What is a clearance certificate under the Unit Titles Act?

A clearance certificate (s.30) is a document the body corporate issues when a unit is sold or refinanced, confirming the service charge arrears position at the date of transfer. The Act states that a purchaser is not liable for arrears beyond the amount stated on the certificate — making it both a buyer-protection mechanism and the body corporate's enforcement lever at the point of sale.

Can a new owner inherit the previous owner's service charge arrears?

Yes. Under ss.62–63, unpaid service charges attach to the unit — not the individual owner. When a unit is sold, the purchaser inherits accumulated arrears unless the body corporate issued a clearance certificate (s.30) stating the arrears position at transfer. The debt follows the concrete, not the person who incurred it.

Who issues the clearance certificate — the developer or the body corporate?

The registered body corporate issues the certificate once the building has five or more unit owners (s.35(3)). Before a formal body corporate exists, the developer or managing agent may hold financial records, but the statutory clearance mechanism applies once the association is registered. Buyers in new developments should confirm which entity holds the ledger and when the body corporate will assume responsibility.

Can the body corporate refuse to issue a clearance certificate?

The body corporate cannot unreasonably withhold a certificate, but it must state the accurate arrears position. A unit with TZS 5 million in unpaid service charges will receive a certificate reflecting that debt — which protects the association and informs the buyer. Withholding a certificate to block a sale without legal basis exposes the committee to dispute.

What should a buyer do if the seller cannot produce a clearance certificate?

Do not complete the purchase until a certificate is issued or the sale agreement explicitly allocates liability for disclosed arrears. Request the certificate directly from the body corporate secretary, verify the figure against the building's official payment records (not the seller's word), and retain a signed PDF dated close to the transfer date. If records are fragmented, treat the absence of a certificate as a red flag equal to undisclosed structural defects.

The hidden trap of buying an apartment in Dar es Salaam: why you need a clearance certificate

A consultant returning from Dubai closes on a two-bedroom in Masaki in March. The seller’s agent confirms everything is “up to date.” The lawyer handles the title transfer. Keys arrive on a Friday. On Monday, the body corporate secretary sends a formal demand: TZS 4.8 million in service charge arrears — accumulated over eighteen months by the previous owner, now legally attached to the unit.

The seller is in Nairobi. The agent says it is “not their problem.” The new owner discovers, too late, that Tanzanian property law does not care who ran up the debt. The debt follows the unit.

This is not a rare edge case. It is the default enforcement architecture of the Unit Titles Act — and the single most expensive surprise in Dar es Salaam’s condominium market.

What the law actually says — in plain English

Three sections of the Act govern this scenario. You do not need a law degree to understand them. You need to understand them before you sign.

Section 62 — arrears accrue interest. Unpaid service charges incur interest at the prevailing commercial lending rate. The body corporate can issue formal demand notices and pursue recovery.

Section 63 — arrears attach to the unit. The debt is not personal to the owner who failed to pay. It remains with the property. When the unit sells, the liability transfers with it.

Section 30 — the clearance certificate protects the buyer. When a unit is sold or refinanced, the body corporate issues a certificate stating the arrears position at the date of transfer. The purchaser is not liable for amounts beyond what the certificate states. Without a certificate — or with one that understates the debt — the buyer inherits the full position.

Section	What it means for buyers
s.62	Arrears grow. Waiting makes the trap deeper.
s.63	You buy the unit, you buy the debt — unless s.30 applies.
s.30	The certificate is your shield. Demand it before you pay.

For the full statutory framework, see the Unit Titles Act explainer.

Why buyers — especially diaspora and foreign investors — miss this

Search behaviour around Tanzanian property purchases clusters on location, price, and title deed validity. Service charge arrears rarely appear in agent brochures. Yet for registered condominiums under the Unit Titles Act, the clearance certificate is as important as the title search.

Foreign buyers often choose unit-title apartments precisely because outright land allocation under the Land Act requires approved investment structures. A registered condominium is a clean legal pathway — but clean title does not mean clean financial standing. The title deed confirms ownership of the unit. The clearance certificate confirms the unit’s standing with the body corporate.

