LIST OF LAND TITLE DOCUMENTS FOR PROPERTY OWNERSHIP IN NIGERIA

Are you a land buyer or investor who is confused with land title and land documentation when buying landed properties in Nigeria? Most especially if you are purchasing land from real estate developers, real estate marketers, or real estate companies.

One of the most reasonable questions to ask when buying land is the Title on the land. I have met with some clients who insist on buying land with C of O even though they don’t have the budget for it while I had to start lecturing my prospects when it comes to land titles in Nigeria.

WHAT IS LAND TITLE?

The land title may be defined as the rights or ownership claim a person has over a property.

This means that, before you claim ownership of land when buying and selling, building, or for any other legal or financial transactions; you must show other people the right you have over that land and the process by which you became the rightful owner of the property.

To verify the title on your property, your buyer or financial institution must thoroughly inspect the available documents before proceeding with the transaction.

WHAT IS LAND USE CLASSIFICATION?

Land use classification refers to a classification providing information on land cover, the functions or types of human activity involved in land use.

We have 5 types of land use which include recreational, transport, agricultural, residential and commercial (industrial) purposes. In real estate, our major focus on land use is for agricultural, residential, and commercial (industrial) purposes.

Land can be further classified as either freehold or acquired. The land is said to be on freehold if the government shows no interest in it while an acquired land or acquisition is when the government shows interest in it for future development.

Though, the government of the state may decide to revoke acquisitions to freehold on special cases through a process called excision.

TYPES OF LAND ACQUISITION IN NIGERIA

1. General Acquisition

2. Committed Acquisition

1.* General Acquisition (Global) – According to the proclamation of the Land Use Act on the 28th of March, 1978 which states that all lands in every state of the Federation are under the control of the State Governors.

This made it possible for the state Governors to become the owner of all lands in the state gave them the power to acquire more lands compulsorily for public purposes to provide amenities for the greater good of the citizens.

Therefore, all lands in a state are under the control and supervision of the government. This means that the government has the right to lawfully possess and dispose of a portion of land under its region.

2.* Committed Acquisition – This is when the government has the intention of using a parcel of land for a specific or committed purpose such as the provision of infrastructures or amenities for future uses.

It is therefore impossible for you to acquire a property under a government committed acquisition because the title cannot be perfected and sooner or later the government will seize and possess your land anytime and send you off without compensating you even if you bought it legitimately.

LAND TITLE DOCUMENT TYPES IN NIGERIA

Excision

Gazette

Registered Survey

Certificate of Occupancy (C of O)

Governor’s Consent

Freehold

Deed of Assignment

Deed of Conveyance

Land Receipt

EXCISION

An Excision means the act of removing or releasing a portion of land which has not been committed completely and documenting it in the official government gazette of that state. This land can then be a gazette and proper title can be processed on the land.

A second case where lands under general acquisition can be released is if an Individual purchased 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 landowner 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.

Don’t be confused.

Rectification and Ratification mean two separate things but they sound alike. Rectification means to correct a grave error on a document while Ratification means giving formal consent to a contract or agreement thereby making it validly official.

To understand how the Rectification of Title to Land differs from Ratification of Title to land, we have to understand what a Land title means so we can comprehend it quite easily.

GAZETTE

A Gazette is an Official record book where all special government details are spelled out, detailed, and recorded.

It shows 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 the 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 land information to confirm whether it falls within the gazette and spell out which particular location it can be found.

The Following Are Features of a Gazette:

The first page of a Gazette must have the following unless it is a dubious or fake Gazette

a. The Logo of the Country and the inscription of the title “LAGOS STATE OF NIGERIA OFFICIAL GAZETTE”

b. Underneath it must have the Number, Volume, Page, Date, and the Location it was signed into law e.g. No 26 on pages 200 to 291, Volume 87 dated 14th of August 2011, and have the contents of the list of the Villages, Settlements, and parcels of land excised back to the community.

The Inner pages will show the following:

a. The description of the Area or Village excised

b. The number of Acres or Hectares of land excised to the Village

c. Where the boundaries of the beacons start and stop

d. The page the description of the Village excised is.

