₦airaland Forum

Another set of people I should blame is the Office of the Surveyor General for not simplifying things to make people have easy access to having the land information properly endorsed from their office. They tell you that before you can get a land information, you must do the survey plan first which could cost up to N150,000 or more and after that you can now apply for the Land information certificate which is around the N30,000 to N50,000 mark but am not too sure about the current price.

Major question now is, what if the land is under acquisition and the surveyor makes a mistake after they have spent N150,000 PLUS to do a survey plan since there is nothing like a provisional survey plan, Do you get a refund? How many survey plans will you continually spend money on before you get a Land information certificate? If all the lands your going to search all fall within Government acquisition and are not free, who absolves the cost? E.g you do like 4 searches to buy a land at Eleko and all the 4 survey plans all show they are not free or committed lands and you have spent almost N600,000 to do a survey plan and the land is worth N1Million, would it encourage you to buy lands? This is just part of the insensitivity of Government policy makers who are content on making people pay more and not care about the costs of the search. That’s why people will continue to use these Quack surveyors and pray your dealing with a registered approved God fearing surveyor who has your interest at heart.

Some people will say the surveyor should take the coordinates from the land and go personally to the surveyor General’s office to cross check. Question: How would you know he crossed checked it properly? Because the Client did not pay them properly through mobilization to do the search and secondly most of them have the software of Coordinates of the whole Lagos on their computers and they do the mapping there, they will just compare the coordinates with the ones on their system and forget that since it’s a software, its being upgraded everyday.

So what might be free today, might be revoked tomorrow and its only at the surveyor general’s office they can confirm authoritatively.

I myself have been a victim of 3-4 lands not because of some stupid greedy omoniles but because of dodgy surveyors and fraudulent survey plans and that’s why I had to almost give up doing searches until I met a new God fearing Registered Surveyor and for the past one year I have been grateful to God for meeting her. She helped me expose most of the fraudulent things her colleagues have been doing to people and things to watch out for and I have taken my time to money to educate you guys about the pros and cons of a survey plan and what you should watch out for and I will give you some practical experiences I have encountered so as to guide and aid you to avoid making the same mistakes a lot of Nigerians including Yours truly have encountered in the hands of these Dodgy Surveyors.

P. S : For the avoidance of doubt, I am not attacking the Surveying Profession. It is a Profession filled with honorable people and they have an Institute of Nigerian Surveyors that regulates them. Only deal with REGISTERED SURVEYORS AND ASK FOR THEIR CREDENTIALS. No credential, Not registered, No business, No Search!!!!

Quite a while peeps. Una don wahala me tire to write articles, so as a servant to the people I must heed that clarion call.

This article to me is the most important Land related Article I am writing to date and I really would love all of you interested in buying properties or those that have bought lands to take this article very seriously. It has to deal with SURVEY PLANS and why it is a very important document that can either make you bankrupt or successful in a land purchase.

I am exposing this because I have also been a victim of terrible and wicked surveyors who would go to any length to lie, cheat and produce fake Survey plans having problems hereby leading to so many land purchase wahalas.

In fact the number one land problem in Lagos today isn’t the famed Omoniles as we all choose to believe but dangerous and dodgy surveyors. Most of them parading themselves are Quacks and not registered Surveyors and they collude actively with omoniles and Land fraudsters to cause mayhem. They distort survey plans, forge signatures, steal (Free from Acquisition) Stamps, Fabricate square meters to make it look big but by the time they measure it its some hundred meters short, they fail to put the beacon numbers on the floor to reflect the points where the property starts and stops, they create fictious existing roads and generally destroy the plan of the whole community.

The greatest crime these surveyors do is to carry out fake coordinates and that to me kills the potential buyer. Naturally a surveyor should take coordinates of the area using their GPS machine and compare it with the master plan obtainable at the Surveyor general’s office, instead these Terrible surveyors bank on the ignorance of everyone, take fake coordinates and tell you it is free from acquisition and we accept it without asking questions. By the time buyers take it for their governor’s consent or Ratification, you will get a letter from Alausa querying it saying the property is not free from Government acquisition or that a land which is ordinarily should be located in Ogombo will be showing Ibeju Lekki on the master survey plan at Alausa.
The truth here too is that we the buyers also encourage these dodgy surveyors to do a lot of fraudulent things because we don’t pay their search money or do the proper thing like obtaining Land information to show the true status of the property.

I have been involved countless times on behalf of clients who are not ready to pay lets say N30,000 to a surveyor to do a proper search result and document it from their office. They will rather give the surveyor N3,000 for fuel and they expect the surveyor to give them a proper result for a property worth over N1Million Naira. Even me sef, Una de pay me well to do search?

( We Nairalanders sef get our own for bodi)

Thanks blank, they will be banned ASAP for violating the rules !

Cheers

@Blank

Am forever grateful to you for pointing theses errant posters out. As for 4EvaGod he/she is a serial spammer and has been warned over and over again to desist from it but wont stop, i guess i would take a stricter stand on the above poster.

Look at the last warnings:

(0) (of 1 pages)
lawyer banned 4everGod1 from Properties for You dont listen. You were just banned to stop posting more than 3 topics per day or bumping up more than 3 topics and your doing it again! at March 24, 2012 at 02:29:11 AM. Ban expired at April 07, 2012 at 02:29:11 AM
lawyer banned 4everGod1 from Property Ads for You were warned yesterday to desist from bumping 3 posts and spamming the board but you dont just want to listen. at March 15, 2012 at 01:51:10 PM. Ban expired at March 17, 2012 at 01:51:10 PM

Its really sad and they will come out to say am wicked or being partial

Very simple, contact your nearest property lawyer and he will take the matter up. Since their tenancy has validly expired, You issue an Owners intention to recover premises within 7 days notice to them. Its no longer a quit notice from the landlord but an Owner's intention to recover premises. After that you file same at the nearest rent tribunal nearest to you presenting all the documents showing that the quit notice is valid and voila the judge gives judgement in your favour to throwout the tenants using court sherriffs. But it could take you between 1-3months (Justice is slow) lol

Cheers

@Origin4lif

without going to the Ogun State land bureau, you can see even the survey you put up here has no stamp where it is written 'FREE FROM GOVERNMENT ACQUISITION' I am so experienced enough to know that this land is not free and the worst is that it needs ratification before the land can be approved to you. Once a surveyor doesnt stamp free from Acquisition on your survey plan, know already its a problem land and he just did the survey plan to chop your money.

