REAL ESTATE: OVERVIEW OF TRANSFER OF LAND IN TANZANIA
There are many situations which might require you to transfer land. You could be selling your property, setting up a family trust, or giving the property as a gift.
Whatever the reason for it is, you need to make sure that the transfer goes smoothly and no mistakes are made.
The President of the United Republic of Tanzania holds the land on behalf of the people. What a Tanzanian owns is the right to occupy and use the land for a limited period of time whereas the longest period a person can occupy and use land is for 99 years only other terms of occupancy are 33 and 66 years respectively. The types of right of occupancy are three of which are customary right of occupancy, granted right of occupancy and deemed right of occupancy.
In order to transfer the Registered land the following stages are very important.
Pre-contractual Stage, this is the stage before the purchaser/vendee has bought the land. Here, the vendee/purchaser intends to buy the particular land thus before buying it he/she has to conduct the following steps:-
On site Verification, at this stage, the purchaser/vendee must visit the premises he intends to buy and witness that it is indeed the place he intends to buy and from the particular seller. This also satisfies the vendee so that he/she is comfortable with the place or not.
Vendor’s disclosure, after the vendee has conducted his inspection on the site the vendor is obligated to disclose any defects which are directly or indirectly related to the respective land in good utmost faith. Failure on the part of the vendor only attracts the intended disposition to fail upon the vendee’s discovery of any default/non disclosure on the vendor’s part.
Official Search, in order to verify the vendors disclosure, it is very important to conduct an official search at the Registrar of titles at the ministry of Lands to identify that, the true owner of the land is indeed the vendor or someone who has been given lawful authority to conduct the transaction.
Valuation report. This is normally done by a valuer from the municipal council of Dar es Salaam. The valuer estimates the amount the vendor should pay for capital gains tax which is usually a mandatory requirement under the law. This also determines the amount of rent the vendee is supposed to pay annually.
The Completion Stage is the stage where the agreement is finalized and it involves the following steps:-
Sale agreement, this is a contractual document that signifies the disposition of the land has taken place. This includes drafting a contractual agreement between the two parties.
The Deed of Transfer, after the sale agreement has been executed, the next step would be to draft a deed of transfer showing that there is a transfer of land from the vendor to the vendee.
The Last and Final stage is the Post Completion Stage of which presupposes that after the contractual stage there are formalities that need to be dispensed with by the vendee which include the following:-
1. Obtaining a Rent Clearance Certificate this actually involves the previous owner since he/she was to pay the rent each year. This also entails that the vendor has to pay all the land rent unless otherwise the vendee decides to clear the rent due.
2. Tax Clearance Certificate, this actually involves the previous owner since he/she was to pay the rent each year. This also entails that the vendor has to pay all the land rent unless otherwise the tax decides to clear the rent due.
3. Capital Gains Certificate, this is obtained after tax and rent clearance it is usually paid by the vendor and it is paid at Tanzania Revenue Authority(TRA) as income tax.
4. Stamp Duty, must be paid after the approval of the commissioner for lands as a formality of the legitimacy of the disposition failure to pay stamp duty renders the transaction in valid.
Registration of Transfer, after paying all necessary fees the following stage is registering the transfer of land at the Registrar of Titles who is situated at the Ministry of Land, Housing and Human Settlement Development.
Delivery of the Said Copy, the final step will be delivery of the said certificate of registration to the purchaser.
GET THE RIGHT LEGAL ADVICE. When dealing with such large and valuable assets, it’s essential that you get all the details of your transfer right. The best way to ensure that no important details are missed during or after the transfer process is to get the help of a lawyer .Having your transfer of land or a title go smoothly requires planning, organization, and astute legal knowledge. The best way to get all these things is to hire a lawyer.
