it is assumed that whoever wants to buy a property must make sure it is free of engineering and other defects, not mortgaged to any party and approved for sale.
this process is called ‘due diligence,’ but the majority does not know how to carry out the task. therefore, an engineering office, for example, is tasked to perform the examination. nevertheless, this procedure is rarely followed in kuwait, hence, many problems occur after completion of the sale or during the process itself and things become complicated.
here, the buyer relies on the government – as usual – to act on his behalf to make sure that the property is free of construction violations, without paying attention to other important matters. the municipality delivers to the seller a ‘property description certificate’ (due diligence) which means it is free of building violations and it is allowed to complete the sale. without this certificate, the real estate registration department will not complete the sale.
it is noteworthy that the cassation court issued a verdict almost two years ago obliging the ministry of justice, in a specific case, to validate the sale without the certificate in question. a second ruling was issued by the deliberation or counseling room which annulled or canceled the previous verdict, thus, such a certificate is required for completion of the sale process.
obviously, the law on buying and selling real estate in kuwait is backward, hence, the need for modern legislation. however, some of the miserable members of the national assembly do not pay attention to such vital matters in a purely commercial state.
the municipality’s insistence to refuse to issue real estate certificates for violating buildings and refusal to transfer ownership resulted in the large number of violating buildings due to rampant nepotism and the willingness of many to buy properties despite the defects. this is due to the lax application of the law while the owners of such properties want to get rid of them so they circumvent municipal laws and complete sale transactions for violating real estate through illegal ways. this is what a friend working in the ministry of justice told me.
perhaps, this prompted mp omar al-tabtabaei to raise a parliamentary question to the minister of justice about the irregularties in the real estate registration department. he demanded for information like the procedures and conditions for transferring ownership of real estate and real estate registration.
he also inquired about the legal basis which gives authority to the director of the real estate registration department to issue a circular that gives power to the head of technical affairs to approve specific letters issued by kuwait municipality. he requested for copies of all decisions and circulars issued by the minister, undersecretary, assistant undersecretary for real estate registration and authentication affairs and the real estate registration department director regarding the validity of due diligence certificates.
he asked if the officials or leaders in the real estate sector approved the expired due diligence certificates in accordance with the circulars issued by the sector.
he asked if the minister requested for the opinion of technical advisers or others on transactions excluded from the certificates in sabah al-ahmad marine area, adding that one of the employees in the real estate registration department submitted a memorandum to the minister’s office on april 16, 2018 regarding some anomalies in the department. he wants to know if the minister reviewed the memorandum and what steps were taken by the minister regarding the investigation of the memorandum.
from all this, we see that there is ‘something’ going on in the management of the real estate registration department, and there is a need to review and amend the law on transferring ownership of real estate.