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LAND TITLE VERIFICATION IN NIGERIA
KNOW HOW TO VERIFY A LAND TITLE DOCUMENTS IN NIGERIA
LAND LAW IN NIGERIA
CHAMAN LAW FIRM
5/11/20244 min read
LAND TITLE VERIFICATION IN NIGERIA
KNOW HOW TO VERIFY A LAND TITLE DOCUMENT
Land verification is very critical and importance in real estate transaction, if one buy a land without adequate verification then the person may find himself in a deep mess at the end and also lose both the money and property.
What is land verification?
Land verification is a process whereby all matters concerning possession, ownership or right conveyed in land can be verify and recorded with the government to provide evidence of title and prevent unlawful ownership of property.
There are important documents that must be part of every real estate transaction: They are Excision; Gazette; Certificate of occupancy; Deed of assignment; governor consent; and receipt. However, this document cannot be substituted for the other, a real property owner must possess all the documents and each of the documents must be verified by experts in order to confer true ownership of the land on the buyer of the property.
However it is important that each of these documents is explain more for better understanding.
EXCISION: Excision is a process whereby the government releases a portion of an expanse of land that is not committed. When government acquired a land and there was later Excision that means the property is free from government acquisition thus certificate of occupancy could be easily processed on such property.
GAZETTE: A Gazette is the most confusing document that non-land experts have heard and know absolutely nothing about. They neither know what it looks like nor its perceived advantages or disadvantages. However is one of the most important documents you must be connected to so as avoid demolishing of property in future for not being associated with it.
Gazzette will show the community or villages that have been granted excision and the numbers of acres of land that the government has gone go the next give to them.
A gazzette documents is a document that keeps records of location or areas the government has acquired or has given to a community or a family.
DEED OF ASSIGNMENT: a legal agreement to give an asset or sell a debt to someone else. It enables ownership of a landed property to be transferred from the current owner to another person.
GOVERNMENT CONSENT: This is the approval that must be given by a Governor of a state or his delegate in any transaction that has to do with the transfer of ownership or interest over a land or property in order to make the transaction valid in law.
For a land to have a Governor’s Consent title, there are processes that are followed to get this title. You need to confirm if they were legitimately followed, and the required documents that were being used to process the title were all authentic:
a. Certified True Copy (CTC) of root of title
b. Deed/Instruments of transfer
c. Survey plan
d. Letter of authority by the applicants
e. Site photographs with date
RECEIPT: Is a document acknowledging that a person has received property payment following a sale of property.
The best way to confirm if the land truly has an excision that has been covered by a gazette is to get a credible surveyor to chart that site and take it to the surveyor general’s office to confirm whether it falls within the gazette and spell out the exact location where the land can be found.
What to do to avoid getting in the hand of fraudster:
1. 1. Use an experienced real estate and property lawyer for verification of title to land in other to avoid been scammed by fraudsters.
2. 2. Request for a copy of the survey plan and let the Surveyor help you cross check it with the coordinates by way of charting the land.
3. 3. Ask for the excision file number of the intended land in order to check if the land is available or not.
4. Do not rush to make payment, most especially when the price of the land is too cheap.
HOW TO CONFIRM THE AUTHENTICITY AND GENUINENESS OF A SURVEY PLAN
To confirm the authenticity of a survey plan, the following information must be there:
1. 1. The name of the owner of the land surveyed.
2. 2. The size of the land surveyed.
3. 3. The address/description of the land surveyed.
4. 4. A stamp showing the land is free from Government acquisition or not.
5. 5. Name of the surveyor who drew the survey plan.
6. 6. Date the survey plan was drawn.
7. 7. The drawn-out portion of the land survey and mapped out on the survey document.
One important thing to consider is to ensure you make use of a trusted surveyor to help you go to the exact land site to ensure the coordinates picked on the survey plan matches the coordinates picked on the land.
