The Association participated in a training for small business owners on land and property rights at the Castle Royal Hotel in Mombasa
Recognizing that land is a market commodity, the Centre of International Private Enterprises (CIPE)and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) conducted a study to look into the strength of urban, commercial property markets. The following challenges were found to impede on the small businesses:
1. Insufficient property rights protection, especially tenant rights that are often based on informal arrangements.
2. Challenges in obtaining cadastral information from the lands registry.
3. Cases of illegal evictions, and limited access to access to dispute resolution mechanisms
4. Difficulty in accessing credit from commercial banks.
5. Allegations of corruption in many local councils and authorities
6. Inadequacy of regulations that govern small businesses
To address the above challenges, the ISK is developing a guidebook on land and property transactions that affect business especially the small and medium Enterprises (SMEs).The guide book that will also be able to train small business holders on land and property transactions focuses on:
1. Process and legal requirements involved in land and property transactions including sale, transfer, licenses, Lease, mortgage, donation, alienation and succession.
2. The rights and obligations of each parties to these transactions.
3. Legal avenues available to redress disputes including alternative dispute resolution and procedures involved.
4. The role of real estate professionals in each of the property transaction,
5. Definition of terminologies in transactions
6. Templates for use when it comes to property transactions e.g. sale agreements, lease agreements, licenses, land control consent, transfer documents, title documents.
Guide books were given to all the members in attendance, the organizers promised to provide additional copies to the Associations for distribution to the membership