There are basic steps you ought to take when you’ve finally decided to buy land in Lagos, to reduce stress and avert fraudulent people and their tricks.

PRELIMINARY STAGE

Consult your lawyer or agent and tell him exactly what you want and what budget you have.

After you must have been introduced to a property, the first step is to go for a site inspection. I advise clients to go with a surveyor and a lawyer to the site. The lawyer usually does some site investigation and may know if the area is one with especially vicious omoniles. On the other hand, the surveyor takes the co ordinates of the property. Based on the input of this two professionals, a client decides whether to move forward with the purchase or not. . When a property's coordinates have been taken, it can reveal any of the following about the property.

Under Government Acquisition ( But Not Committed )

A Land under Government acquisition is a land broadly acquired by the Government .Government may or may not have plans for these lands in the nearest future. Howeverm at the Government’s discretion it may release this lands to individuals or communities who apply if same will not disrupt any regional or urban planning regulation . The land may be released through a process of ratification.

Ratification is a process whereby occupiers of lands in places under government acquisition that are not committed are given the opportunity to obtain legal title in their own names . Simply put , it means the process of allocating Government Land to someone who had previously occupied without lawful legal authority from the Government. It is subject some Conditions:

1. That the property must not be situated in a Government Scheme, Estate or Committed area
2. The Property must be situated within an Area that conforms to Urban and Regional Planning Regulations and Standard of the State.
3. The Appropriate Set back of the Land must be observed.
4. The Appropriate distances from drainages, Canals, NNPC pipelines, Gas Pipelines, , High Tension Wires, Water Pipelines and other restrictions lay down by the Physical Planning and Town Planning.
5. The land must not fall on road Alignment
6. The land must not fall within a Committed Government Area
7. The Land must fall within the Permitted Ratification/Regularization


Under Government Acquisition (Committed Land)

Committed Land is a land the Government already has Plans .This lands include lands earmarked for Government estates, Roads, Government Schemes etc. if you buy a land in a committed Area, the government will not approve the papers and if you build a property there, it will be demolished.


SEARCH OF PROPERTY STAGE

After the preliminary stage the next step s to do the investigation of the property . The lawyer takes the title number to do a search on at the property at the land registry in the state. The land registry in Lagos is at Ministry of Lands Alausa Ikeja.
If the title is registered there will be a file at the registry which contains all the information and transactions on the property. A lawyer will have access to this by paying the requisite statutory fees and making an application the Registrar of Titles. In the past, my searches on property has revealed a number of unexpected scenarios
A client who has been n a hurry to buy land and discovered that there was 70 MILLION NAIRA mortgage on the property.
I have also discovered that sometimes that there is a serious fight in the family and a party places a caveat on the property. In fact , specifically we discovered that a widow of an owner of a property placed a caveat on a property because her own son was trying to sell it. Strangely enough, this woman attended all the preliminary meetings of the meeting where her son was trying to sell without saying a word.
I have also discovered that a seller issued a cloned and completely fake title document.( he was later arrested)
( IN MY LITTLE EXPERIENCE BUYING LAND IN THE LEKKI AREA IS MOST LIKELY TO THROW UO SOME OF THE ABOVEMENTIONED SCENARION)
If all goes well at this stage and parties agree on all aspects they move to the next stage.

CONCLUSION STAGE
After parties have concluded the preliminaries and are satisfied with the result, i encourage them to execute and effect payment in the banking halls. My suggested procedure is that both parties agree on a specific time to meet at the bank with the transfer of title document title documents. In the past clients have executed transfer of title documents based on bank alerts but I hear that criminals had found a way to clone bank alerts. As such i have stopped this method and now I encourage clients to only execute upon confirmation from their bank officers.

For more Information Barr Mark can be reached on 07037836881