Land Classification<\/p>\n
Land can be classified as either free or acquired. A parcel of land is considered free
\nif the government has not indicated any interest whatsoever in that land. Such land
\nis safe to buy because the title on the land can be perfected without issues.
\nIn most cases, such lands will either have a gazette, a C of O or a governor\u2019s
\nconsent.
\nNow that you understand what it means for land to be free, you should also know
\nthat all lands that fall within areas that are designated as \u2018urban areas\u2019 are under
\ngovernment acquisition until deemed committed or free.
\nThere are two types of acquisition:
\n1. Committed Acquisition
\n2. Global \/ General Acquisition.
\nCommitted Acquisition
\nA parcel of land is said to be under committed acquisition when the government has
\nindicated an intention to use that land for a specific purpose such as provision of
\namenities.
\nSuch lands belong to the government and can never be available for use by
\nindividuals. If you purchase land that is under committed acquisition, it will be
\nimpossible for you to perfect your land title and you\u2019ll only be occupying the land
\nuntil the government comes to kick you out.
\nGlobal or General Acquisition
\nLands that are under \u201cgeneral acquisition\u201d or \u201cglobal acquisition\u201d can later be
\nconfirmed \u2018free\u2019 or \u2018committed\u2019 as the case may be.
\nA land under general acquisition can become free by a process called excision.
\n\u201cExcision is a process whereby the government releases a portion of an expanse of
\nland that is not committed\u201d If a parcel of land that was formerly under acquisition
\nbecomes excised; it is then considered free and becomes gazetted.
\nThe gazette then becomes the title on the land and such land is safe to buy because
\na proper title can be processed on the land.
\nA second case where lands under general acquisition can be released is if an
\nindividual purchased a land that was under acquisition without going through an
\nexcision process.
\nSuch lands can go through another process called \u201cratification\u201d or \u201cregularization\u201d in
\nwhich the land owner pays for the land to be ratified or regularized. The only
\nconditions in this case are that the land in question must not fall within a committed
\narea and that the purpose for which the land was bought does not disrupt the
\noriginal plan of the state.
\nConditions for ratification may differ from state to state.
\nNow that you understand the classification of land, lets now look at meaning of each
\nland documents that we have.<\/p>\n
DEED OF ASSIGNMENTS
\nMost people have the title documents to their cars intact and in safe places but fail
\nto ask for the Deed of assignment to their properties which is several times more
\nvaluable than cars
\nA Deed of assignment is one of the transactional document drawn up by a real
\nestate attorney between the current title holder for a particular property and the
\nnew buyer.
\nIn real property transactions, a deed of assignment is a legal document that
\ntransfers the interest of the owner of that interest to the person to whom it is
\nassigned, the assignee. When ownership is transferred, the deed of assignment
\nshows the new legal owner of the property.
\nThe deed contains very pertinent information for a real estate transaction. It spells
\nout the date when the ownership of the property transfers from one owner to the
\nother. The deed also gives a specific description of the property that is included in
\nthe transfer of ownership.
\nIt is very compulsory and mandatory for a Deed of Assignment document to be
\nrecorded at the appropriate land registry to show legal evidence as to the exchange
\nof ownership in any land\/landed property transaction in order to make the general
\npublic and government aware of such exchange or transaction.
\nAny recorded Deed of Assignment at the appropriate land registry will be
\nauthenticated in form of either a Governor\u2019s consent or Registered Conveyance after
\nit has been stamped at the Stamp Duties office.
\nIt is important to Note that the deed of assignment document is not the only
\ndocument indicating transfer of owner.
\nThe following documents are usually involved when you a purchase is made.
\n1. The purchase receipt
\n2. The contract of sale and
\n3. The deed of assignment
\n4. The survey plan
\n5. The Building plan for housing investment
\n6. Any other title document that may apply
\nEach of these documents can come at separate times in the transaction process. The
\nseller signs all documents when the transaction is complete and hands over the
\ndocuments to the buyer.<\/p>\n
SURVEY PLAN
\nA Survey plan is a document that measures the boundary of a parcel of land to give
\nan accurate measurement and description of that land. The people that handle
\nsurvey issues are Surveyors and they are regulated by the office of the Surveyor
\ngeneral in Lagos as it relates to survey issues in Lagos. A survey plan must contain
\nthe following information:
\n1. The name of the owner of the land surveyed
\n2. The Address or description of the land surveyed
\n3. The size of the land surveyed
\n4. The drawn out portion of the land survey and mapped out on the survey plan
\ndocument
\n5. The beacon numbers
\n6. The surveyor who drew up the survey plan and the date it was drawn up
\n7. A stamp showing the land is either free from Government acquisition or not<\/p>\n
EXCISION
\nAn Excision means basically taking a part from a whole and that part that has been
\nexcised will be recorded and documented in the official government gazette of that
\nstate. In other words, not having an excision means the land could be seized by the
\nGovernment anytime without compensating you even if you bought it \u201cLegitimately\u201d
\nfrom the Baale or the Original dwellers on the land.<\/p>\n
GAZETTE
\nA Gazette is an Official record book where all special government details are spelt
\nout, detailed and recorded
\nA gazette will show the communities or villages that have been granted excision and
\nthe number of acres or hectares of land that the government has given to them. It is
\nwithin those excised acres or hectares that the traditional family is entitled to sell its
\nlands to the public and not anything outside those hectares of land given or excised
\nto them.
