Purchasing Landed Properties in Nigeria — Issues Arising (Part 1)
By Julius Nnamani, Esq.
A person who wants to acquire landed property in Lagos State — or in any part of Nigeria — should be prepared to consult those who will help them carry out due process before parting with their money.
A prospective buyer of landed property in Lagos State should watch out for zoning precepts and master plans in different parts of the state. Aside from different types of land — such as community/family land, land subject to a will or testamentary disposition, estate landed property and mortgaged property — several state governments have master plans for different parts of the state. One hears of agric-zoned land, industrial layouts and other policy descriptions of land by the government. Those lands set aside by government, bearing in mind the use to which the land will be applied for the purpose of development, can be described as acquisitions.
A legal practitioner is required to help a prospective purchaser of real property carry out due process on the particular land they are interested in. Such a solicitor is expected to check for the following types of title:
1. Global Acquisition (free or committed)
Where land is under general acquisition it can be free, or committed in future. A general acquisition can be released if an individual purchased land that was under acquisition without going through an excision process. Such land can go through a process called ratification or regularisation, in which the land owner pays for the land to be ratified or regularised. In other words, regularisation is a process of allocating government land to someone who had previously occupied it without lawful authority from the government.
2. Excision
Excision is a process whereby government releases land to the owners following a settlement between the government and the family or land owners.
3. Gazette
A gazette is an official record book where special government details are spelt out and recorded. A gazette will show the hectares or acres that have been either excised or acquired. The best way to know whether land is under acquisition or excision is to get a cadastral surveyor to chart the site and take it to the Surveyor-General's office for confirmation.
4. Certificate of Occupancy (C of O)
After the enactment of the Land Use Act in March 1978, where all land in the territory of the state was vested in the Governor, every land owner now has only a right of use of the land. In that case a Certificate of Occupancy is issued to users in urban areas upon application to the Governor, while land in rural areas attracts customary rights of occupancy.
5. Governor's Consent
Any subsequent transaction on landed property that has a Certificate of Occupancy requires the consent of the Governor of the state where the land is situated.
6. Family or Community Land
Landed properties owned by families or communities have their own procedure for registration.