What Litmus Is

Kenya's property market runs on documents that are difficult to verify and easy to misread. A title search at the Land Registry tells you what was registered. It does not tell you whether the registration was complete, whether encumbrances were properly discharged, or whether the physical parcel matches the paper record. The gap between the register and the ground is where transactions fail, loans go bad, and disputes begin.

Litmus was built to close that gap on a per-parcel basis. The category is parcel-first collateral intelligence: an independent, attested decision summary on a named parcel, produced by a named human verifier who physically inspected the registry records and cross-checked them against field evidence.

This is not a legal service. It is not a valuation. It is not a credit score. It is a verified factual record — delivered in 72 hours as a signed, reference-numbered PDF/A document — so that the legal, lending, or property professional receiving it can make their own judgement on a foundation they can trust.

Litmus takes a specific parcel instruction (a title number, a property reference, a physical address) and produces an attested dossier within the agreed service level. The dossier contains:

• The registered ownership record as at the date of inspection.
• A summary of encumbrances, caveats, and charges appearing on the register.
• A chain-of-custody note showing how the title history was verified.
• An NLIS cross-check result (where NLIS terminal access is active for the relevant registry).
• A field verification note where the matter scope includes a physical site check.
• The named verifier's signed attestation and reference number.

Every dossier is delivered in PDF/A format with a unique attestation reference number. Clients can cite the reference number in their own documents, filings, or credit reports. The reference number is searchable in our records for 7 years.

Litmus has eight categories of work we decline in every engagement, with no exceptions. These are not carve-outs we negotiate. They are the boundary of the product.

1. Legal opinions. We do not advise on whether a transaction should proceed, whether a title is “clean” in the legal sense, or whether any specific risk is material. Legal advice is a regulated profession. Our dossier is factual input to your professional judgement — not a substitute for it.
2. Valuations. We do not value property. We do not estimate market value, replacement cost, or collateral adequacy. These require a licensed valuer. Our dossier tells you what the register shows; it does not tell you what the asset is worth.
3. Expert witness testimony. Our dossiers are prepared according to court-documentation standards, but we do not appear as expert witnesses. We do not prepare affidavits. We do not provide reports framed as evidence in litigation.
4. Credit scoring. We do not assess creditworthiness. We do not score borrowers, guarantors, or security providers. Our dossier is collateral intelligence, not credit intelligence.
5. Title insurance. We do not insure against title defects. We report what the register shows; we do not warrant it. Our liability is limited to the cost of the dossier.
6. Beneficial ownership tracing. We do not trace the ultimate beneficial owner behind a registered entity. We report the registered owner as it appears on the title.
7. Fraud investigation. We identify discrepancies between the register and field evidence. We do not investigate the origin of those discrepancies or provide investigative reports for law enforcement or litigation.
8. Planning and land-use advice. We do not interpret planning consents, zoning classifications, or development conditions. These require a licensed planner or local authority correspondence.

A dossier that tries to do everything is a dossier that does nothing well. Every time we refuse to opine on something outside our scope, we are protecting the integrity of what we do opine on. Our named verifiers are accurate because they are not under commercial pressure to produce a favourable outcome on matters we have no basis for assessing.

The refusal log on this Trust Center records every matter we have refused to attest and why. It is public. A prospective client who sees a long refusal log should read it as evidence that the attestations we do provide are independently produced — not as evidence of a limited service.

If you need a legal opinion, we can tell you which Nairobi firms we have worked with. If you need a valuation, we can tell you which licensed valuers are familiar with our dossier format. We do not refer in exchange for fees. We refer because it is the most useful thing we can do when your question is outside our scope.