\nA Gazette is a very powerful instrument the community owns and can replace a
\nCertificate of Occupancy to grant title to the Villagers. A community owning a
\ngazette can only sell lands to an individual within those lands that have been excised
\nto them and the community or family head of that land has the right to sign your
\ndocuments for you if you purchase lands within those excised acres or hectares of
\nland.
\nIf the government based on some reasons best known to them decides to revoke or
\nacquire your land, you will be entitled to compensation as long as it\u2019s within the
\nExcised lands given to that community.ad land to buy.
\nThe best way to know whether a land is under acquisition or has an excision that
\nhas been covered by a Gazette is to get a surveyor to chart the site and take it to
\nthe surveyor general\u2019s office to do a land information to confirm whether it falls
\nwithin the gazette and spell out which particular location it can be found.
\nRelationship between Excision and Gazette
\nSo for example if in 1981, Victoria Island, Ikoyi and Lekki were all part of one big
\nCommunity joined together called Oniru and it had no separation to know which
\narea is called ikoyi, Lekki or V.I then, and it has an approximate total area square
\nmeters estimate of 100,000 square meters and the Government is interested in that
\narea and decides to take 70,000 square meters for its self for its own personal use
\nas an Urban Area or public purpose, it will record this acquisition in the official
\ngovernment which is Gazette and also record that the remaining 30,000 square
\nmeters (EXCISED PORTION) has been left alone for the traditional family to have
\nand do with it whatever it pleases it to do. This is the sweet relationship between a
\nland under acquisition, an excision and gazette.<\/p>\n
CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY
\nA Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) issued by the Lagos State Government officially
\nleased Lagos land to you, the applicant, for 99 yrs. All lands belong to the
\nGovernment.<\/p>\n
GOVERNOR’S CONSENT
\nSo many Academicians, Lawyers and Intellectuals have tried to define what a
\nGovernor\u2019s Consent is and they end up confusing simple minded men with
\ntheir Big Big Grammar, so am going to attempt to do the impossible by breaking its
\nmeaning down and how it operates under the law.
\nA simple formula to follow is this. The first person on a Virgin Land that has neither
\nbeen occupied neither by another person nor under acquisition by the Government is
\nentitled to get a Certificate of Occupancy on that land.
\nIf that person with the C of O decides to sell his land to another person after so
\nmany years, that person must now obtain the Consent of the Governor before that
\ntransaction can be deemed legal in the eyes of the Government. If the new buyer
\nnow decides to sell the land again to a third owner in future, that Third owner must
\nalso obtain a new Consent of the Governor before that transaction can be deemed
\nlegal in the eyes of the Government and the process continues every time the
\nproperty changes hands to a new buyer.
\nIn other words, the first person on a land is the only person or group of persons
\nentitled to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy. Every subsequent buyer of that land
\nmust get a Governor\u2019s consent. There can only be one (1) Owner of the Certificate
\nof Occupancy on that Land and it will not be replicated for another person once the
\nland has been sold or transferred to another person.
\nThe powers of the Governor to Consent to such transactions can be found in Section
\n22. Of the LAND USE ACT 1978 as amended this states thus:
\n\u201cIt shall not be lawful for the holder of a statutory right of occupancy granted by
\nthe Governor to alienate his right of occupancy or any part thereof by assignment,
\nmortgage, and transfer of possession, sublease or otherwise howsoever without the
\nconsent of the Governor first had and obtained\u201d
\nWith this power, the Governor has the right to grant consent to any transaction
\nwhich it thinks has not contravened any Law of the land and if the consent has been
\nobtained fraudulently, the Governor is entitled to revoke such consent immediately.
\nIt is very important for a purchaser of land to perfect his or her document by
\nobtaining a Governors consent so as to have a complete rest of mind. Although its
\ngood to buy a land that already has a Global C of O or the Land has a Gazette, it still
\ndoesn\u2019t give you the full satisfaction that you own the land without any form of fear
\nor intrusion by the Omoniles. Your documents have not been perfected and the
\nconsent of the Governor to that transaction has not been obtained.
\nDisadvantages and Problems of Getting Governors Consent
\nObtaining a Governors Consent from the Land Bureau isn\u2019t the easiest thing to get
\nquickly despite the importance attached to it and urgency needed to secure a land
\nfrom Omoniles. On the Government website, it is stated that a Governors Consent
\ncan be obtained in 30 days but that has proven to be very untrue due to
\nunscrupulous civil servants who would do everything to frustrate the process of
\nobtaining the document without giving them huge kickbacks. A Governors consent
\nthat should cost N200,000 naturally could end up costing N600,000 Due to
\nkickbacks, Egunje, Bribes, P.R etc and that 30 days could translate to 6months or a
\nYear.
\nIn all, a Governors Consent is a very good document to obtain and I advise you to
\nget it so as to free yourself from Omoniles 100%. An advantage of having a
\nGovernor\u2019s consent is that you can transfer your land to another person without
\ngoing to the Omoniles or Family Baale to sign your deed and Form 1c which are
\ncompulsory requirements needed before you can process Governors consent. The
\nOmoniles pray seriously for the Owner not to have a Governors consent so that they
\ncan make a lot of money running into their Thousands whenever the Owner require
\nthe signatures of the family to start the Governors consent.
\nDo you now see why C of O is not the ultimate? Stepping aside the criticism of those
\nin charge of processing the C of O, You should try as much as possible to get a
\nGovernors Consent for all your genuine lands so as to eliminate Omoniles completely
\nand live a straight forward life devoid of Omonile wahala.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[206,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate","category-tips-and-advice"],"yoast_head":"\n