You see an advertisement for cheap land on a website, or your friend tells you about some land they bought somewhere. You investigate further and find there are lots of similar ads, all offering cheap plots so perfect you wonder why no one has snapped them up before. So you buy a piece of paradise at a fraction of the price of anything comparable.
If you’re considering buying a plot of land, especially if it’s an investment as well as your home, you will want to know that the land registered is genuine.
Unfortunately, this isn’t always obvious from the start there are unscrupulous people out there who will try to trick you into handing over money for something that’ll never materialize, or at least not in the way they presented it. Fortunately, there are three main things to check if a land registration is legit.
Check the Location:
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The address listed for the land should be a specific piece of land, not an office building, government building, or other non-land address.
This is the most basic way of checking if the land registration is legit. If the address is for a government building that means nothing. Government buildings can be rented, and might be the address mentioned in a land registration, but it doesn’t make it legitimate.
- If the address is a large office building, or a small house or apartment, it suggests the land is being registered by someone who doesn’t own the land. If you buy the land, you may find that there isn’t any building on the land, and you can’t build there.
- If the address is somewhere that has already been built on, that doesn’t necessarily mean the land registration is a scam. Land changed hands, but the address may not have. This can mean the land was previously owned by someone else, and the new owner was allowed to keep the same address.
Check For Previous Development Approvals
If a land registration has been posted for several years with no building work underway, it’s likely that the registration is fraudulent.
This can be checked as well but only if the property registration is online.
- If it’s not online or if it’s in a different country this verification method may not be possible. Not all land registrations are online.
- In some countries, they still have paper registrations, and these can’t be checked. If the registration is online, use a search engine to find the land title.
- You may be able to find the construction approval for the land as well if it exists. If no approval exists for the land, that’s another red flag. If it exists, but the land hasn’t been developed or only partially, that could be a sign that the land registration is fraudulent.
Searching for the construction approval is only useful if the land is registered on a government database. If it’s not, you won’t find it. In that case, you can’t check for an approval.
Check The Registered Title Holder Is Legitimate
The registered title holder is the person or company that bought the land. You can often find their name online on the land registration, and in some cases you can even see the address they used. If you find that the registered title holder is different from the seller, it may be a scam.
If the registered title holder is the same person as the seller, that doesn’t mean it’s legit, but it’s more likely to be. If the registered title holder is a company, you should be able to find more information about them online. If the company is based in the country where the land is located, it’s likely legitimate. If the company is based in a different country, it could be a scam.
Conclusion
Land is a big investment, and it’s important to make sure you’re buying it from a legitimate seller. Check the location, look for previous development approvals, and if possible, see who the registered title holder is. If all three of these checks come back positive, you can be more confident that the land registration is legit.
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