How to acquire & secure your title to landed property in Nigeria

No matter your occupation or livelihood, the one indicator that points you out as successful is the acquisition of personal Real Estate assets/Landed property in your name, signifying a welcome change from a life of paying rent and living in fear of the landlord’s visit or Demand letter if you begin to delay your rent payments or worst of all, a Notice to Quit being served on you.

When acquiring land, you might think once payment has been made to the Land vendor and a document called a Deed of Assignment which the “Agent of the seller” claims his lawyer prepared is signed, then the property is now fully yours. But then, how can you be 100% sure you bought the right piece of land from the legitimate owner of the land? How are you sure the owner of the land actually sold you a valid title to the property you paid for? How sure are you that your title has been registered and secured under law just because you signed a Deed of Assignment?

These issues and more are part of the reasons for this article which aims to deal with the topics of:-

– knowing who is eligible to buy Real Estate in Nigeria;

– knowing how to be sure of the Real Estate asset/Landed property you want to buy;

– knowing what the law says about how to secure your title to Landed Property;

– knowing the requirements needed to register your title to Landed property in different jurisdictions of Nigeria;

– knowing the options available to you if you have possibly fallen victim to Land scammers.

Who can directly buy and own Real Estate in Nigeria?

Anyone from the age of 21 years of age and above can buy Real Estate in Nigeria while persons below the age of 21 years can hold equitable or beneficial interest in Real Estate property that can be held in trust by an adult fiduciary/trustee or agent/manager or by virtue of an Inheritance from a Testamentary disposition(Will)/The Administration of Estate Law of a state.

Also, foreigners CANNOT directly own Real Estate property in Nigeria except through a company registered in Nigeria.

How can I verify that the Vendor of property I intend to purchase has a valid title?

You can carry out your findings by means of a due diligence measure known as a Search Report carried out at the Land Registry of the state where the property you want to buy is located.

What if the land I want to buy is not registered and has no title documentation attached to it?

In the case of Lagos where this is more of a problem, you will have to carry out what is known as Charting at the State Surveyor-General’s office to ascertain if the land is under Government acquisition or eligible for private ownership.

In some cases, the vendor might tell you that the landed property is covered by an excision (a release of land by the Governor of a state to a Community or a set of Private occupiers by means of a Gazette) which might not be true and can only be confirmed by a Gazette number.

However, you’re in luck. In Lagos State, the Governor on the 7th of December, 2021 granted a full excision on untitled land in Lagos in a bid to curb Land fraud and Land grabbing.

What does “Government acquisition” as it relates to land purchase mean? What is the implication of buying this piece of unregistered property and it turns out to be a Government acquisition?

If you buy unregistered land from the vendor which turns out to be a Government acquisition it simply means you have been scammed.

Now, buying land of this nature is a gamble. If the land is a pure Government acquisition, you can simply carry out what is called Land Regularization/Ratification which involves buying the same piece of land all over, this time paying directly to the Government.

If the land however is what is called a Government commitment-acquisition, then your money is totally gone and you’re definitely getting no land as Government-committed lands are usually earmarked for dedicated State projects from Government estates and schemes to Power distribution lines, Oil & Gas pipelines, Agricultural schemes, Industrial layouts, etc.

Hence, in order to know if you’re about to buy a legitimate excision, it is best that you instruct your lawyer to run a search on the piece of land.

What can I do to show the vendor that I am interested in buying the piece of land, but also give myself time to carry out my due diligence?

In that case, what you should do is to execute a Contract of Sale which legally binds both of you pending when you carry out your findings and finally complete the sale through a statutorily required Deed of Assignment or Conveyance. This Contract of Sale will have the legal effect of invalidating any subsequent discreet sale to a purchaser for a higher value if attempted by the vendor.

But why do I need to register my title to the property? Won’t full payment and signing the Deed of Assignment or Conveyance be enough to qualify as a complete transfer of property?

No. By virtue of Section 22 of the Land Use Act 1978, it is a compulsory requirement that every transaction or conveyance of a Statutory Right of Occupancy be registered after getting the consent of the Governor of the State who by virtue of the Act is the Statutory Trustee/Legal ownership repository of all lands within a state. Customary rights of Occupancy are regulated by the Local Government of the area where the land is situated.

What this means is that all Land transactions must be registered with the State Land Registry after getting a Governor’s consent otherwise they will be deemed void & of no legal effect. So you must commence the Registration process within 30 days of executing the Deed of Assignment.

In practice, what most Land investors do is that since Land Title Registration is usually expensive, slightly complicated and expensive, they simply pass on the burden of Registration as a condition of sale to the final buyers of the land who will then have to pay for a double Registration of the investor’s title and their own title.

How long does it take to obtain a Governor’s consent & how much does it cost?

The entire process of obtaining a Governor’s consent, stamping and registration can take up to 6 months – 1 year or even more depending on the amount of queries (if any) identified in the application. It is also advisable to get ready at least up to 12% of the Transaction value of the property to cover the costs of Legal Documentation services regarding the Deed of Assignment, Costs associated with the Registration of your title, and costs for professional services(legal services particularly) used in the process of having your Title Registration carried out.

While the ease of registering titles to property in Nigeria still has a realistically long way to go, it can be seen from this article that with the right professional guidance, going into Land transactions with a clear understanding of how to secure your title can help in making a better-informed decision either as a Real Estate Investor/Developer or an aspiring landlord.

Emmanuel Ifeanyi Ogbuka, Esq, a legal practitioner and consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.
Phone number: 07011261897/ Email:- [email protected]

PLEASE NOTE that this article is strictly for informative purposes and neither constitutes Legal advice nor a valid Lawyer/Client relationship.