A seller telling you land is registered, and land actually being registered, are two different things until you've confirmed it independently. The good news is that confirming it isn't complicated or informal. There's a specific legal mechanism for it, built directly into the Land Act.

The actual mechanism

Under Section 222 of the Land Act, 2020, anyone can apply to the Lands Commission to conduct an official search of its own records. Once you've paid the prescribed fee, the Commission has fourteen days to issue you a report. That report covers registered instruments affecting the land, and, just as importantly, any pending applications for registration on the same parcel. The law treats the resulting report as presumed conclusive of what it states.

In plain terms, this single application tells you two things a seller's word never can: whether the instrument you're being shown is genuinely registered, and whether anyone else has an application in progress on the same land right now, something a seller might not even know about themselves if a family dispute is unfolding quietly elsewhere.

The Lands Commission also publishes something useful in the background. Under Section 221, every office is required to compile and publish a general list of newly registered instruments, on its website and in an approved bulletin, within about three weeks of the end of each month. It's not a substitute for your own official search, but it's a real, public record that exists precisely so ownership information isn't locked away from public view.

Why so many buyers skip this step

The honest reason is usually convenience. A seller shows up with what looks like a proper document, everyone's in a hurry to close the deal, and paying a fee and waiting up to two weeks for an official search feels like friction nobody wants to add. It's also easy to assume that because a broker or agent is involved, the checking has already been done on your behalf. It usually hasn't, at least not to the standard a court will actually respect later.

Courts have been consistent about what this costs a buyer who skips it. In Bank of Africa Ltd v. Gracefield Merchants Ltd [2020] GHASC 2, the Supreme Court examined exactly what a proper search would and wouldn't have revealed at the time of a disputed transaction, treating the act of searching itself as central to whether a buyer could be considered to have acted prudently. The court's reasoning makes clear that whether you searched, and what a search would genuinely have shown at that specific time, is exactly the kind of fact a dispute turns on.

What a search actually protects you from

An official search doesn't just confirm a document exists. It's your best defense against the two most common ways buyers get burned: land sold to more than one person, where whoever registers first typically has the stronger claim, and land offered by someone who's already sold their interest to somebody else and has nothing left to sell. Both situations look identical to an untrained eye looking at a single piece of paper. A search against the Commission's own records is what actually distinguishes them.

What to actually do

Apply for an official search at the Lands Commission before you commit to anything, not after. Keep the report itself, not just a summary someone gave you over the phone, since the report is what the law treats as conclusive. If the timeline feels inconvenient, remember that two weeks of waiting is considerably shorter than the years a genuine ownership dispute can take to resolve.

See the steps from plot selection to registration.

This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Land law and registration requirements can vary by location and circumstance. Before making any decisions regarding land purchase, registration, or related legal matters, please consult a qualified, independent legal practitioner of your choosing.