President Uhuru Kenyatta has signed into law the Sectional Properties Act, 2019 which will provide clear guidance on sectional ownership of property.
According to a statement from State House, the Sectional Properties Act, 2019 provides for the division of buildings into units to be owned by individual proprietors.
The new law will safeguard the rights of apartment owners against unscrupulous real estate companies as well as define what the developers and owners are entitled to in an apartment estate.
An example would be the affordable housing scheme launched by President Kenyatta which allows people to own different sections of the same building.
The government announced that it would soon be allocating the 1,370 units at the Park Road Affordable Housing Programme in Ngara.
“These are the apartments where you find that someone has bought a one-bedroomed house on the first floor while another buyer occupies a two bedroomed house on the third floor.
“Ultimately all the houses in the same building will belong to different people and the new law will help manage that,” a law researcher who spoke to Kenyans.co.ke defined.
It gives owners of sectional properties more powers and ownership in the use of the property.
Upon registration of the sectional property plan, the register of the parcel described in the plan is closed.
A separate register for each unit is opened and a title deed issued in respect of each housing unit.
As such, every level of such a building is considered an independent parcel of land. The move will go a long way in solving house ownership wrangles in Kenya.
