LAND TITLES AND THEIR LEGAL SIGNIFICANTS (PART 1)

-INTRODUCTION: One of the most important ways of laying claim to ownership of land as well as in any land/landed properties’ transactions is by having title documents that are relevant and recognized by various government statues and laws on such land and landed properties. This presentation is dedicated to identifying and explaining the various title documents that are relevant in any land or landed property transaction in Nigeria.

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES/RULES IN REAL ESTATE

 All lands belong to the Government (Land Use Act 1978)
 You cannot own land, what you can own is a right to or an interest in land (Section1 of the Land Use Act)
 Caveat Emptor (Buyers Beware): The burden to take precaution before purchase of property rest on the buyer (and his agent).
 Quic quid plantatur, solo solo cedit (Whatever is affixed to the soil, belongs to the soil). Thus, he that owns land owns everything on it.

VARIOUS STATUS A LAND CAN HAVE

When a SEARCH is conducted, it usually comes back with one of these THREE (3) verdicts;
•FREE from all known forms of government acquisition
•Acquired (but not committed)
•Committed (Acquired and committed)

LAND TITLES AND THEIR LEGAL SIGNIFICANTS (PART 1)

EXCISION

The Land Use Decree (now Act) on the 28th of March, 1978 vested all lands in every state of the Federation under the control of the State Governors. The Land Use Act coupled with other laws made it possible for the Governor who is now the owner of all lands in the state to actually have the power to acquire more lands compulsorily for its own public purpose to provide amenities such as schools, hospitals, Government Housing Schemes, Free Trade Zone, Airport, Sea Port, Golf Course, etc. Which is for the greater good of the citizens.

Fortunately, the government recognizes that indigenes of different sections of the country have a right to existence . . . a right to the land of their birth. Hence, it is customary for state government to cede a portion of land to the original owners (natives) of each area. That process is called excision. Such transaction will be recorded and documented in the official government gazette of that state for record keeping. 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 or the Original dwellers on the land.

I hope you have been enlightened with today’s lecture. Stay glued to this page as we bring you part 2 tomorrow.

Buy wisely, buy through a licensed Realtor who is well knowledgeable in the field.

LAND TITLES AND THEIR LEGAL SIGNIFICANCE PART 2

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES/RULES IN REAL ESTATE

 All lands belong to the Government (Land Use Act 1978)
 You cannot own land, what you can own is a right to or an interest in land (Section1 of the Land Use Act)
 Caveat Emptor (Buyers Beware): The burden to take precaution before purchase of property rest on the buyer (and his agent).
 Quic quid plantatur, solo solo cedit (Whatever is affixed to the soil, belongs to the soil). Thus, he that owns land owns everything on it.

LAND TITLES AND THEIR LEGAL SIGNIFICANCE PART 2

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 gave 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.
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.

*DEED OF CONVEYANCE*

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

Deed of Conveyance is old legal document used in transferring the interest of the owner of a landed property interest to the person to another whom it is assigned, the assignee. When ownership is transferred, the new legal document in use now is called deed of assignment.

*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*

A governor’s consent can only be processed on a land with either Gazette or an Existing Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).
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 buyers the right of occupancy or ownership is a governor’s consent.
The powers of the Governor to consent to such transactions can be found in Section 22 of the Land Use Act of 1978 which 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, transfer of possession, sublease or otherwise howsoever without the consent of the Governor first had and obtained'' This simply means therefore that even when a buyer has secured a land with a Certificate of Occupancy, he shouldn't stop there.
He needs to begin the process of obtaining a Governor's consent to make that purchase legal in the eyes of the government and be rest assured his land is safe.
*DEED OF ASSIGNMENT*

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 transnational document 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.

*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

*WHAT IS LAND TITLE?*

Land title may be defined as *the rights or ownership claim a person has over a property*. It simply means, for you to claim land title, you must show other people the right you have over that land. E.g the land was willed to you by your late grandfather or you bought the property from another person and he handed over the title documents of the land or there was a dispute on the land and a court judgement awarded you the land as the owner etc.

To determine what title a person has over a property, a prospective buyer must inspect the available documents the seller is relying on to initiate the transaction.

*KNOW THE DIFFERENCE Between Rectification and Ratification*
Don’t be confused. Rectification and Ratification means 2 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 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.

Let me take some questions and answers from our past training
*Question:* Is excision as good as obtaining CofO?
Is a person having excision still mandated to obtain CofO?

*Answer:* After a land has been excised and Gazetted then you can either process your C of O or Governor consent.

Excision does not expire while CofO expire after 99 years. The only advantage CofO has over Excision is that it can be use as collateral for getting loan in the bank

*Question*
In a situation you have the C of O and survey without Deed of Assignment for a land allocated by state government. Are the documents enough without Deed of Assignment?

*Answer:* Government schemes mostly doesn't come with Deed of Assignment. What government gives in this case is Letter of Allocation and through the letter of assessment you obtained from the NTDA you can process your CofO.

*Question:* Does it mean that "Lands have to at least be excised before it can be sold or transferred to someone else" ?

*Answer:* Yes. You become rightful owner of the land once the government releases it to you via excision.

Though Governments recognise ancestral land ownership as excision is the right of the indigenous land owners.

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