Accra , June 18, GNA – Alhaji Collins Dauda, Minister of Lands and Natural resources announced on Friday that a new bill is being prepared t o consolidate the country’s land laws.
The bill also seeks to update obnoxious aspects of the Lands Development (Protection of Purchasers) Act. He said 1960 Act 2 is one of the laws slated for repeal in the new legislation. Alhaji Dauda was answering a question tabled by Mr Kwesi Ameyaw Cheremeh, Member of Parliament for Sunyani East. The Minister said the Act was enacted to protect purchasers of land whose titles were found to be defective after a building had been erected on the land.
He said the rational for the Act was to give protection to people wh o might have acquired land out of good faith but not through the rightful owner.
Alhaji Dauda explained that the three conditions that qualified one to seek protection under the Act included taken a conveyance in a prescribed
area after 31 December 1944, whilst the purchaser or a person making clai ms had in good faith erected a building on the land. Proceedings must also be provided for one to obtain possession order in relation to the land on the ground that a person other than the purchaser or a person claiming through the purchaser is entitled to the land. Alhaji Dauda said under the Act, a person was considered to have erected a building if he or she had carried out the greater part of the w ork required for the construction of the building.
He said the interpretation of this provision had given cause to the misconception that when a property had been developed up to lintel level it would not be demolished. By Legislative Instrument 118 of 1961 part of Accra was declared a prescribed area. The areas co prised the coastal areas, Asylum Down, Kokomlemle and Adabraka.
Source: GhanaWeb
