4 things you need to know before buying a house!
Don’t waste your hard earned money. Look before you leap.
1. Survey Plan:
This is the most important document. From the start, you must ask from the omonile, agent or family that intends to sell the land/property to you. This survey plan is what would be taken to the Land Bureau to do a geographical search. No matter how cheap or beautiful or strategically located a land or property is, once that property has been discovered to be designated for Government use in future, there is no point going any further to purchase it. It will be a very foolish risk to attempt to defile the government and say nothing would happen, at least there are so many houses around or so many people have bought their own and nothing has happened.
The other option from Government is that if they choose not to demolish your house because it is sited on a committed land, they will end up giving you the option to come and pay Ratification.
Ratification in this sense means you are going to pay Government the full price and taxes it determines to be the cost of that place and its non negotiable. So imagine you bought the land in 2005 for N2Million in a committed area and in 2010, you now have to pay ratification also known as “Rat” at the cost of N5Million to the Government. Does that make any financial sense? Imagine all the fears, rumours, prayers that you would be going through so that those caterpillars don’t come your way and when they decide not to demolish, they now ask you to pay Ratification, triple or quadruple the amount you bought it and remember the Omonile or agent you bought it from is no where to be found and if found, would not in this life time refund or assist you in any way.
Finally, another advantage of the Survey Search is that if the land has been designated for Agricultural Purpose, you would know in advance. This is mostly prevalent in Ikorodu, Badagry and Growing Rural Areas that are just cropping up. Buying into a place designated for Agric is a major no-no! Except you Want Your immediate neighbours to be Cows, Fishies and probably Obasanjo’s Chicken farmers! Unless it has been designated for Residential or Mixed Development, avoid it please.
The summary is that the Survey Plan Search saves you alot of headache at first before you even move ahead. And once you meet an Omonile or Agent who is extremely difficult with you in terms of not providing the survey plan on demand for search please my brothers and sisters, walk away quietly. The signs are already there for you to know you are about to be scammed. A survey plan is a public document and not a private cheque book, so you should not be bamboozled by people who tell you that the owner doesn’t want to release it because of security reasons. Trust me there is no reason. As long as he is ready to sell, that is the first thing you get from them to know your status before proceeding.
2.The Deed of Assignment or Conveyance:
This is the second most important document you need to do a personal search. A deed of conveyance or assignment traces the history of how the property or land has reached the present owner till date. It relates all the information in respect of the true owners of the land before it was passed to Mr A and how Mr A sold it to Mr B and how Mr B intend to sell it to you. With that document, you can trace in most respect the original families to find out if there is any dispute as to the ownership of the land or how it has been transferred. It is extremely important to trace the original source of the land because it is there you know if the land has been duly transferred to the present owner. It is here you get to know if there is any family dispute and some families are still quarreling over the true ownership of the land. It is there you tend to get the family names to go and do a thorough search in court or Alausa (Lagos) to know of any lingering dispute. It is here you get to know the hanky panky the present owner intends to play when he begins to tell you cock and bull stories so that you pay for the land immediately.
Never fall for this trick. Ask for a copy of the deed if they have one and hand it over to your lawyer for a thorough search on the family. To be honest, this is the most difficult search of them all and it takes the special grace of God to make sure you come out unscathered.
Ways the present owner can deceive you includes:
1. Presenting a false person to assume the identity of the original family so as to pretend that he or she sold it to the family 20 years ago.
2. Telling you that the family is non-existent anymore or they have moved away from that vicinity.
3. Telling you all the family members have died.
4. Coercing you that you don’t need to meet the family because since it has been sold to him, he is the rightful person to sell to you.
Bottom line, the deed of assignment is a major search instrument to know the how, why and when of the property you are buying and it is very very stressful. So either be prepared to do all the walking, CID/FBI investigations or give your property lawyer to do on your behalf.
3. Certificate of Occupancy, Government Allocation, Governors Consent:
These 3 are the dream lands or properties you can buy with no stress whatsoever. Any property that has any of the 3 is a very good property to buy and to search them in Alausa is very easy because the records are there. In most situations, look for properties that have a Global C/O, Private Certificate of Occupancy, Government Allocation or Governors Consent. It is so easy to perfect your papers in future and you are most likely going to get compensated from the Government in case anything goes wrong if they attempt to acquire it or query it.
The only challenge is that most properties or lands with a C of O, Government consent or Government allocation letter are quite expensive because of the paper work that has been done thoroughly by the present seller and it also eliminates omonile from the transaction in most cases. The owners know that they have correct papers, they market and sell their properties quite high too because they are selling you gold. But then again you need your estate agent to help you negotiate favourably to make sure the property becomes yours.
The second problem is the issue of fake C of Os, Government Allocation Letters and Governors Consent. In my experience i have seen more than enough fake documents, and most agents or omoniles would be so bold enough to dare you to go and check it in Alausa. They will so brain wash you and brag about its validity that you might be tempted to take their word for it but when you decide to go and search it in Alausa, you will find out that it does not exist and when you go back to challenge them, you hear new stories and unbelievable song and dance stories that you would almost want to puke.
Always demand for the documents to do the search. Don’t listen to their stories. If they go as far as saying they won’t release the copy of C of O or Governors consent due to security risks, ask them for the number alone and the rest will be investigated. Don’t compromise and get hoodwinked. It’s the way they get their bread and butter. You fall for the scam, you are on your own.
4. Government Gazette:
This is a document that records and states the areas the government has willingly given to the family and community to sell and that the government will not acquire it for what so ever reason except it duly notifies the world. Never ever play with a Government Gazette. They know why they documented it for you to see and if you refuse to follow those rules, you will be heavily dealt with.