Real estate agents, conveyancers, and mortgage lenders who operate in mature markets treat the clearance certificate as standard due diligence. In Dar es Salaam, it is still treated as optional — because most buildings lack the systems to produce one quickly, and most buyers do not know to ask.

Why committees struggle to issue accurate certificates

The clearance certificate is only as good as the ledger behind it. In most Tanzanian buildings, that ledger does not exist in any reliable form.

The typical record landscape:

Service charges collected to the treasurer’s personal M-Pesa number.
Cash payments logged in a notebook, if at all.
Three years of ownership changes never reflected in the register.
WhatsApp messages as the only “proof” that Unit 7B is current.

Producing a certificate from this environment requires the treasurer to reconstruct months of payments from memory, guess at partial payments, and hope nobody challenges the figure. Many committees delay issuance indefinitely — which blocks sales, frustrates owners, and pushes transactions toward informal “side agreements” that have no legal standing.

This week’s action (committee): Can you state, right now, the exact arrears balance for every unit in your building? If producing that list takes more than five minutes, you cannot issue a defensible clearance certificate — and every sale in your building carries inherited-debt risk.

When payments flow through a TIPS-integrated merchant account with per-unit reconciliation, the arrears position is live data — not a reconstruction project. Read how TIPS changed service charge collection for why payment rails matter at transfer time.

Buyer due diligence checklist — before you pay

Use this checklist at every stage of a condominium purchase. Share it with your conveyancer.

Stage	Action	Red flag
Before offer	Ask seller for 12 months of service charge receipts	No receipts, or payments to a personal number
Before contract	Request a draft clearance certificate from the body corporate	Committee says “we’ll sort it at completion”
Before deposit	Verify certificate date matches expected transfer date	Certificate older than 30 days
Before final payment	Confirm arrears figure on certificate matches body corporate records	Seller’s figure differs from committee’s
At completion	Retain signed PDF; confirm register updated with your name (s.51)	Register not updated within 7 days

The non-negotiable rule: A WhatsApp message from the seller saying “all charges paid” is not a clearance certificate. A verbal assurance from the agent is not a clearance certificate. Only a document issued by the body corporate — stating the arrears position at a defined date — satisfies s.30.

The committee perspective — certificate as enforcement, not obstruction

Committees sometimes treat clearance certificates as weapons — withholding them to punish difficult owners, or issuing them casually to keep sales moving. Both approaches create liability.

Issuing accurately protects everyone:

The buyer knows exactly what they are acquiring.
The seller cannot walk away from disclosed debt.
The body corporate maintains enforcement credibility.
Auditors and RERA inspectors see a traceable transfer log.

Every certificate should be logged with the date, unit, recipient, arrears position at issuance, and a retained PDF copy. This is item 12 on the RERA-readiness checklist — and it depends entirely on records that match reality.

For the collection workflow that keeps arrears visible before they reach crisis level, see 5 ways to reduce service charge arrears without conflict.

What audit-ready clearance looks like

A clearance certificate generated from a live ledger includes:

Unit identifier and title deed reference.
Arrears balance as of the certificate date — principal and accrued interest per s.62.
Any approved payment plan in effect.
Issuing officer name and committee role.
Timestamp and document reference for audit retrieval.

The figure on the certificate matches the system of record. There is no gap between what the treasurer believes and what the auditor finds. When the next owner sells, the chain continues without a six-month reconstruction exercise.

For the seven record bundles that underpin transfer compliance, see what audit-ready records look like.

This week’s action

If you are buying: Add “body corporate clearance certificate (s.30)” to your purchase checklist alongside title search and valuation. Ask your lawyer to make certificate delivery a condition precedent to completion.

If you sit on a committee: Pull the last three unit sales in your building. Was a clearance certificate issued for each? Is there a PDF on file? If not, your building is exposing every future buyer to inherited debt — and every future seller to blocked transactions.

If you are an agent or conveyancer: Standardise clearance certificate requests in every condominium transaction. The buildings that issue certificates quickly will close faster. The buildings that cannot will lose market appeal.

For buildings ready to issue clearance certificates from reconciled, TIPS-backed ledgers, book a Kasri demo — clearance in minutes, not weeks.

Updated July 2026 for RERA draft status.