29 May 2017

A title deed is a collection of documents that trace the line of ownership of one’s property and it has to have a survey diagram prepared by a registered surveyor and a lease document prepared by land board.

In an interview, public relations officer at Registrar of Deeds-Francistown, Ms Mpho Zachariah said it was important for Batswana to have title deeds for their plots.

By so doing, Ms Zachariah noted that would make the owner to have full entitlement over their property.

“A title deed is for every Motswana who wants to have proof of ownership of a piece of land in Botswana, and this is to have a title over land,” she said.

On how to acquire a title deed, she said for state land, one was allowed to acquire land for a fixed period of 99 years for residential and 50 years for commercial land.

At the end of the period, she said the land reverted back to the owner, who was government.

“Having a title over land can be used as surety to borrow money from the financial institutions like commercial banks.

In this situation, the bank will value the land and if the value of the land is over the amount required, it will be used as security,” she noted.

About the processing of a title deed, she said the registration of title deeds was done by lawyers who deal with paper work, processing everything and lodge the documents with the Registrar of Deeds to get a new title deed.

She said registering land under Registrar of Deeds and obtaining a registered title, provided a safe and simple way of dealing with property.

She added that a registered title was a state guaranteed and in case the owner suffered loss of an estate because of a mistake or omission in the register by the Registrar of Deeds, the affected person may be able to get compensation.

“Disputes regarding the ownership or rights over the land might be resolved more easily and once registered by plan, each title deed is given an official plan of the land and this can be used to prevent any encroachment by trespassers on boundaries.”

Ms Zachariah noted that registering land with deeds office reduced the cost of dealing with land because it makes land records simpler and protected a bona fide purchaser for value in case of fraudulent dealing. ENDS