@SG, the wife and the daughters are entitled to the land and hence their caution is taken seriously. The challenge is the fact that the caution can only be removed by the person who put it. The reason why the courts will not assist you is simply because it is procedural and a legal requirement to appear before the Land control Board so that the sale is sanctioned by close relatives of the Vendor and the board. Now that it never happened and a dispute arose, the courts will not rule in the favour of the Man. In fact, if the matter was to be presented to the court, then the much the court might do is rule that the man repays back your deposit with interest. To avoid all the mess, if the man can return the deposit, take it and run.

Plot sizes and Tenancy

If you look at a title deed, you’ll notice that the approximate area of the plot/land is normally in hectares.

1Ha = 2.47105381 Acres = 10,000 Square Meters
1cre = 0.404685Ha
1 Meter = 3.2808399 feet

Having understood the above, what is a 50 * 100? This is usually in feet. If you look at a plot that is 50*100 (exact measurements), then the same would translate to 15.24M*30.48M=464.5sqm=0.0464Ha

In real life, it is very hard to find a plot whose exact measurements are 50ft by 100ft so the most important thing to look at is the area as long as the width of the plot is not too narrow for your purposes, of course you will not even be able to subdivide a strip which is 10ft by 500ft.
From the above, 100ft by 100ft should be 0.0928Ha.

Then what is 1/8th of an acre. In terms of the area then, it must be 0.404685/8 = 0.5058Ha.
People in Kenya loosely refer to 1/8th acre as 50*100. Of course there is a slight difference in terms of the area but not so much hence the confusion.

Tenancy

In Kenya, we got two types of tenancy i.e. if we are to look at it largely (absolute ownership and leases).

Absolute ownership which we normally refer to as freehold which essentially means you own the land absolutely and there is no time limit pegged on the ownership.

Leased tenancy is where you own the land for a limited time but subject to renewal of the tenancy/lease. Ordinarily, this one attracts land rent payable to ministry of land and rates payable to the municipal council. However, even freehold titles sometimes attract rates especially when located within municipalities. We got 99 year leases (most of them), and of course the infamous 999 year leases given to those British settlers. All of these will revert to 99 years.

Someday I came across a lease whose land rent is peppercorn. This means a rent that is very low or nominal and the reason they put it there is to avoid removing it entirely for legal purposes coz returning the rent would be a problem. By the way, land rent is revisable. You’ll find amounts like 100shs per annum which may have been set at the time of issuance of the title many years ago. Back then it could have been a lot of money but the current value is too little.

We got another form of tenancy they call sectional titles which is derived from the Leased tenancy.

Sectional titles under the Sectional Titles Act (No. 21 of 1987 confers title to owners of sectional properties such as apartments which is an offshoot of the bigger lease. In such a case, a Management Company will be formed by the head- lessor to manage the common areas such as stair cases, pavements, driveways, swimming pool, gym, club house, lifts, etc. The company will also purchase the reversionary interest from the head- lessor and hold it for the members for ease of renewal of lease when the term on head lease from the Government expires. Each lessee will be required to subscribe to the management company and should receive a share certificate for each unit owned. If they later desire to sell their apartment/ townhouse, both the lease and share certificate must be transferred to the new purchaser.

Next we shall look at the concept of change of user and controlling development.

Just before the expiry of your lease make sure you write a letter to the Commissioner of Lands informing him that you are the current holder of the lease and you are requesting for its renewal. You also must undertake to pay the charges attributable to the renewal.

The letter will be filed at records and a request dispatched to the land officer of the respective land registry where the Certificate of Lease was issued. This marks the start of a ka-process that involves several officer within the registry. After the request goes through a host of officers it ends up at the Commissioner who ideally will approve the renewal.

Take note of the special conditions that are on the initial lease and they needed to have been met before for ease of renewal. In fact, failure to meet those conditions may constitute reasonable grounds to deny you the renewal. Ideally in the case some of the conditions are no met, you'll receive some correspondence to that effect though in Kenya it is hard for you to be deny the renewal. Make sure you pay all accrued rent and rates.

By the way, failure to seek renewal may be construed to mean that you are no longer interest in the said land whereupon another person can be issued with another lease for the same land. By the way, there are sharks in town on the prowl for expired lease whose owners have not renewed.

Noted. That is the correct figure

@Marty. I made my first land purchase last year and ran into some trouble along the way. After following this thread I have realized that I was ignorant about the process. That said I hope you can give me some advice regarding my situation...I purchased land in lamu through an agent(who had and is doing legit deals with a couple of my friends) and paid an initial deposit of 45% and wrote up a sale agreement that the balance would be paid after the discharge letter was out and the land had been transferred to me. The agreement was drafted by a lawyer. However her first name was mispelt on her title and also some of the receipts for which she had paid for the land. An affidavit was drafted and signed to confirm that she is one n the same person.
Later on in the year after the Lamu port became more of a reality and prices shot up the land owner demanded more money. I refused and tried to place a caution but it was rejected since I did not go through the board. I now want to apply for an injunction. Please advice on the best approach

hook up a bro with this info and i applaud your effort
marqueelinecomps(at)gmail dotcom

Marty,thanks for the good work. my email address is njamuhia@yahoo.com .Thanks.

@Marty Kindly add me to your mailing list. kngari90@gmail.com

Thanks.

The vendor

Thanks for the emails Marty, great stuff!!