SURVEY PLAN

A Survey plan is a document that delineates the form, extent, position, and record of a parcel of land by taking angular measurements to give an accurate measurement and general description of that land.

This is usually handled by Surveyors and they are regulated by the office of the Surveyor-General of that state.

A Survey Plan helps you to detect if the land you are buying is under acquisition or not.

It is important to request the Survey Plan from the original owner and present it to your Surveyor to conduct a land search to know if the land is free from Government acquisition or has zoning restrictions (i.e. the survey plan help detect the land use classification on the land e.g. Agricultural, Residential, Industrial or Commercial Purpose.)

A genuine 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

CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY

A Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) is a Land Document issued by the State Government to officially lease any land under the state to you (the applicant), for 99 yrs. As already indicated above, all lands belong to the Government.

A-C of O however is the officially recognized Land Document for demonstrating Right to a Land. What happens after 99 years? That question is still a subject of debate among experts.

Most have adopted a wait-and-see attitude. Others postulate that as the new owner of the land, you the buyer can renew the certificate of occupancy when it expires.

That makes sense, but for now, it’s largely a case of “We shall see when we get there”

GOVERNOR’S CONSENT

A Governor’s Consent is a land document that is obtained whenever you buy land with C of O.

It is the land document that lets the Governor and the general public know that the land in question has changed ownership.

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, sublease 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.

A governor’s consent can only be processed on land with either Gazette or an Existing Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).

A purchaser of land needs to perfect his or her document by obtaining Governor's consent to have a complete rest of mind.

Although it is good to buy 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 land grabbers or seller family members.

Your documents have not been perfected and the consent of the Governor to that transaction has not been obtained.

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 the 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 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.

If a person with land with C of O decides to sell his land, the only documents that can give the new buyer or every other subsequent buyer’s the right of occupancy or ownership is a governor’s consent.

Disadvantages and Problems of Getting Governors Consent

Obtaining a Governor's Consent from the Land Bureau isn’t the easiest thing to get quickly despite the importance attached to it and the urgency needed to secure land from Land grabbers or seller family members.

On the Government website, it is stated that a Governor's 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's consent that should cost N200, 000 naturally could end up costing N600, 000 due to kickbacks, bribes, etc., and that 30 days could translate to 6months or a Year. 

In all, a Governor's Consent is a very good document to obtain and I advise you to get it to free yourself from land grabbers totally.

An advantage of having a Governor’s consent is that you can transfer your land to another person without going to the family head to sign your deed and Form 1c which are compulsory requirements needed before you can process Governor's consent.

The land grabbers or seller family members pray seriously for the Owner not to have a Governor's 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 from the criticism of those in charge of processing the C of O, You should try as much as possible to get a Governor's Consent for all your genuine lands to eliminate land grabbers or family members completely and live a straightforward life devoid of land grabbers or seller family members.

DEED OF ASSIGNMENT

A deed of assignment is a legal document that transfers the legal power of the original owner to the new buyer (assignee).

The deed of assignment contains the date when the property was transferred from one owner to the buyer and also gives a detailed description of the property that is included in the transfer of ownership.

 The Deed of Assignment contains very pertinent information for a real estate transaction.

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 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 the transfer of ownership.

The following documents are usually involved when your 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.

DEED OF CONVEYANCE

Deed of Conveyance or Registered Conveyance was the authentic evidence of ownership until the 1978 Land use Act that introduced Certificate of Occupancy.

Deed of Conveyance is an old legal document used in transferring the interest of the owner of a landed property interest to the person to another to whom it is assigned, the assignee.

When ownership is transferred, the new legal document in use now is called the deed of assignment. A freehold is not a title.

The remedy is to institute a legal document on the land like getting a Governor's Consent, or C of O. (These are binding documents that can stand the test of time and stand in any court of law)

LAND RECEIPT

This land document is the least of all and is just for the seller to acknowledge that he/she has received the due money he/she wants to sell the land.

I believe by now you should be able to identify the importance of each and every land title documents in Nigeria.

Always make sure that before purchasing land or building in Nigeria your legal practitioner must have carried out an effective investigation to make sure that the title documents presented to you at the time of purchase are legally verified.

Post Script

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