Did you know that according to the Lands Act, Chapter 184 of the - TopicsExpress



          

Did you know that according to the Lands Act, Chapter 184 of the Laws of the Republic of Zambia, ALL real property owners are mandated to observe the terms and/or conditions of their Lease Agreement with the President of the Republic of Zambia contained in every Certificate of Title or Letter of Offer? And that failure to observe ANY such condition or term in the Lease Agreement or Letter of Offer may result in the Commissioner of Lands acting on behalf of the President of the Republic of Zambia through delegated authority,to commence legal proceedings against a Lessee (or Landholder) to repossess the land from such a Title Holder or Offeree? Well, Section 13 subsections 1 through to 3 of the Land Act mentioned above provides and we quote: “13 (1) Where a Lessee breaches a term or a condition of a covenant under this Act, the President shall give the Lessee three months notice of his intention to cause a Certificate of Re-entry to be entered in the register in respect of the land held by the Lessee and requesting him to make representations as to why a Certificate of Re-entry should not be entered in the register. (2) If the Lessee does not within three months make there presentations required under subsection (1), or if after making such representations, the President is not satisfied that a breach of a term or a condition of a covenant by the Lessee was not intentional or was beyond the control of the Lessee, he may cause the Certificate of Re-entry to be entered in the register. (3) A Lessee aggrieved with the decision of the President to cause a Certificate of Re-entry to be entered in the register may within thirty days appeal to the Lands Tribunal for an order that the register be rectified.” For instance, here is a real life case scenario that involved the application of the above quoted piece of law by the President of the Republic of Zambia working through the Commissioner of Lands via delegated authority. This real life case scenario involved Agrippa Njungu V. Commissioner of Lands and Richard Mbobela. This case is adopted from one of the cases decided by the Lands Tribunal LAT/ 14 98. In this case, Agrippa Njungu appeared as an appellant and the Commissioner of Lands and Richard Mbobela appeared as 1st and 2ndrespondents respectively before the Lands Tribunal. The appellant namely Agrippa Njungu testified before the Lands Tribunal that he was the Legal Title Holder of Plot Number 9096 situated in Lusaka, Zambia and that he was issued with the title deeds relating to the same land on the 13th of October, 1985. The 1st respondent namely the Commissioner of Lands issued a Certificate of Re-entry in line with the legal provisions contained in section 13 subsection 1 of the Land Act quoted above. However, the appellant responded back asking for an extension of time to give him chance to organize himself financially so he can develop the land as stipulated in the Lease Agreement. The appellant was granted an extension of time to allow him to carryout the necessary developments on the land in question but an inspection of the land done in the month of May, 1992 by some officials from the Ministry of Lands revealed that the foundation of the house had been dug but abandoned and there was only a heap of stones on the plot. The plot was then subsequently offered to the 2nd respondent namely Richard Mbobela and title deeds issued on the 11th of June, 1996 in his name. The issue that the Lands Tribunal was called upon to determine was whether the 1st respondent namely the Commissioner of Lands had properly repossessed plot number 9096 from the appellant. The Tribunal therefore held that the appellant namely Agrippa Njungu did NOT COMPLY with the terms and conditions contained in the Lease Agreement requiring him to erect a substantial structure within a stipulated time-frame. The Tribunal further discovered that even after being advised to commence developments on the land in question, the appellant DID NOT make any progress. The Tribunal eventually held that the 1st respondent namely the Commissioner of Lands properly repossessed plot number 9096 from the appellant and did not find any anomaly whatsoever in the allocation of the plot to the 2nd respondent namely Richard Mbobela. And actually, the decision taken by the 1strespondent namely the Commissioner of Lands to repossess the land from the appellant namely Agrippa Njungu for not strictly abiding by the terms,conditions and provisions of the lease agreement and the subsequent upholding of such a decision by the Lands Tribunal is actually supported by Article 16clause (2) (J) found in Part III of the current Zambian Constitution which says and we quote: “(2) Nothing contained in or done under the authority of Any Law shall be held to be Inconsistent with or in contravention of clause (1) to the extent that it is shown that such Law provides for the taking Possession or Acquisition of Any Property or Interest therein or Right there over – “(j) In terms of Any Law relating to abandoned, unoccupied, unutilized or undeveloped land, as defined in such law”. OUR ADVICE Make sure that when You buy and/or invest in a piece of land, You religiously follow the terms and conditions contained in Your Lease Agreement or Letter of Offer availed to You by either the Council or Ministry of Lands. As failure to not abide by any one of the terms and conditions contained therein may result in Your loosing Your valuable and precious piece of land to another person as highlighted in the case above. So, wise up and avoid such inconveniences if You happen to own any kind of land in the Republic of Zambia! However, there are other many and varied ways land owners may legally loose their interest or rights in land in the Republic of Zambia.But such other ways are beyond the scope of today’s article. So, this article is NOT meant to scare people away or rather to scare potential real estate investors - whether local or foreign Investors -to avoid investing in real property in the Republic of Zambia. No. The actual purpose of today’s article is to simply shed some light on some of the most common, unintentional and mistaken ways that lead many bonafide land owners to innocently and legally loose their interest or rights in land to the state and eventually to other individuals and/or corporate entities that have the financial muscle to develop the land in question. In fact, Article 16 clause (1) in Part III of the current Zambian Constitution, guarantees a Person’s Interest in or Right over Property of Any description and CANNOT be compulsorily acquired, unless by or under the authority of an Act of Parliament as noted above which provides for payment of adequate compensation for the property or interest or right to be taken possession of or acquired. Article 16 clause (1) is hereby reproduced below for your own information and personal reference: “Except as provided in this Article, property of any description shall not be compulsorily taken possession of, and interest in or right over property of any description shall not be compulsorily acquired,unless by or under the authority of an Act of Parliament which provides for payment of adequate compensation for the property or interest or right to betaken possession of or acquired” Therefore, this should offer some great relief to real property investors who might have developed cold feet as a result of having read today’s article. So, take heart and be encouraged that your real property investments are 100% protected unless you yourself happen to abrogate the law intentionally!!! Hope You enjoyed reading today’s article. And if you did, then please “LIKE” our Page to support us as well as help spread this good information to the people you love and care about. ______________________________________________________
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 08:41:06 +0000

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