Legal Checks when purchasing land

[AaronB13]

Tuners,

I'm attempting to make a downpayment on a parcel of land, but wanted to perform a search to verify that the land is legally owned by the person attempting to sell it to me. Their agent sent me to someone at the Ministry of Legal Affairs office who they said would perform the search, but on receiving the information from the person, all the previous deeds attached were photocopies with stamps and writing etc.

Now i'm not 100% sure how these systems work when doing the title search, but I would assume that the documents pulled would be untouched and that original copies would have been presented on official paper?

Wondering if these are forged documents or not, and how an official search should look? I would like to take the right approach and perform the search at the counter, but the agent is asking for a hasty decision as there are many other interested parties, which has me concerned that they are trying to scare me into losing the opportunity to obtain the land.

Any advice and details on things to look out for when purchasing land would also be appreciated if anyone can advise (in terms of avoiding being scammed)?

Thanks!

[nervewrecker]

Talk to an attorney or take a small loan. The bank will cover their asses and make sure its a legal purchase.

[mitsutt]

Bro if you are not certain of the procedure why not hire an attorney to handle this for you correctly.

[tr1ad]

Like is everyone on the internet now except common sense (to utilise an attorney)

[android79]

I dont think OP looking to mine them attorneys, he want to know where you could go to make the same checks these attorneys going and make and then
charge you one set a money. There was an old post somewhere with the information just cant find it now. No attorney going and prosper over my laziness especially in these times.

[cueball1990]

if you have info about the land like the current owner name or the address you can go to registrar general and order a certified copy of the deed. if you do that you can see all the information about the property. once the land is legally owned there will be a deed for it. registrar general usually holds the last registered deed for said property so you can be sure of who the owner is and other details. lawyers usually use search clerks to use computers at the land registry to look up deeds and view documents. you can also do that but you will have to set up an account. the cost per search is 10 dollars.

[Dizzy28]

Talk to an attorney or take a small loan. The bank will cover their asses and make sure its a legal purchase.

If you intended to purchase cash from the onset just hire the attorney (reputable) as with a bank you still responsible for the legal fees on top of interest and bank charges that goes along with a loan.

[jl6106]

Anyone can get copies of a deed, more diligence is required.

[rspann]

Op, a fool and his money are soon parted, just remember that. Why would you take advice from the person who is selling ,or their agent ? I know of a scam where they advertise ,send you to someone they know and that person is also in the scam. The one where someone else is interested, is an old trick to get you to fling out a down payment faster( know a lot of instances.) . If it seems too good to be true, it usually is.

Doing the search yourself? Thank God you don't need a triple bypass surgery. What experience do you have to spot mistakes ( historical). When you do the search and get what they planted, how are you going to know? I know of cases where deed registrations are reversed by the court because the fraudsters can actually get a false deed registered. Go ask fraud squad the amount of cases the have with this type of fraud . They can't even handle new cases because of the amount.

If you want to secure your investment ,let a solicitor / conveyancer do the transaction. It's better to lose the deal than to lose your hard earned money. They are responsible by law if they do the search and anything goes wrong. That is why ,if you don't want to do the search ,they make you sign a waiver ,that makes you take the responsibility if anything goes wrong.

I buy land on a regular basis and have never had those kind of problems. It is not even expensive, just a couple of hundred dollars to do a search. There are also lawyers whose fees are reasonable. If you want ,pm and I'll put you on to someone who will do it the right way.

[nervewrecker]

Talk to an attorney or take a small loan. The bank will cover their asses and make sure its a legal purchase.

If you intended to purchase cash from the onset just hire the attorney (reputable) as with a bank you still responsible for the legal fees on top of interest and bank charges that goes along with a loan.

Bank and attorney fee is about the same iirc.
Advantage with the bank is you build a lil credit rating.
I used the attorney btw. Bank keep bothering me to take a loan and I keep forgetting to take one.

[The_Honourable]

Be careful out there

Two charged for trying to defraud cop with land scheme

Two people have been remanded into custody after they appeared before a magistrate to face charges of fraud and forgery when they tried to sell a plot of land they did not own to a senior policeman.

Police said the first division officer saw an advertisement for land for sale in Santa Cruz in a newspaper late last year and called the number provided.

The officer made arrangements to meet the people who advertised the land for sale.

He met a man and woman who claimed to be the owners of the land at an attorney's office, where they showed him a deed, passports and national Identification Cards which they claimed to own.

The officer became suspicious as there were several inconsistencies in the story of how the acquired the land and made a report to the Fraud Squad who launched an investigation.

The investigation revealed that the deed, ID cards and passports were all forged.

Police arranged a sting operation last Thursday and arrested the man and woman at Long Circular Mall, St James.

They were charged with a total of seven charges which include forgery by possession, uttering a forged document and conspiracy to commit fraud.

They appeared before a San Fernando magistrate on Monday to face the charges.

Police suspect the man and woman held are part of a larger network of fraudsters who use forged documents to defraud the public.

https://newsday.co.tt/2023/05/12/two-ch ... nd-scheme/

[bluefete]

^^ So they did not arrest the lawyer too?