Cheers

@Yemilala

There is no way a property in Magodo Phase 2 wont have a C/O. Its just not possible. Ask the owner properly and they will bring it out from where they are hiding it.

Also yes you can do a search with a gazette, survey plan or deed but the deed must be registered

Cheers

Mukkieeee u de dodge me..i go cry for road ooo!!!

Unfortunately sir, am sorry to tell you are a victim of the Mowe/ Ofada property scammers i exposed some time back. Look at this link https://www.nairaland.com/306563/pictures-dont-lie-real-mowe.

Most of them have gone under because they borrowed money to finance a property project that has no head or tail or the deal they had with the Omoniles has gone bust because of the sharing formular so they have abandoned the project and have resorted to lying to get themselves out of the mess.There is no money, or land and they have no authority over the lands they are selling and if you check deeper, you will find out that there are a host of others that are fighting these people over this same thing.

The best option is to sue them to recover your money or for specific performance because they are now debtors.

Thats why its good to do a thorough search before you buy a property especially those ones claiming to sell estates. Once it goes bust your in a deep Mess. Sorry about that Sir! Its one of the bad cases we preach about here.

I have been to Arepo and its a very lovely place to be honest but i havent dealt with property mart One on One regarding Arepo lands so i have to know which land area your dealing with before i can investigate anything. I wont just go to Arepo and search the whole place without looking for what is necessary.

Cheers

thirdi(m):

Please I need some clarification. Bought a house and my neighbor is claiming that he will destroy the wall if I do not allow him to raise the fence from my side and put pillars as we both own the wall. The wall was built by the man I bought the place from.

Oga Lawyer please give some legal insight to this issue

This raises a lot of questions concerning ownership via boundary issues and the survey plan. The first question is who built the fence? Was it the previous Seller or your neighbour? If it was your neighbour, then automatically he has the right to raise the fence due to the fact that he owns it first and must conform with the building practice standard of the acceptable size of a fence. Also the fence must not cross beyond what has been allocated by the Survey plan in the building plan building unless you have a very good ground to sue him for trespass. Such a thing is happening to a Nairlander at Ipaja that bought a State Allocation land and the neighbour tried to raise it without the knowledge of the Nairalander and he brought an Action for Trespass and Alausa went there to remove the whole thing to conform.

Also why does he want to put the Pillar numbers there now? If he isn't the owner, he should take permission from you and even if he is the owner, his pillar number and yours will never correlate because i doubt if its the same surveyor that did the survey plan for the 2 lands. If its the previous Seller that sold the land to you that put up the fence, the neighbour has no right to raise the fence unless he obtains your permission unless that is a clear case of trespass.

The best way to solve this thing is to call a surveyor you trust and an Architect to liaise with your neighbour to do things properly so that he does'nt encroach into your land via trespass or be a nuisance and if he continues to violate this through threats, alert the Town planning authorities and he will bring his building plan (That's even if he has any) to show them if he has the right to alter the building plan without their permission. The money he is using to threaten you will finally enter the pockets of Alausa Town planners if that doesnt do it, bring an injunction to restrain him. Shikena!

Cheers

yemilala:
Hello I have some document how I want to do search on as I have a client that want to buy a property
Somewere in magodo phase 2.is it possiible I meet with you in person or how can u help me out

Send me the C/O Number and i will do the search for you.

Cheers

Quite a while and glad to be back. I am now fully settled to resume Property search works, so to commemorate this i am going to do 10 FREE SEARCHES ON MY OWN EXPENSE.

The rules are very simple. The first 10 C/O, Governor's Consent or Registered Olden days Deeds numbers pasted here will be throughly researched and thee results pasted here.

The first 5 Survey plans scanned and pasted here will be searched free at the Surveyor generals office to determine if its free.

Please dont send me fictious C/O Numbers because i would know if its fake.

Also please dont start asking me to go and research one place or one family because you need the information. Thats totally different and it requires serious mobilization to do that like sending me to Ikorodu, Eleko, Ibafo or Badagry etc. I Won't do that.

Also i wont search any unregistered purchase reciept because i want to encourage people this year to purchase more properties that either has a global C/O, Governor's consent, Gazette or a Ratified Area and distance themselves from all these phoney Omoniles that have no good title to pass to you.

Once again, Good to be back and Let the searches begin.

Cheers

@wilifie thanks for the message. My contact email is barrister_matto@yahoo.com or call me on 08077943514

Cheers

@linda ikeji

Legally there is nothing malicious in your blog about what you said because one of the defence against libelous acts no matter how malicious is 'Truth". It shows her willingly posing as a celeb and showing off her bb porsche. It wasnt a fabricated picture neither was it a caricature of her. It was the truth so she has nothing to say against you and you did nothing malicious to require a law suit against you.

Also your apology is not an admission of guilt because we really dont know what can be inferred from susan peters anger against the publication of the picture that is true. Its trite law in US and the UK that Privacy laws do not apply to celebrities who put themselves out there to be noticed. It works both ways. They need the fame and publicity to get rich and famous and can also get infamous through the same medium. So i really dont know why you apologized for telling the truth that can be seen by a billion people with her showing off her new bb phone.

