I give eulogy to all and sundry who had made impact on this forum. You have been doing a great work, I must sincerely commend.
So far I have been reading and learning from this forum, much had been written on different stages of construction but hardly have I come across one on the processes involved in getting "approval drawings" and that's what am going to share. It will be very hard for you to erect a structure be it bungalow in Lagos especially the metropolis without having your drawings approved.

Process of getting Approval( Development permit) (Lagos as a case study).

Kindly, accept my use of English and composition.

1) The first thing here is to get a survey plan:
A survey plan is a drawing showing the dimension of the building, the coordinates, the position of the building to the existing road. It must contain the name of the owner, the address of the site, the area of the building.
This survey plan is of two kind "blue print" and " red print" copy. The former is sufficient for building approval processes and related matters while the latter is used for processing C of O. The former cannot be lodged at the ministry of survey but the latter will be lodged at the ministry of survey. The former range from #50,000 to #100,000 while the latter range from #400,000 to #800,000.

2) Visit the Town planning Office:
Take the survey plan to the Town planning Office of the area the site is located "charting". The essence of the charting is to know if the site falls or not under Govt acquisition area.
3) Once, it is passed, make enquiry at the Architect office the requirements and the specifications that will guide you or your Architect to design. The known setbacks are 6m away from the existing road ( at the front), 3m from the sides and the rear sides. Recently, I was to design a 4 bedroom duplex for a client who bought half plot of land 9m by 36m (30ft by 120ft). Removing the known setbacks will make me have 3m by 27m which made the design unrealistic. I had to visit them at the Town planning Office for enquiry. I was given 3m at one side and 1.5m at the other side. the side having 1.5m setbacks will not have cantilever at the upper floor. With this , I was still able to achieve the proposed duplex design because I was having 4.5m by 27m.
Apart from the setback enquiry, you also need to ask the area (length and breadth of) each spaces. In my design, I made a bedroom 3m by 3.45m , toilet 1.65 by 1.35, store 1.35 by 1.5m, but it was told to go and make the bedroom 10.89/sqm, toilet 3 sqm, Kitchen 5.4/ sqm. This caused me of redesigning because I didn't make enquiry of this before I started the design

Note: The setbacks and space area differs from one Tp to the other.

I forgot to add. Now, you will be required to seal and stamp your architectural drawings before submitting for screen. This is a new development which doesn't make sense. This drawing will still be corrected at the slightest error, thereby making you to seal and stamp again.

4) Once the "architecture" as it is normally called is "okayed". If you are having multiple floors, you proceed to submitting structural drawings. Other things to accomplish the structural drawings are calculation sheet, letter of supervision and COREN stamp.


5) When the drawings are cleared, the Town planning officers will book appointment to visit your site. They will come to remeasure it( anything less from the survey you submitted will annul the survey. This will make you start all over again), take pictures of the site and it's surrounding and also sketch the location map. They usually collect a sum ten thousand naira for site inspection and will require you to bring a comfortable car to take them there. Peradventure, they arrive and see that a building had been demolished or work have started or you have supplied materials, you will be fine hugely ranging from #250,000 to 1m depending on the offence.

6) Next is to get assessment free from them: The assessment fee is the building permit fee to be paid to state govt and LABCA( Lagos State Building Control Agency).
For ground floor- Area multiplied by height mulplied by 50
For Upper floor+ Area of building multiplied by height and to roof height by 50
Fencing- Between 10,000 and 14,000
etc.
After payment, you will have to obtain a receipt from the bank. Note, not all banks have access to state govt acct , so make enquiry vivildly.
Issue often arise her at the payment stage. Some clients don't have "Payer ID". This means you have not been paying taxes to state Govt or have never made payment into LASG acct. (I can help you generate one, in case you are in this shoe). Also, I help clients in reducing the amount to be paid here through my design.
7) If all is successful, you will be asked to submit documents such as Sworn Affidavit of ownership, Tax receipt, Land Use Charge, 5 set of Architectural drawing, 5 sets of structural drawings, survey plan, 2 Passport etc.

Your development permit or approval may not come out in time after all have been done. I know of one I submitted since April 2017, it was ready in October 2019. For your approval to get to you within a month or two, you have to pay a staff for approval runnings. They know how to settle and clear the way up to the top. The cost range from 150 to Infinity depending on the design.

I will be stopping here for others to add.
I decide to enlighten especially prospective clients of this, so as to know what you are in planning in planning to reside in Lagos.

Waooooo, thanks so much for this great insight it's really helpful, and we'll detailed for every steps

Obafisenco:
Waooooo, thanks so much for this great insight it's really helpful, and we'll detailed for every steps

You are welcome.

Nice work, keep it up

Great!

Please help shed more light on this.
Is the setback rule the same for ground floor and upper floors? Or upper floors can be slightly lesser. Say 3m for ground floor and between 1m to 3m for upper floors?

niyiF:
Please help shed more light on this.
Is the setback rule the same for ground floor and upper floors? Or upper floors can be slightly lesser. Say 3m for ground floor and between 1m to 3m for upper floors?

Sorry for the late response.

Setback only applies to ground floor when building on a plot. But when it comes to half plot, one side will be 3m and the other side 1.5m, cantilever is only allow one the side with 3m setback at ground floor.

Requirements for Ogun State approval processing.

1. Survey Plan - They request for a red copy survey against the blue copy Lagos State often accept. But with much plea, favour can still be shown to those having blue copy survey.

2. 4 Sets of Architectual drawing- Lagos will always request for 5 copies of Architecture and structural drawings but Ogun State demand you submit four copies of Architecture and structure each.

3. Stamp duty

4. Tax and development levy. Taking Ado Odo/ Ota as case study, you don't need to stress yourself searching for your tax clearance or document as we have it in Lagos. This local government will already have a fixed amount for bungalows and multiple floors. Each of the floors tax levy is very meager. Less than twenty thousand for a floor.

5. passport photograph- Only one passport photograph is requested for.

6. Site Photograph.

These are the requirements requested for for approval processing in Ogun State ( Ado -Odo/ Ota precisely).

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okay

We design

Design

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Hello arctoyin, just came across your informative post.
I will like to ask, how many bedroom flat (bungalow) can be conveniently built on a half plot considering the 3m set back on the side and 1.5m setback on the 2nd side.

Thanks

afrobaby:
Hello arctoyin, just came across your informative post.
I will like to ask, how many bedroom flat (bungalow) can be conveniently built on a half plot considering the 3m set back on the side and 1.5m setback on the 2nd side.

Thanks

I can design 3 but not the mentioned set-back. Such set back is only required and needed when you want to do the approval of such building. If you plan doing the approval of the building, another set that will fit the set back will be submitted.