LAND CLASSIFICATION
Land can be classified as either free or
acquired. A parcel of land is considered free if the government has not
indicated any interest whatsoever in that land. Such land is safe to buy
because the title on the land can be perfected without issues.
In most cases, such lands will either have a gazette, a C of O or a governor’s consent.
Now that you understand what it means for
land to be free, you should also know that all lands that fall within areas
that are designated as „urban areas‟ are under government acquisition until
deemed committed or free.
There are two types of acquisition:
1. Committed Acquisition
2. Global / General Acquisition
COMMITTED ACQUISITION
A parcel of land is said to be under
committed acquisition when the government has indicated an intention to use
that land for a specific purpose such as provision of amenities.
Such lands belong to the government and can
never be available for use by individuals. If you purchase land that is under
committed acquisition, it will be impossible for you to perfect your land title
and you’ll only be occupying the land until the government comes to kick you
out.
GLOBAL OR GENERAL ACQUISITION
Lands that are under “general acquisition” or
“global acquisition” can later be confirmed free or committed as the case may
be.
A land under general acquisition can become
free by a process called excision.
“Excision is a process whereby the government
releases a portion of an expanse of land that is not committed” If a parcel of
land that was formerly under acquisition becomes excised; it is then considered
free and becomes gazette.
The gazette then becomes the title on the
land and such land is safe to buy because a proper title can be processed on
the land.
A second case where lands under general
acquisition can be released is if an individual purchased a land that was under
acquisition without going through an excision process.
Such lands can go through another process
called “ratification” or “regularization” in which the land owner pays for the
land to be ratified or regularized. The only conditions in this case are that
the land in question must not fall within a committed area and that the purpose
for which the land was bought does not disrupt the original plan of the state.
Conditions for ratification may differ from
state to state.
Now that you understand the classification of
land, let’s now look at meaning of each land documents that we have.
DEED OF ASSIGNMENTS
Most people have the title documents to their
cars intact and in safe places but fail to ask for the Deed of assignment to
their properties which is several times more valuable than cars.
A Deed of assignment is one of the
transactional documents drawn up by a real estate attorney between the current
title holder for a particular property and the new buyer.
In real property transactions, a deed of
assignment is a legal document that transfers the interest of the owner of that
interest to the person to whom it is assigned, the assignee. When ownership is
transferred, the deed of assignment shows the new legal owner of the property.
The deed contains very pertinent information
for a real estate transaction. It spells out the date when the ownership of the
property transfers from one owner to the other. The deed also gives a specific
description of the property that is included in the transfer of ownership.
It is very compulsory and mandatory for a
Deed of Assignment document to be recorded at the appropriate land registry to
show legal evidence as to the exchange of ownership in any land/landed property
transaction in order to make the general public and government aware of such
exchange or transaction.
Any recorded Deed of Assignment at the
appropriate land registry will be authenticated in form of either a Governor’s
consent or Registered Conveyance after it has been stamped at the Stamp Duties
office.
It is important to Note that the deed of
assignment document is not the only document indicating transfer of owner.
The following documents are usually involved
when you a purchase is made.
1. The purchase receipt
2. The contract of sale and
3. The deed of assignment
4. The survey plan
5. The Building plan for housing investment
6. Any other title document that may apply
Each of these documents can come at separate
times in the transaction process. The seller signs all documents when the
transaction is complete and hands over the documents to the buyer.
SURVEY PLAN
A Survey plan is a document that measures the
boundary of a parcel of land to give an accurate measurement and description of
that land. The people that handle survey issues are Surveyors and they are
regulated by the office of the Surveyor general in Lagos as it relates to
survey issues in Lagos. A survey plan must contain the following information:
1. The name of the owner of the land surveyed
2. The Address or description of the land
surveyed
3. The size of the land surveyed.
4. The drawn out portion of the land survey
and mapped out on the survey plan document
5. The beacon numbers
6. The surveyor who drew up the survey plan
and the date it was drawn up
7. A stamp showing the land is either free
from Government acquisition or not.
EXCISION
An Excision means basically taking a part
from a whole and that part that has been excised will be recorded and
documented in the official government gazette of that state. In other words,
not having an excision means the land could be seized by the Government anytime
without compensating you even if you bought it “Legitimately” from the Baale
(local chief) or the Original dwellers on the land.
GAZETTE
A Gazette is an Official record book where
all special government details are spelt out, detailed and recorded
A gazette will show the communities or
villages that have been granted excision and the number of acres or hectares of
land that the government has given to them. It is within those excised acres or
hectares that the traditional family is entitled to sell its lands to the
public and not anything outside those hectares of land given or excised to
them.
A Gazette is a very powerful instrument the
community owns and can replace a Certificate of Occupancy to grant title to the
Villagers. A community owning a gazette can only sell lands to an individual
within those lands that have been excised to them and the community or family
head of that land has the right to sign your documents for you if you purchase
lands within those excised acres or hectares of land.
If the government based on some reasons best
known to them decides to revoke or acquire your land, you will be entitled to
compensation as long as it’s within the Excised lands given to that community.