You can institute a libelous suit against her if you feel she has demeaned your character in the eyes of reason people and same can be inferred by a reasonable man but i must advice that our laws have not graduated to new media and there are very little cases to support such precedent. Best advice free her. Your the bigger woman and you have gained more followers and respect!

Cheers

People complain too much! Give the guy a break. He said he did this on his own and he is working day and night to make sure its okay. Allow him to do his work. If you go new people will come in. I joined Nairaland in 2007 and 85% of the people i met then have been replaced by newbies. Nl is here to stay.Support not condemn. Offer solutions not criticize to death. Everyday we talk about Nigerians not doing our own thing and importing things daily. Lets support one of our own. He has done it before and he will do it again. Give him your support not destroy it. If Nl fails we all fail!

Cheers

@geezle

I cant confirm because i dont know who you are from the plethora of cv's recieved. Thanks all the same for the interest. We are scrutinizing a them..

Cheers

Secretary Vacancy for a fun law office in Ikeja. Must be very computer literate, very good typing skills,Good command of English, Excellent with Documents and letters draftings, courteous, smart and have a flair for managing situations and not one to be Micro-managed.

I am purposely not asking for any form of academic qualification because i have realised academic qualifications does'nt equate to Practical experience and i am throwing it open but previous experience as Secretary would be an added advantage .

Candidates must live within the ikeja environs or close by for accessibility to and fro the office and must be 21-30, Female, hardworking and God-fearing.

Send CV in a form of a letter to barristermatto@yahoo.com on or before the 16th of March 2012.

Renumerations attractive

P;S: Your resume will determine how good you are with document draftings Unsupervised.

Cheers

P

Chinom:
Mr. moderator, Lawyer. I strongly object to to my previous comment being removed. Have you been paid off by these guys ?. How do you define fraud ?. Of course, he is entitled to fix his price at N200m for a plot of land that is in SHAGAMU while advertising that it's near Lagos. Lands at Mowe, Simawa and environs were bought from the Ogun state govt for peanuts. Why would you put a price of N950,000 for a piece of land you bought for less than N100,000. Does that make sense to you, Mr. lawyer?. I'm not spoiling his business. I,m here on a public awareness programme. The public have the right to know. I thought Nairaland is on the side of the masses.
I was actually doing Oakwood properties a favour by opening their eyes to good and sound business practise. The reason i used those strong words(GREED) is the huge disparity in thier prices.
We should all be allowed to voice our opinions on this forum. The moment you degenerate to removing people's comment because it does not favour your friend will mark the end of NL. This is a social network site. He can go to Linkedin or some other strictly property site and advertise his properties at ridiculous prices.

"Dont spoil their market because it doesnt fit your budget now." this comment from you is rather an insult. I will save my response for another day. YOU MUST ALLOW PEOPLE TO VOICE THIER OPINIONS HERE. thank you.

Ok Point taken. I dont know these people and my job is to prevent a cat fight for no reason. Their job is to advertise, your job is to buy when and if your interested. If you criticize it should be about fraud or misrepresentation and not how much they are selling it. If they sell too high its their loss and their problem. I only removed that first comment because it was too personal and your second one was more objective. I dont want any war in the property forum. No vex if i deleted it. Your free to criticize but dont make it personal!

Cheers

Chinom:
Let me know when the price per plot drops to N500k. I may purchase 3 plots then. Despite all your attempts to impress us with pictures, that location is still in the bush bush. I was offered a better plot of land at MOWE early last year for N450K which i rejected. I never knew how removed the place was from Lagos until i went for inspection. Your property is even further away.
I think most of you property developers just quote your prices thinking that buyers are morons. It's not about how much you quote as price, but how many plots you ACTUALLY sell
The guy that puts his own at N4m per plot at such a location will eventually have to his clansmen there to live. The prices you guys fix has absolutely nothing to do with the real value of the land.

Oga Chinom

Its either you buy or you dont buy. You dont have to criticize a thread when you havent been there or your alledging fraud or misrepresentation. Prices vary and market forces determine how you purchase a land. He can choose to advertise it for 1 billion Naira and some will say its too cheap while others will say its too expensive. Thats your own opinion. The only time i need people to comment is either they are enquiring about the sellers product or making a complain in respect of fraud or theft. Dont spoil their market because it doesnt fit your budget now.

Cheers

Lagoseko:
@ Lawyer,
[b]You have not anwserd my questions:

Due to the crises in the country, the souther people are leaving the north. the north are leaving the south and Nigeria is in the brink of dividing.
1. Do you advice a southerner to buy properties like in Abuja and Niger (Suleja)?
2. Do you advice a south easterner to buy propety in south west?
3. If Nigeria eventually divides what happens to these properties?
4. I know that in Sudan after the divison into North and South Sudan, the only law is that you can not be a citizen of both South and North. Nothing was said about investments. But will that be the case in Nigeria?

Also post your email and GSM no for me.

Oga sorry for the late reply:

You can buy property any where you want. Political skirmishes now does not mean Nigeria wants to divide. A lot of Northerners and powerful ones at that have loads of properties, lands and businesses in Lagos an same for so many Ibos and Yorubas that have invested heavily in Kano, Kaduna and Abuja. These are their homes and they will do anything to safe guard their interests and property. Nigeria is not like Sudan and our wars or anger is not about dividing Nigeria but having an equitable distribution of the resources. Dividing Nigeria does not mean that when there is an Oduduwa state or country,powerful Yoruba politicians would not want to corner the choice areas of the South west and leaving crumbs for the middle class who will definately revolt till they further sub divide Oduduwa state down to their Village. Same for the Biafra state or Arewa Region.

Every country goes through this turbulence and comes out better for it, so i dont think those fears are warranted for now and even if it happens, The state will not colonize the lands that other nationalities bought, rather they will be a way of registering foreigners to take proper ownership of lands in a foreign country, thats why you can go to the Us or Uk and own a land or property despite the fact your a Nigerian and based in Nigeria.

When you talk about investments please expanciate further?

