisdiction when it comes to instituting fresh land cases.

In view of the foregoing, a litigation search at the High Courts that are closer to the land you intend purchasing is a must. Also, it is further expedient to conduct a search at our appellate Courts (Court of Appeal and Supreme Court) because it is a notorious fact that most land cases in Ghana travel the full haul and hardly get their final determination at the Courts where the matter began.

Indeed, there are multitudes of instances where a search at Lands Commission will reveal that a particular family, stool, or entity is the rightful owner of a parcel of land, only for same to be overturned on appeal as happened in the recent Supreme Court case of BOI STOOL & ORS vs DANIEL ADDOQUAYE & ORS.

Flowing from the above case, the Numo Nmashie Family who had proclaimed fraudulent ownership of about Seventy (70) villages in Accra received the blessings of the Lands Commission per a publication in the Daily Graphic dated 30th April 2002 wherein its then Executive Secretary emphasized that the High Court had ordered the commission to plot the judgment plan of the Numo Nmashie family in respect of these Seventy (70) villages covering Peduase to Kpeshie Ridge.

Conversely, the Supreme Court of Ghana held in the Boi Stool matter cited above that, the plotting of the said 70 villages into the name of the Numo Nmashie family should be expunged from the Commission’s records because the judgment of the High Court, the basis of which plotting was done was procured fraudulently and moreso ownership of lands in most of the affected 70 villages had already been decided by the Apex court in previous suits.

The lesson from the Boi Stool case cited above reveals the necessity of conducting a thorough litigation search on any parcel of land you intend purchasing from the lower Courts up to the Supreme Court because a simplistic Lands Commission search can mislead you into thinking that the land seller is the owner of the said land without indicating that there is a pending appeal on the same case before an appellate Court.

This omission arises because the most recent judicial determination on a land dispute can only be incorporated after the matter has been finalized in Court and the victorious party has taken steps to have the judgment plan plotted in the records of the Lands Commission in order for same to reflect in any subsequent search results issued by the Commission.

A prevalent fact that must be understood by land purchasers in Ghana is that, most lands, especially Stool and Family Lands derive their legitimacy from Court Judgments. Some of these judgments may be conclusive, inconclusive, and/or even conflicting.

However, a Land on which a Court has made a final determination has good title. In fact, the Lands Act of Ghana in defining what constitutes good title to land included a final judgment of a Court of Competent jurisdiction.

Be that as it may, the nuances of these judgments can be interpreted if you engage the services of an experienced real estate lawyer who can appropriately advise on the legal effect of the said judgment(s) that form the basis of the Land seller’s interest and title in the land he seeks to sell.