The best way to know whether a land is under
acquisition or has an excision that has been covered by a Gazette is to get a
surveyor to chart the site and take it to the surveyor general’s office to do a
land information to confirm whether it falls within the gazette and spell out
which particular location it can be found.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXCISION
AND GAZETTE
So for example if in 1981, Victoria Island,
Ikoyi and Lekki in Nigeria were all part of one big Community joined together
called Oniru and it had no separation to know which area is called ikoyi, Lekki
or V.I then, and it has an approximate total area square meters estimate of
100,000 square meters and the Government is interested in that area and decides
to take 70,000 square meters for its self for its own personal use as an Urban
Area or public purpose, it will record this acquisition in the official
government which is Gazette and
also record that the remaining 30,000 square meters (EXCISED PORTION) has
been left alone for the traditional family to have and do with it whatever it
pleases it to do. This is the sweet relationship between a land under
acquisition, an excision and gazette.
CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY
A Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) issued by
the Lagos State Government officially leased Lagos land to you, the applicant,
for 99 yrs. All lands belong to the Government.
GOVERNOR'S CONSENT
So many Academicians, Lawyers and
Intellectuals have tried to define what a Governor’s Consent is and they end up
confusing simple minded men like me with their Big Grammar, so am going to
attempt to do the impossible by breaking its meaning down and how it operates
under the law.
A simple formula to follow is this. The first
person on a Virgin Land that has neither been occupied neither by another
person nor under acquisition by the Government is entitled to get a Certificate
of Occupancy on that land.
If that person with the C of O decides to
sell his land to another person after so many years, that person must now
obtain the Consent of the Governor before that transaction can be deemed legal
in the eyes of the Government. If the new buyer now decides to sell the land
again to a third owner in future, that Third owner must also obtain a new
Consent of the Governor before that transaction can be deemed legal in the eyes
of the Government and the process continues every time the property changes
hands to a new buyer.
In other words, the first person on a land is
the only person or group of persons entitled to obtain a Certificate of
Occupancy. Every subsequent buyer of that land must get a Governor’s consent.
There can only be one (1) Owner of the Certificate of Occupancy on that Land
and it will not be replicated for another person once the land has been sold or
transferred to another person.
The powers of the Governor to Consent to such
transactions can be found in Section 22. Of the LAND USE ACT 1978 as amended
this states thus:
“It shall not be lawful for the holder of a
statutory right of occupancy granted by the Governor to alienate his right of
occupancy or any part thereof by assignment, mortgage, and transfer of
possession, subleases or otherwise howsoever without the consent of the
Governor first had and obtained”
With this power, the Governor has the right
to grant consent to any transaction which it thinks has not contravened any Law
of the land and if the consent has been obtained fraudulently, the Governor is
entitled to revoke such consent immediately.
It is very important for a purchaser of land
to perfect his or her document by obtaining Governor’s consent so as to have a
complete rest of mind. Although it’s good to buy a land that already has a
Global C of O or the Land has a Gazette, it still doesn’t give you the full
satisfaction that you own the land without any form of fear or intrusion by the
Omoniles (natives). Your documents have not been perfected and the consent of
the Governor to that transaction has not been obtained.
DISADVANTAGES AND PROBLEMS OF GETTING
GOVERNORS CONSENT
Obtaining a Governors Consent from the Land
Bureau isn’t the easiest thing to get quickly despite the importance attached
to it and urgency needed to secure a land from Omoniles. On the Government
website, it is stated that a Governors Consent can be obtained in 30 days but
that has proven to be very untrue due to unscrupulous civil servants who would
do everything to frustrate the process of obtaining the document without giving
them huge kickbacks. A Governors consent that should cost N200,000 (Nigerian
currency) naturally could end up costing N600,000 Due to kickbacks, Egunje
(bribes), P.R etc. And those 30 days could translate to 6months or a Year.
In all, a Governors Consent is a very good
document to obtain and I advise you to get it so as to free yourself from
Omoniles 100%. An advantage of having a Governor’s consent is that you can
transfer your land to another person without going to the Omoniles or Family
Baale to sign your deed and Form 1c which are compulsory requirements needed
before you can process Governors consent. The Omoniles pray seriously for the
Owner not to have a Governors consent so that they can make a lot of money
running into their Thousands whenever the Owner require the signatures of the
family to start the Governors consent.
Do you now see why C of O is not the
ultimate? Stepping aside the criticism of those in charge of processing the C
of O, You should try as much as possible to get a Governors Consent for all
your genuine lands so as to eliminate Omoniles completely and live a straight
forward life devoid of Omonile’s trouble.
Don’t just buy a land, make an investment.
Buy, sit back and watch your rental income grow!
Make the right decision now!!
The good news is that right now you can get a
plot of land for as low as N600, 000 (Nigerian Currency) limited promo offer in
one of our estates.
90% of all millionaires become so through
owning real estates.
Grab this golden opportunity NOW!
For inspection and further inquiries on our
landed properties, please give us a call or Whatsapp on +2348067380225 or +2348111055633.
0 comments:
Kindly comment here!