@Damola 1

Oko tinu bawo ni

@Martin123

Anything that has no gazette should be avoided? That's why you must get a surveyor to check it out! What if the Place has been committed to do something like a bridge or govt estate what will you do? And 2.5million for a land without gazette behind Mayfair? Please! Negotiate harder

@Okotami: I have been on NL for 4years helping people and managing their funds if need be! No matter how bad I am, at least 1 person will come out to say I stole their money or led them astray nah! There is a difference between a transaction gone bad and taking stepss to rectify it and taking people's money and scoping them. I am not working on anybody's psychology! These are real life stories that happened to Nairalanders like You and I and some of them will come out to tell you it happened to them. I just write these things to make sure we don't make the same mistakes over and over and as a reminder to me to make me sharper because these scammers repeat these tricks and the human mind is falliable! I am not perfect and have had my own fair share of landed wahalas but I put 100% to rectify it if its has to do with my own fault! Finally Oga, I don't take money from anyone till the client is satisfied and you can ask around! I run everything on my own bill and when the client is happy I get paid, so how can I defraud anyone to take their money when I don't even see it till the end? Its only now am shouting for people to raise me mobilization cost to move aroundd now due to the fuel increase unless I have been incurring loses over the years assisting NLanders but I don't complain because I enjoy what I do and I derive joy when my clients are happy! Try me for size and confirm if its a propaganda or not!
Cheers

@blank

I go kill you o! Why you expose the secret nah! (LOL) Primewaterview go sue you o! Lol! On a more serious note I am extremely disappointed in them! They did so well before! What happened? Greed? Mismanagement? Its a shame!

[b]5. QUESTION: THE AGENT/OWNER SHOWED ME A SURVEY PLAN WITH LAYOUT (WHAT DOES THAT MEAN; THE PROS AND CONS OF BUYING A LAND WITH SURVEY LAYOUT ALONE)

ANSWER[/b]: Buying a property alone because the Agent or Owner showed you a Survey plan layout does not guarantee that the land is free from Government acquisition or that is a good land. It has been a popular scam I noticed especially last year that Agents used to con people for them to believe the land or lands are properly designed and designated and its rampant where you see Agents marketing proposed Estates in Mowe or in Ajah.

It comes in the form of the Owner or Agent pulling out a large Survey plan showing so many Hectares or Acres of Land fully mapped out into smaller plots and broken down into smaller sizes showing well laid out proposed schools, hospitals, police station, roads etc. It gives you them the aura of invincibility and confidence that they have done their jobs properly and all you need to do is point the particular area from the Survey Layout and pay the owner and within days you will have your land.

What they won’t tell you is that you should bring your Own Surveyor to come and verify and map out the coordinates personally. They will tell you that their company surveyor or personal surveyor has done it so you shouldn’t bother yourself but these are the following problems that emanate from issues like this;

1. It may be a different Survey plan layout they are showing you and it might not represent the area you intend to buy. You might be interested in buying a land in Ogombo but the layout is showing another set of lands in Ibeju Lekki.

2. You cannot determine if the Coordinates of the land or Survey layout shown to you represent the same area. They might be showing you a plot in the midst of all the other lands and telling you that its free but that when you search harder through a Surveyor you will be surprised that that particular plot falls outside the Gazette or C/O of that area and once your hooked you can’t run away.

3. A Survey layout isn’t a Proper Survey and anybody or group of people can draw up a Layout to confuse you and you don’t know whether its free from Govt acquisition or not and its only your own Surveyor that can draw up your own personal Survey plan after he has gone to the site to confirm whether it is a good land or not.

4. Finally a Survey Layout can never guarantee that the land isn’t stolen or belongs to you. 2 or more people can own that same plot of land and they will be deceiving you that the reason they haven’t allocated the land to you is because they are doing some background work and you should exercise patience. By the time you wait for a while and demand for your documents you will discover that other people are also fighting for possession for the same land and the merry go round of wahala begins.

TRUE STORY:

A Buyer wanted to buy lands at Lakowe along Ibeju Lekki from a company that advertised their lands for sale in one of these popular property magazines. The company’s head office is at Ikeja and he decided to do his own little fact finding to confirm its genuinity. They showed him so many documents that they acquired it from the Family and they gave them the right to sell and they are processing the C/O but they had surveyed the whole lands and done a big Survey layout showing over 200 plots of well mapped out plots in Blocks and Plots and after the Buyer pays he will be allocated a plot. They wrote so many names on each plot with pencil indicating who and who had bought the plots previously and told the Buyer to choose a plot that hasn’t been taken.

The Buyer not totally convinced told the Owners to take him to the lands to see the plots and they took him to a vast expanse of land and pointed the land to him from a distance and said he can only know his plot when it has been properly allocated and they allocate lands after every 10 people have Paid to Make it easier for them and the Buyer. He was excited and promised to pay the next day and when he got home he told his wife about it and his plans to pay the next day. The wife was suspicious and she is a staunch silent follower of Nairaland properties and decided to give me a call to verify what her husband told her. She said her husband was about to pay N4.8Million for 4 plots at N1.2Million each and she wanted to be sure he isn’t throwing money away. Immediately I gave her the contact of a Surveyor to tell the Surveyor to go there to take the coordinates of the land. When the surveyor got to the company, they refused to show her the Survey layout and summarily dismissed her without taking her to see the land for her to take coordinates.

I now decided to go to the company to pose as a Buyer and told the surveyor to give me one of her boys to escort me to the Office and the site and he should take his GPS secretly to pick the coordinates when we get there. The Owners waxed lyrically about the authencity of the land and if I pay I would get my own plot after the general allocation and I also promised to come and pay at the end of the week. The Surveyor’s boy secretly took the coordinates of the area they showed us (NOT THE PARTICULAR LAND ITSELF O! IT WAS FROM A DISTANCE AS USUAL) And after confirming it at the Surveyor general’s office it was found that that the lands the Company wanted to Sell to the Buyer was a COMMITTED LAND AND THE PROPOSED LAKOWE GOLF COURSE is to PASS THROUGH THERE.

