It’s the beginning of the year and part of many people’s goal is to acquire properties either for investment or personal purposes but either way the two major sources of acquisition is through or will be through the real estate companies or the landholding families popularly called the OMONILES.


Today’s post is for those contemplating or in the process of acquiring properties from the landholding families a.k.a Omoniles and the practical steps to avoid paying them the dreaded signing fee. If you are in this position, you may be wondering, what’s the signing fee all about?
The signing fee is that amount of money though not legal but in practice commonly demanded for by many of these Omoniles to sign the DEED OF ASSIGNMENT ,which is a very important contractual document that details the transaction of the sale of land from the seller to the buyer. Many of them go as far as asking outrageous amount of money just to append their signature on the Deed of Assignmnent because they know its importance.


To avoid paying this fee or a minimal amount of it, the first step, once you are certain of the status of the property and that you are dealing directly with the principal members of the family who will sign the Deed of Assignment is to negotiate a price for the land. The negotiation stage of the property transaction is a very important stage because it is at this point that some of the Omoniles will request you include their signing fee as part of the total amount of money to be paid for the property. It is also at this point you must use your money which they want to get but they are yet to get as leverage to insist on not paying a dime as signing fee and if they will not budge but insist on collecting it ,then use your money as leverage to negotiate a minimal amount to be paid as signing fee. Some of these Omoniles will actually not raise the issue of the signing fee at the negotiation stage, which brings me to the next step


The next step having agreed on a price for the property is to fix a day for both payment and signing of the Deed of Assignment . Do not make the error of fixing one day for payment and another day for signing. If you do that, your leverage is gone because once they are in possession of your money; some of the Omoniles who were silent about the signing fee at the negotiation stage will start to demand you pay them to sign. To be on the safe side, make sure both payment and signing takes place on the same day.

In some cases, they may claim on the day fixed for both payment and signing, that one of the principal members whose name is on the Deed of Assignment is unavailable to sign in order to collect your money and force you to fix another day for signing. In such a case, show them a copy of the bank draft or cheque you intend making payment with as a show of your commitment to see the transaction through and reschedule another day for both payment and signing, insisting all principal members be made available to sign. In most cases,once they have sighted a copy of the bank draft or cheque, you can get them to do anything including making all principal members whose names are on the Deed of Assignment available to sign.


In other words, your money is your real leverage to completely avoid paying the fee or a minimal amount of it. So use your money well as leverage.