The NationalLandCommission (NLC) has ordered that all 999-year-oldlandleases to multinational tea companies in Kericho, Bomet and Nandi counties be converted to the constitutional requirement of 99 years. NLC announced the decision in a Gazette notice No. 4512 dated April 6. The decision has brought joy to members of the Talai clan and the Kipsigis community who have been fighting for years over historicallandinjustices. “The Commission orders that all 999-year-old leases should be converted to the constitutional requirement of 99 years,” read the gazette notice in part. The Commission gave the orders following an investigative hearing of historicallandinjustices complaints taken to NLC in 2017 by the county government of Kericho on behalf of the Talai clans and the Borowo and Kipsigis self-help groups versus the colonial government and the government of Kenya. The Commission recommended that a resurvey be done on thelandsbeing held by the tea estates in three counties to determine if there is any surpluslandor residue to be held in trust for the community by the county government for public purposes. It further added that the renewal of thelandleases be withheld until the county governments and the multinationals reach an agreement. “The Commission further recommends that the renewal of…

It was billed as a game-changing one-stop-shop, but two years since its launch, Ardhi Sasa is the bane of many stakeholders in the real estate sector. Lawyers, property financiers, property agents and surveyors estimate that transactions worth at least Sh100 billion are stalled at Ardhi House due to the inefficiency of the Ardhi Sasa system–an online national land information system– on delivering on the transaction processes and approvals required during conveyancing. Property players who represent buyers, sellers or those seeking equity release on their properties say over the last six months, thousands of their transactions have been pending at theArdhi Sasa system awaiting approvals with no given timeline. At the heart of the delay is the verification of surrendered original certifications based on physical files which have since been moved to Ruaraka for storage away from the Ministry of Lands headquarters in Nairobi. Physical verification “The whole cadaster needed to have been digitised and automated before rolling out the Ardhi Sasa system. Why say a system is digitised and still usephysical files for verification? It is even more disturbing when the physical files to be used for verification are stored in the other part of town and not at the…

Suppose you decide to purchase real estate to rent it out and generate passive income, then you need proper guidance to make the most of your investment. If you do not have the time or capacity to manage your rental property yourself, then consider outsourcing this task to a property manager. In either case, you need to properly understand how property management works. What is Property Management? Property management describes the supervision of residential, industrial, and commercial properties, ranging from apartments to duplexes and shopping centers. The property manager, in this case, administers the property on behalf of its owner, serving to preserve their investment interests by protecting the property’s integrity and value. How Property Management works A property manager may be the owner, or an intermediary between the owner of the property, and tenants of the property. A professional property manager has an excellent idea of the real estate industry and is poised to handle everything involved in the rental market. They work in favor of your interests by managing tenants, budgets, maintenance, rents, and rental property records. They know the right approach to screen tenants, handle payments, terminate leases, and effect evictions. Briefly, they manage the property on…

Let us face it; if you are living in an apartment, you probably do not have that dream bathroom featuring a Jacuzzi tub and walk-in shower. You are probably cramped on space and do not have the opportunity to make any big changes. However, there are a few things you can do to optimize the space and make the bathroom look bigger than it actually is. You do not need to be an interior designer or undergo a big bathroom remodel to get the most out your small space. These small bathroom ideas should do the trick. 1. Step up your storage. Optimizing your storage space is crucial in a small bathroom. If you are like most people, your bathroom likely contains an abundance of toiletries. Having them lying all over, the place will look clumsy and make any small bathroom feel cluttered. Invest in products that improve organization, decrease clutter, and create open space. Think about adding shelving units, expanding under sink organizers, and compacting linen closets. Medicine cabinets are a great addition as they add storage and an extra mirror, which both help small bathrooms look larger. 2. Remove the clutter. Speaking of decreasing clutter, get rid of…

Justice Abigail Mshila held that if the asset provided as collateral or security fails to fetch the amount enough to settle the debt, a lender is barred from going for the guarantors. In a ruling that is likely to serve as a respite to many guarantors, the court further ruled that a lender is not entitled to any compensation if the asset held as security is auctioned and still the sums undue are not recovered. She held that auctions free up guarantors who then cannot continue to be part of collateral after the lender opts to auction assets owned by the principal borrower. The judge made the findings while setting aside a statutory demand issued by Ecobank to listed property developer Home Afrika for payment of a disputed Sh938 million loan. Justice Mshila said a lender cannot go for properties of a loan guarantor when it has already been allowed to sell assets of the principal borrower charged as security. Citing Section 97 of the Land Act, the judge said a lender is not entitled to any compensation if it is not in a position to recover the outstanding loan during an auction of the charged property. Ecobank had issued…

First-time homebuyers funded by savings and credit cooperative societies (saccos) will from July get a tax relief of up to Sh25,000 on their monthly salary in a proposed plan to amend the law by the Co-operatives ministry. Co-operatives Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui has pledged to push through the amendment to the Income Tax Act to extend mortgage reliefs to members of saccos who get loans to improve, build or buy homes for their own use. The deductions, which are equivalent to interest paid on home loans, currently apply to borrowers under commercial banks and mortgage lenders under Banking Act, building societies and National Housing Corporation’s tenant purchase scheme. “My ministry will work closely with… Kenya Revenue Authority to address the challenges affecting saccos on affordable housing… [including] alignment and operationalisation of the Income Tax Act to give effect to mortgage tax reliefs for the first-time home buyers who borrow from saccos by listing in the schedule qualifying mortgage loans providing institutions,” Mr Chelugui told sacco leaders during a forum on affordable housing in Nairobi. “This was entrenched through banks and we can extend the same to Saccos.” Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority chief executive Peter Njuguna assured the sacco chiefs the…