I hurriedly told the wife and the Buyer almost wanted to run mad that the company wanted to deceive him. When he called the Company to express his disappointment, they rudely told him to get lost and other people will buy it. They offered no apology or rational explanation why they are selling bad lands to people or attempted to find a better plot for him and upon further investigation on that Company I found out so many people have carried them to court for selling fake lands and not allocating the lands as promised to them.


So the Key Points here is that:

1. Never buy a land just because they showed you a Survey layout of the land without a registered Surveyor confirming it for you that it’s a good land.

2. Never part with money for a land you cannot see physically with your own eyes or step on the ground of that plot. Don’t just allow the Seller to point to a land to you as yours when you cant even demarcate it to know the total square meters of it.

3. Be wary of those Sellers promising to allocate you lands through a Survey layout alone, promising that they need to allocate lands per 10s or 20s. These are red flags that something is wrong somewhere and you should shine your eyes.

Am tired, need to sleep! Will continue soon with more interesting questions and true stories which would include Pros and Cons of buying lands that are Swampy, lands that have been fenced and all the tricks associated with them, how to spot good and bad agents from afar, The issue of Ratification and the scams associated with it, Scams involved when paying for signing fees and foundation money etc and a host of many other stories.

Once again good to be back and I pray God gives me the wisdom and strength to be able to do more searches to tackle these bad people and please pray to God for me so that I can continue being Honest. To be truthful the amount of temptation I have encountered from fraudulent land sellers or Omoniles to collect money or commission from them to lie to Nairalanders is overwhelming. If I wasn’t worried about my dignity I would have been a stinking Millionaire but I cant sleep at Night knowing I will involve myself with such. Am not the Holiest person, in fact very far from it but I don’t sleep well at night when I even hear a transaction did not go smoothly due to one trespasser or not, talkless of taking back payment to deceive the Client.

Last year I had dodgy owners crediting my account at my back to lie for the Owner to make sure I convince the Buyer to buy defective properties but I would rather walk away and return it. I Challenge any Owner or Agent openly to say I take commissions or bribes to endorse a property. What is bad is bad if I know about it and I really pray this year I follow the path of dignity as always. Most of you that know me personally know I don’t do things for money until the client is happy and I hope to do more to make more Nlanders smile.

Cheers

TRUE STORY 2

B. This had nothing to do with the negligence of the Buyer but rather the deceit of the Seller and the need to not involve sentiments in doing anything as long as it’s a transaction that involves exchange of money.

The seller here was a woman who wanted to sell a property at Ibafo and she had 2 sitting tenants. The Buyers are truly reputable people and I can vouch for their integrity any day any time. (Kudos Mr Adewole and Thlala Kolo Ltd! I Appreciate you and keep learning from you The Buyers negotiated a particular price to buy the property off the woman after doing so many preliminary investigations to establish the validity of the ownership of the property and the Seller even brought her lawyer along to stand for her. She promised so many things about the issue of the tenants and how she would pay the tenants off and even provide alternative accommodation for them once the Buyers pay her.

She went as far as saying they had been intimated way back that she wanted to sell the property and their tenancy had almost expired so they didn’t have any other reason to stay 1 extra day after she had paid them off to vacate the premises. She did everything possible to prevent us from interviewing the tenants personally because she said if they knew about the immediate transaction, thieves could attack her and the tenants would want to demand more money for them to leave. Being honorable men, they decided to trust her words including Me and hoped since It was a woman, we should expect much hassles or such Omonile type behavior. How wrong we were. Infact She is one of the most despicable Women I have ever come across.

Right from the bank she demanded to cash over N10Million to put in her bag to carry home because she didn’t trust the Buyers to issue her a draft which would also equate as Cash at hand. Thank God the bank refused such request to hand her such a huge sum and the tantrum she threw at the bank was just the beginning of the drama. Immediately she cashed it, she disappeared and nobody knew her whereabouts. The buyers now decided to confront the Tenants a week after to confirm whether the Seller had given them the money for them to relocate and they feigned ignorance of even knowing that the Property was even offered for sale and One of the tenants even said he just paid his rent newly because the he was getting married and needed a new apartment and the week the Seller was paid was the week she accepted new rent from the newly wedded tenant. The Onus was now on the Buyers to negotiate with the tenants to tell them that ownership had changed hands and the tenants demanded a huge sum of money for them to relocate peacefully and they should also be given time to move. It took months before they left before the Sellers could do anything meaningful in that place It was a difficult time for the Buyers to still shell out more money to sort out the tenancy issue and it really made them upset that they trusted the Woman. Everything would have been sorted out if we had had access to the tenants to get the true state of things before paying rather than relying on the word of mouth of the Woman and her dodgy lawyer .

4. QUESTION: I WANT TO BUY A HOUSE FILLED WITH SITTINGTENANTS, HOW DO I PROCEED WITH IT:

ANSWER: Buying a house isn’t that complicated and its almost a fairly simple transaction once you can identify the true owner but the real problem comes when your interested in buying a house that has sitting tenants whose tenancy has not expired. It’s a very tricky situation whereby if your not careful you could inherit the tenants in that house and not gain any profit or investment from the house you have just purchased, so these are the steps you need to take before you buy a house filled with sitting tenants and  what you should look out for:

1.  Always ask the Selling Landlord to tell you about the history of the house he intends to sell i.e How old the House is, When it was built, How many tenants he has rented the place to over the years, the Original receipt of the land when it was bought, a copy of the Original architectural drawing, copy of the survey of the land, proof of payment of tenement rates or past previous water or Nepa bills going the last 6 months.

