How to Complete a Sale / Purchase of Property or Land in Kenya The purchaser is usually responsible to cater for the costs of the stamp duty on the transfer and registration charges. Under the current process, the before the payment of stamp duty, the purchase should apply for the valuation of the property by the government valuer using the valuation form stated above. Once the valuation process has been completed, the the documents are assessed at the lands office to determine the stamp duty payable in accordance with the provisions of the Stamp Duty Act, Chapter 480 of the Laws of Kenya. This is by filling a form which is commonly known as the stamp duty assessment and pay-in slip, which is complicated in quadruplicate. The stamp duty is collected by the Government through the Kenya Revenue Authority and should be paid to the Commissioner of Domestic Taxes through various banks which have been appointed as collecting agents. Currently, these banks include Kenya Commercial bank Limited (KCB), National Bank of Kenya Limited (NBK). Once the duty has been paid over the counter through the collecting bank, the documents are then lodged at the lands office for stamping with duty. The collector of stamp duties will normally stamp the documents once he is satisfied that the collect amount of stamp duty has been paid. The following are the rates applicable on transfer of land:- (a) where land is in a municipality- the duty is 4% of the market value of the land as determined by the Government valuer. The market value might be higher that the value indicated by the parties in the transfer documents. (b) where land is agricultural or outside a municipality- the duty is 2% of the market value of the land as determined by the Government valuer. (c) in respect of a charge or mortgage – the duty payable is 0.1% of the mortgage amount. One the transfer and/or the charge or mortgage has been stamp duty, the transfer documents accompanied by the original titles, land rent and rates clearance certificate, consent to transfer and the valuation reports and stamp duty declaration, assessment and pay-in-slip should be booked of registration. Where the purchaser is being financed, the mortgage/ charge and consent to charge must also be booked or lodged for registration together with the transfer. Registration The final process of land purchase is the registration of the transfer in favour of the purchaser. Once the duly registered transfer has been released to the purchaser or his advocate, it is important to verify registration by conducting a search over the property. Where the purchaser is being financed, the duly registered documents including the original title, transfer and mortgage/charge are forwarded to the financier to enable its settle the balance of the purchase price. These will be held by the bank/financier until the loan has been repaid in full.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 19:35:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015