Toriola said that the new requirements would prevent fraud in transferring home ownership and protect people who may have lost their homeownership documents.
He said, “In a bid to eradicate fraud in the transfer of homeownership and protect the interests of allottees in cases of loss of homeownership documents, all applications relating to the transfer of homeownership are to be accompanied with evidence of home ownership, a search conduct result and a valid means of identification in cases of loss of homeownership documents.”
According to him, an allottee who applies for transfer of ownership must accompany his/her application with a letter of allocation, payment receipts, and a valid means of identification to be submitted to the Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Housing.
He said the move was to ascertain the genuineness of claims of ownership by applicants for proper transfer, which has become necessary given the increased incidents of false claims uncovered by the ministry.
He added, “However, the permanent secretary disclosed that henceforth, homeowners applying for replacement of lost documents must attach the homeowner(s) national identification card, police report and loss of document in the national newspaper to the application for processing and confirmation of ownership.