2. Try to get in touch with one or 2 of the tenants to tell you one or two things about the landlord and the history of the house. Also get to ask neighbours on the street to tell you one or 2 things about the House you intend to buy to know whether the Seller is the genuine owner of the property. A House that is going for sale and the tenants don’t know its for sale or the neighbours is a recipe for disaster and problems.


The Cons of buying a House could be found in the following and the Buyer must shine his or her eyes well to avoid the following:

a. The tenants are not willing to go after the new Seller has paid and they start to cause problems.

b. The Buyer refuses to check the tenancy agreements of the tenants and the tenants invoke their tenancy clause to finish up their tenancy unless they will take the new Seller to court and the tenant ends up staying in the flat till the suit has been settled and the Seller will never enjoy his House because of that tenant.

c. The Landlord promises to pay the Tenants off before their tenancy expires to deceive the Seller but as soon as the Seller pays for the House, he disappears with the money and the Seller inherits bad tenants and finds out that the Seller deceived everyone and the Seller will have to re-negotiate with the tenants all over again and shell out huge sums of money to push them out.

d.  Also before you drive out the tenants even after their tenancy has legally expired, you have to spend a lot of money to push them out because they demand a lot. They will drop all their family problems on you and the Seller who is in a hurry to take possession of the House will succumb to their demands especially if the tenant is a new one whose tenancy hasn’t expired.

 
TRUE STORY:

1.  A Buyer was interested in buying a 4 bedroom flat in Soluyi Gbagada and sent his agent to scout out a property for him to buy. He found one with Sitting tenants and told me about it and that he was interested in buying it because of the price. I immediately cautioned him that the price wasn’t the important thing here but knowing the status of the tenants unless it would spell diasater. He told me that it wasn’t important because he would use “BOYS” to pursue the tenants if they refuse to go. I told him that its not as easy as he is saying it and we have to investigate further and take things slowly.

The more I told him to be patient to do things properly the more he found me as an antagonist especially as the Seller kept telling him another person was interested in the same property and was about to pay soon. At my back without doing any background check, he arranged to meet the owner privately to pay money to at Abeokuta where they showed him one old man as the owner but he had retired to the village after building the flat. The Seller was happy that he had bought the house and contacted me to do the C/O immediately and upon a private background check I found out that the Previous owner at  the Village just rented the place newly to new tenants for 2 years each and he hadn’t given them the proper 6 months quit notice and he lied to the Buyer that he had told the tenants previously and has issued all of them quit notices.

The tenants refused to leave the house and blackmailed the new owner that unless he pays each of them N500,000 Each they wont leave. He attempted using the so called boys to threaten the Tenants which did not work and they ended up suing the Seller for violating the tenancy agreement. This is almost 8months now and the Buyer has not taken possession of the House because of a court injunction and the Tenants are not bound to leave or renew their tenancy till the Suit expires and that should take 3 or more years at the rate the case is going on. The Buyer keeps calling me now on what he should do now because its as if he has bought “GBESE” aka 'DEBT'. I Ignore him most of the time because he refused to do a simple background check and rushed to buy a property without professional help.

2 TRUE STORIES

A Nairalander saw this advert where he could buy a plot of land in Ajah via one of these new Real estate companies and they were offering him instalmental payment of this property to pay for this land at N7.2Million but he could spread the payment in 12months, 24months or 36months but the premium would be higher if he spreads it and the total price of the land could shoot up to N9Million If he chooses the 36 months payment option. He decided to go for the 12months option of paying N600,000 for 12months and he was given an account to pay monthly. On getting to the 9th month he had difficulties meeting up with his payments and he invoked the clause in the contract of sale stating that if he defaults the Real estate company will deduct a certain percentage of what he has paid and refund the remaining sum and  that’s when the whole wahala started.

They kept on giving him different stories that he will be refunded and that the money was in a fixed account and will be released in 3months time. 3months turned to 9months and stories kept on changing. When he contracted me to go and find out what the problem was it was the usual horror story. They were not allocating plots to subscribers because they were having financial issues with the bank that was financing them and instead of keeping the money collected by the firm as instalmental payment, they were using it to finance bank interests and couldn’t meet up with the promises of a well planned estate blah blah blah.

In fact almost 200 subscribers had taken them to court for money owed exceeding N1Billion and the company is untouchable because the matter is in court and until they settle the matter no body will get kobo. The Nairalander has no money neither does he have any land and has to split his losses with 200 or more people whenever the case will be settled. (Call me privately and i will reveal the name of the Company. You will be shocked because its a very popular Real estate company in Ajah doing big projects; All that glitters Nairalanders is not Gold ooo!

STORY 2

(This story hurts me very much because as tight as I am with this person, he refused to involve me in this transaction until kata kata burst) 

A friend from my University days decided to buy a land at ABORU around the Iyana paja side and they were selling the land for around N1.8Million or so. Now he had N1Million in cash and was so desperate to get a land and met an agent who introduced him to the seller and the baale of that area. They told him that he could pay the N1Million and balance the remaining N800,000 Within 3 months. He was very happy with the arrangement and paid the N1Million. The following month he brought N350,000 so as to balance N450,000 and to his surprise 2 days after he had paid the N350,000 he started hearing another story that the baale said the land was sold too cheaply and it should be going for N2.5Million instead of N1.8Million and that the family members complained seriously.

He was in shocked and rushed to beg the baale to honour his agreement and upon several quarrels and persuasion the baale finally agreed to settle for N2Million and he brought the other N450,000 to make it N1.8Million and promised to bring the remaining N200,000 soon so that they will give him a receipt for final payment.  When he brought the remaining N200,000 a month or so after he noticed someone had started fencing the land he was paying installmentally for. He challenged the Baale that he saw some people fencing and he told him that the family people did not agree for the N2Million and resold the land to a woman for N2.7Million and he will be refunded his money but the bale couldn’t give to him at that time because they used the money to do Igbeyawo ( Marriage) and they will refund him back installmentally when they sell other lands. (Long Hissss . . . Mscheeeww! Can you imagine)  

He was furious at first and decided to wait for the baale to honour his statement of refunding the money and he waited for 4 months no show until he decided to tell me. I wanted to run mad and we rushed to Aboru and asked the Baale why didn’t he relocate my friend if he couldn’t repay him instantly, he said unless my friend was ready to pay an extra N700,000 before they could relocate him because the prices of the lands had increased and they were not ready to cut short their profit and he had to wait until they recoup his money. Immediately I rushed to the nearest police station and that’s where all the deceit came out.

