Idea 457 of 500. Cluster 24: Proof and trust, as a business
Court-record and land-registry search services for the buyer abroad
The mechanism, from the book
The one thing. A country where people do not expect the rules to hold cannot build anything else, and proof can be manufactured by private people, one published record at a time.
Every idea in cluster 24 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Offer one Sri Lankan buyer abroad, found through a community group abroad, a free search on the land they are about to buy: the title history at the land registry and any case at the local court. Write it up in plain English with copies of every document and the date of each search. The proof is a buyer who asks for a second search and pays for it.
- Who pays first
- A buyer abroad about to pay for land at home, who pays for a search because one hidden dispute could cost the whole purchase.
- What leaves today
- Money from Sri Lankans abroad stays abroad when buyers cannot check a title from there; an honest search is the proof that brings the purchase home.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. SixThe Fridge by the Road
The fridge by the road: proof that the rules hold - Ch. FifteenThe Odds
13 of 101 countries made it, and what Singapore's prosecution cost
More from cluster 24
- 451A verified-review platform for Sri Lankan businesses where the reviewer is real and the review cannot be bought
- 452Escrow services for transactions between strangers, so that the money moves when the goods do
- 453Published price lists at the tourist sites and in the taxis, with a complaints line that answers
- 454A landlord and tenant rating service, since neither can currently check the other
- 455Contractor registries with completed jobs photographed and clients named
- 456Independent building inspection, so that a buyer abroad knows what was actually built
Idea 457 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.