Ghana: Conflicting Interests In Land: How The Courts Have Been Resolving Conflicting Interests In Land In Ghana

It is always advisable that one undertakes due diligence before acquiring a land in Ghana. However, notwithstanding the extent of due diligence a person undertakes, there is no guarantee that the land in contention will be free from adverse interest.

Lands in Ghana are typically owned by families, Stools and individuals. Lands Commission, the state authority mandated to keep all data of ownership of lands in Ghana, do not have the accurate data of the respective ownerships of lands in Ghana. Therefore, getting the accurate information about the ownership of a particular land to make a timely decision over a particular piece of land has always been a challenge.

Therefore, it is very difficult to verify ownership of any particular land at the time of purchase. As result of the above, criminals and other persons over the years have taken advantage of the situation to undertake illegal sales resulting in double sales and other disputes over the particular land.

Obviously, once disputes in respect of above land issues arises, the court has always been the last resort in resolving disputes of competing interests over the land. Due to the challenges indicated above, the court over the years have used innovative ways to adjudicate disputes in respect of competing interests over land issues in Ghana.

RESOLVING COMPETING INTEREST

ROOT OF TITLE

The court when confronted to resolve competing interests over a land, first of all, normally tries to establish the allodial (original) owners of the land. After establishing the allodial owners of the land, the secondly step is to satisfy itself which of the competing parties traces their root of title to the established allodial owners.

Once the allodial owners are established, the next step is for the court to determine, among of the disputing parties, which of them traces their root of title to the allodial owners.

In event where only one of the disputing parties traces their root of title to the established allodial owner, the court is likely to rule in favour of the party which traces their root of title to that allodial owner.

Therefore, there is a burden on the competing parties to prove to the standard of test that, their interest in the land traces to the proven or establish allodial owner.

SAME ROOT OF TITLE

However, it becomes more challenging where all the parties trace their interests from the same root of title. When this event occurs, the courts over the years and through decided cases have used innovative mechanisms to resolve the competing interests.

The court will normally take into consideration the following: the respective parties' documents covering the land, which registered or unregistered, and acts of possession over the disputed land.

DOCUMENTS COVERING THE LAND

The event where the two competing parties land documents are Unregistered

The court will first verify the parties' documents covering the land. In the event where none of the parties' land documents are unregistered and are not in possession of the disputed land, per the decided cases, the court is likely to rule in favour of the party whose document was first in time, That is the party who acquired the land first.

Registered and Unregistered Documents

Similarly, where none of the parties are in possession but one of the parties has registered their land document, the court is likely to rule in favour of the party who has registered his/her their land document or interest in the land. (Since Registration is deemed to be actual notice to the public)

POSSESSION OVER THE LAND

One of the factors that the court takes into consideration in resolving dispute over land is acts of possession at the material time.

Where one of the competing parties is in possession of the land but none of them has registered their land documents over the disputed land.

Where none of the land documents covering the land in dispute is registered but one of the parties is in possession of the disputed land, the court is likely to rule in favour of the party that is in possession of the land. (Possession is seen as a source of good or reliable title to land against the whole world except someone having a better legal right to possession. Possession may be exhibited in forms such as planting trees on the land, fencing the land, putting sand on the land etc.)

Where one of the competing parties is in possession of the land but one of the parties has registered their land documents over the disputed land.

The scenario is different when one of the parties has registered their land document over the disputed. Where the party in possession has registered their land document over the disputed land, it is always easy for the court to rule in favour of the party who have registered their land document and also in possession over the disputed land.

However, the challenge comes up where the party in possession of the disputed land has not registered its land document over the disputed land but the other party not in possession has registered its land document over the disputed land.

In the above scenario, the court will ascertain the time the party in possession took possession of the land. If it is established that the party in possession took possession of the land before the party with the registered land document registered their land documents or interest, the court is likely to rule in favour of the party in possession who do has not registered their land document.

However, where the party in possession took possession over the land after the other party had registered their land document or interest in the land, the court is likely to rule in favour of the party who is not in possession but had registered their land document or interest over the disputed land.

CONCLUSION

It is therefore important that any prospective buyer who intends to acquire any land or property should take every practical step to ascertain that the land they intend to acquire traces its root of title to the allodial (original) owners of the land and there are no acts of adverse possession or notices of any other party interest on the land.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.