A lecturer with the Faculty of Law at the University of Cape Coast, Benedict Bosu Simpson, Esq., says property and land owners must be abreast with the new changes that have been made to the Land Act.
The changes in the Act make provisions for spouses’ property rights.
Passed into law in July 2020 and Gazetted on December 23, 2020, the Land Act 2020 consolidates the existing laws on land and land administration into a single act and is aimed at harmonizing these laws to ensure sustainable land administration and management and effective land tenure.
In an interview with ATL FM NEWS, Lawyer Bosu Simpson stated that the new Act requires all land documents (indentures) to be in the names of both spouses and must receive the consent of the other before the sale of any property acquired during marriage.
“Some of the interesting provisions in the Act 1036 are that it makes provision for spouses, so there is a provision known as the property right of spouses, and under that provision, it is now mandatory that all land documents or what we call the indenture must be in the names of the couple even the woman is not a Mrs. and the provision also allows the spouse’s concerns to be obtained when there are land transactions”.
According to him, anyone who employs land guards in their land-related activities should stop doing so because it violates the provisions of the Land Act 2020 (Act 1036).
“Now there is serious punishment under the law for land guards, so if you don’t have an interest in land but you go about town causing mayhem relative to land, there are serious strict provisions that now you can be sentenced to jail for engaging in activities that are synonymous with land guards, and so the public must be aware of this provision which is very instructive,” he said.
The new Land Act also seeks to hold chiefs accountable for land sales, as such, the lecturer said “chiefs, heads of families and heads of clans are accountable to family members and stool members for their stewardship, so they must be aware”.
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Source: Richard Osei Korankye/ATLFMNEWS
