Samoa Realty & Investments Ltd - Land Tenure

<body BACKGROUND="../images/sril_backgrd.JPG" text="blue"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td> <p align="center"><big><big><font face="Arial">Samoa Realty Ltd</font></big></big><br> </p> <p align="center"> </p> </td></tr></table><table dir="ltr" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td valign="top" width="1%"> <p><br>  </p> </td><td valign="top" width="24"></td><td valign="top"> <p><small><font face="Arial">This page uses frames, but your browser doesn't support them. </font></small></p> <h3 align="center"><font color="black" face="Arial"><small><small>Land Tenure</small></small></font></h3> <hr> <p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><font face="Arial"><small>Attached is our background paper, <i>"Land Tenure in Samoa"</i> which gives an excellent explanation into the relationship of people and land in Samoa, which is unique. The report shows that as of 1982, 23% of land was classified as freehold and capable of being bought sold and mortgaged. Customary land is restricted by law and cannot be alienated: mortgaged, bought, or sold. Of the estimated 66,200 hectares of freehold land 44,900 ha was showing as government (including WSTEC now SLC). Many freehold parcels registered at Lands and having original Court Grants and Crown Grants do not appear on Lands Cadastral Maps and are not "known" to be freehold. We have inspected may Court Grants and deeds at Lands which are probably</small><font size="1"> </font><small>not properly included in the freehold classification. As an example, there is one freehold deed in Falealili for 28,000 acres or about 11,300 ha that is commonly presumed to be customary land.</small></font></p> <p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><small><font face="Arial">The Treaty of Berlin in 1889 annexed Samoa to Germany, established the first united Samoan State, and set up the Supreme Court to adjudicate all previous deeds. The Supreme Court required the then current freehold landowners to file a land claim. These land claims could be challenged in court with court hearing and translations into Samoan and various European languages. The land claimant needed to produce the valid deed, which previous to that time were largely registered with Consulates. The land claimant was required to have occupied the land for the preceding 10 years, and could not have purchased the land with firearms or liquor. If a complete investigation of registered Court Grants and Crown Grants were completed, we believe that substantially more land would be mapped and shown as freehold land both on Upolu and Savaii.</font></small></p> <p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><small><font face="Arial">Samoas title system follows common law title. It is a system of title documents (called deeds of conveyance) which trace the "chain of title" to the land by reference to the various owners of the land. In other words, to establish the title of the present owner, a potential purchaser of the land has to trace the owners title back to the original Crown Grant of title or to the original Supreme Court Grant. This involves the examination of all documents (ie. deeds of conveyance, as well as mortgages, wills and other documents relevant to title) to ensure that the land is not subject to interests not mentioned in the purchase and sale agreement which might take priority over that of the purchaser. A thorough search of all previous deeds through the Land Register needs to be made to trace a vendors title to an unchallengeable beginning, ie to a "good root of title" being the Crown Grant or Court Grant.</font></small></p> <p ALIGN="JUSTIFY"><small><font face="Arial">Samoa follows a Registration system where all documents which are registered in conformity with the registration of deeds legislation have priority over other instruments, whether registered or not, according to the date of their registration. However, registration does not give a document any greater validity than that which it intrinsically possesses. Registration merely gives a document priority and no more. Accordingly, even if a deed is registered, the efficacy of a transaction depends on the deeds, which if inherently defective, create similar defects in the chain of title. Expert advice is best sought as to the validity of the chain of title, to completion of settlement of a property transaction and to the correctness of registration. Samoa does not have a Torrens title system.</font></small></p> <hr> </td></tr></table></body>