1. The land in question was under Federal government acquisition so the Omoniles had no right to sell. It fell under the Federal Government Scheme Baruwa so they were just reselling official government land.

2. The so called Baale wasn’t even an indigene of that area and he was just masking as a baale in conjunction with some other people to deceive him.

3. They had squandered his money and had no way of repaying it because they had no asset whatever. The police dealt with them seriously and promised to charge them to court, till tomorrow no court, no money, no land and no criminal because they absconded the moment they were bailed .

So the Key Points for the Above Questions include the following:

1. If you can pay for the land or property in full, don’t do ijebu and stagger the payment because it sounds convenient to you. Pay for it at once and collect your documents and own the property on the spot. No stories.

2. If your tight with cash and you must do the installment payment thing, please spend part of that money to know who your parting money with. If it’s a real estate company, ask for their certificate of incorporation to investigate the company at the corporate affairs commission whether they exist or they have been proscribed or queried in anyway or to know who the directors are. Take that name to the nearest high court, pay a clerk to check their files whether there is any existing suit between that company and subscribers over landed issues. Talk to your banker friends to probe deep whether that company has taken out some loans to finance the project. Almost everybody knows 1 or 2 people that work in banks so such information should be so privileged. Go to the company and ask them for samples of previous clients they have dealt with and people you can contact to verify they have dealt with them. Ask for all the documents you will get immediately you pay for land and how soon you will get them. Make sure you go to the proposed land that your buying so that you can see what your buying physically and it must correspond with what the contract of sale stipulates.  Make sure a Property Lawyer helps you handle this installment payment process. This is the number 1 mistake people make because they believe the process is so simple to exclude lawyers and you can do it yourself, meanwhile at the end of the day its lawyers that will chop money finish when kata kata crops up.

3. If its an individual your dealing with make sure you play hard ball or something. Try and make him give you the original document of something in exchange for a considerable sum as installmental payment. You bear a greater risk with an individual who can abscond or resell the property at your back and still not refund you your installmental payment  or tell him he should give you the right to start fencing so that you can protect your own interest and if you don’t fulfill your part he can either seize the land from you, gain the fence or whatso ever but try to fight to gain something in your favour.

Another Very Popular Question I get virtually every week:

3. QUESTION:THERE IS A LAND AM INTERESTED IN BUYING BUT THE SELLER OR THE PROPERTY COMPANY SELLING THE LANDS HAVE SAID I CAN PAY INSTALMENTALLY AND TRUTHFULLY I DON’T HAVE THE FULL MONEY TO PAY FOR IT IN FULL, WHAT THEN ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF PAYING FOR A LAND INSTALMENTALLY. WHAT’S YOUR ADVICE?

ANSWER: Very Simple. If you can’t pay for it in full, sit down and gather the money till you have it to pay for it in full. Discipline yourself and save the money till you can purchase the land wholesomely. If your not disciplined enough then you can’t invest in big projects.

[size=14pt]Installment payments of land in lagos or Ogun state is the number one Land Scam perfected by the ‘educated Omoniles’ as I call them.[/size]

They include Property development companies scattered around offering estates all over with 100% guarantee that your land will be transferred to you when full payment has been completed. Only 20% of Property development companies or Sellers honour that agreement and don’t default. Its better than a Madoff Scheme where they take your money because your desperate to secure the land and you pay a certain down deposit on the land promising to pay the remaining in some few weeks time or months. No Seller will tell you that you should’nt drop a deposit but when you drop that deposit that’s when all the wahala starts.

These are the problems you face when dealing with installmental payment:

A. You don’t own the land or possess a fraction of it in anyway. The best the Seller can do for you is that he will give you a receipt that he has received part payment for the land. He can resell the land to a higher bidder and return your money to you despite all the efforts you must have put in to find the land and try to secure it. A seller that refunds your money is God sent and you must kiss his or her feet for 3 months for returning it without any wahala.

B. Let’s talk about the Wahala ones that wont refund your money;

i. They have chopped your money and used it for other projects and will continue to deceive you using mind games that they will refund your money soon and for the next 1 year your pursuing them from pillar to post.

ii. They will hold you ransom when they find another bidder who is also interested in that land and because they have seen that you have grown emotional to that land, your willing to add some extra thousands or millions to secure that land because they have scared you with another buyer.

iii. There is no way you will agree with a seller to buy a land for a certain price say N1Million and you split the money twice or thrice and the seller doesn’t bring up hidden charges towards the end because he knows you don’t own that property till he hands over all the documents to you.

iv. Finally I can’t help but go back to reason no 1 about chopping your money and playing games with you.  Most of the estates around Lagos and Ogun springing up are the kings of perfecting this scam. Because most of them have an arrangement either with the family owners or banks who financed the estate to survey the place, clear the bushes and build fences around, they have to recoup that money spent unless the bank will not lend them more money or the families/investors become impatient that money is not entering as expected.

So any money they receive as deposit from you as installmental payment is not kept in a safe place till your ready to either complete payment or in case you default and they refund your money back. Rather as soon as they receive that small installmental payment from you the money is immediately expended on other things either salaries, surveyors, shares, bonuses, payment of loans etc or something other than the true intention of the deposit. Their major prayer is for you not to default so that they can continue using the money for other uses and the moment you default and you call back for your deposit then your in trouble because they SIMPLY DON’T HAVE THE MONEY TO GIVE BACK TO YOU.

