A search on properties with registered titles such as Certificate of Occupancy, Governor’s Consent and Registered Conveyance is done by simply applying for a search at the Land Registry. The case is however different for properties without a registered title.

These are properties held by either individuals or families mostly under native law and custom. The document usually tendered by owners of such properties as evidence of ownership is a survey plan, which is not a form of title but merely shows the actual demarcation of a piece of land. In other words, investigation/search into such properties before purchase cannot be done at the Land Registry because nothing of their existence is documented at the Registry.

In practice, the first precautionary step to take before purchase is to make inquiry into the genuineness of the ownership of the individual or family selling the property in question and ensure one is dealing with recognized members of the family .It is important to carefully ask questions from residents of the area to confirm the ownership claim of the family or individual selling.

The second precautionary step, upon confirming the genuineness of the ownership of the seller, is to apply to the Surveyor General’s Office for charting of the survey plan. The essence of a chart is to verify whether the land falls under government acquisition or not .A further step must also be taken to invite officials of the Surveyor General’s Office to pay a physical visit to the site in order to determine that the property described in the survey plan is the same as that shown on-site. This is necessary because several cases have shown that many of the survey plans paraded around by these sellers either describe co-ordinates of a totally different location from that offered for sale or co-ordinates of a government free property on paper, discovered to be government property on-site. It is advisable to carry out both ‘office charting’ and ‘physical charting’, especially when in doubt about the ownership claim of the seller.

The mere fact that a property offered for sale is located in an already developed area or shares a wall with a property certified free from government acquisition is not an automatic guarantee that it is free from government acquisition. This is an assumption that must be dispensed with to avoid stories that touch. There is a thin line/boundary between a property under government acquisition and a property free from government acquisition. One can only determine this by charting the survey plan at the Surveyor General’s Office. The fact that the existence of such properties are not documented at the Land Registry makes them require extra due diligence before purchase.