That’s why even those that have paid completely for all the land when dealing with these people still have problems knowing where their plots are or having any document to validate ownership and possession of the land because they have collected so much installmental payment from people and until a certain amount of people pay their money in full, you cannot individually lay claim to owning a piece of land in that estate or area. There are so many cases in court and With the EFCC with respect to this particular scam of installmental payment by land sellers and its only through the Grace of God you can be amongst the lucky few Sellers who honor their agreements to hand over the land to you when you pay in full or refund your installmental payment when demanded.

Bottom line to me do everything in your power to caution youself from paying installmentally for a land. Its too dangerous and it gives you no guarantee or possession of the property. The best you can get is suing the person to court for Specific Performance but that again is fraught with difficulties and also consider the legal costs involved in suing someone and the time the case might be settled. And as long as there is an Injunction or one court ruling or the other, you cannot touch the seller once the matter is in court and your money is hanging till they determine the suit. If you go through police, they will only chop 2 of you and finally realize that it’s a civil matter after they have skimmed you dry. But if you choose to pay through installmental payments please be very wise and smart and watch out for the booby traps these Con Artist want to lay for you.

Another popular Question from Nairalanders I get every now and then is this:

2. QUESTION: THE OWNER OF THE LAND AM INTERESTED IN BUYING IS NOT AROUND AND HE IS ABROAD, SO DO I PROCEED WITH THE TRANSACTION?

ANSWER: To be honest this is a very very tricky question but from my experience I would say NO. Because we live in a society where land fraud is very prevalent. Its even more difficult to proceed with a land investigation when the Owner isn’t available talkless of paying for one to someone you cannot ascertain.

But if you are still determined to still go ahead with the transaction make sure you follow these tips so you wont be defrauded:

A. Continue to pester the agent or the seller why can't he come over to conclude a transaction? He is receiving close to N2Million or more and his plane ticket isn’t more than N200,000, So why cant he come down for a day or 2 to identify himself and pick up his check?

B. If the Seller continues to provide excuses why he cant make it down, ask him for a copy of his passport and a letter from his bank that he is an account holder of whatever bank he intends to lodge his check or cash

C. Ask him to provide all the copies of the documents of the land and hand them over to your lawyer to check it out such as the receipts of the land who he bought it from, the deed of assignment, survey plan and if possible the building plan and make sure you cross check from all the people who prepared all the documents presented to you that it’s the same person that is selling the land to you that they prepared the documents for in his favour.

D. Compare Signatures from all the other documents and if possible try and meet a relative of the seller to compare notes to trace the history of the person selling the land to you.

E. Force the Seller to swear an affidavit or draft a power of attorney duly stamped by a commissioner of oath that he is the true and legitimate owner of the property and give your lawyer to examine and confirm its authencity.

TRUE STORY:

I was faced with this dilemma early this year when a client was interested in buying a land in the Ajah environs. He had inspected the land and he was very happy with the land and did his survey search to confirm it was a good land but when it was the turn for the agent to provide the documents for further scrutiny, he said the owner was in Ireland and said he will only release the documents only if my client will pay the N4Million to his account first and then he will sign the documents for the client via DHL if I prepare the deed of assignment.

I queried the arrangement because it made no sense to me. I hadn’t seen any document either real, photocopy or imaginary from the Seller except through phone calls and he was demanding immediate payment before he signs the documents sighting his reasons that he didn’t want his time to be wasted by time wasters and if they were serious they would pay the money and he will honour his path of signing the documents. I told my client that was pure rubbish talk and if the so called seller was ready, he will do everything possible to prove to me that he was the authentic owner before I endorse it.

Because I was proving too difficult by not bending over till the Seller provided me with documents, the Sellers agent was able to coerce the Client that I was delaying the transaction and other people where interested in the property and the Seller wasn’t interested in Selling to my client again because I was too ‘rude and problematic’. (Am only difficult, rude or Problematic when i smell a fraud and i dont care what people think about me from that moment on) My client then systematically pushed me aside and hired another lawyer to handle the transaction for him who was ready to hob nob with the agent and the Seller and he paid the N4Million to the Seller who in turn signed the deed of Assignment and he didn’t tell me about the transaction with the Seller. 4 or 5months later he started to Fence when 2 rival parties came to the land to prevent him from working. Apparently the land in question was a land in dispute and has been in court for 6 years now and the omoniles where fighting a Wing Commander in the Airforce over that piece of land.

The Seller was fraudulently sold that land by an Unsuspecting Omonile some years back and he too didn’t know the land was under dispute and he had no title to the land and wanted to quickly dispose of it fraudulently that’s why he didn’t have any paper to prove ownership whatso ever because there was none from the very start that’s why he was very hostile with me because I was unto his tricks. Now he can't trace the Seller neither can the agent be found and he now called me to step in to assist to do something. I simply ignored him and advised him to use the lawyer he used for that transaction and he told me that one has been evading him and not picking his calls too. He cannot even take the matter to court or the Omoniles because he has no right by mistake to the land because he failed to do the right thing and exercise patience. Buying land is not like buying Gala on the road. It takes time, patience and experience to conclude a landed transaction especially in Lagos


So the key point for the above question include:

1. Don’t settle for less for a Seller abroad that you cannot see physically. Make sure he or she ticks all the boxes and don’t ever do anything without a lawyer. Its too dangerous.

2. The burden of proof for the Seller abroad is far higher than One in Nigeria. Make sure he double satisfies you that he is the real owner by demanding everything you need to confirm authencity.

3. If the Seller gets hostile or angry that either you or your lawyer is being a pest to demand for documents that are public records, please walk away and look for another land. God didn’t destine that land as yours and the more you push it the more a disaster awaits you.

4. If possible if the Seller is in a country or vicinity that you have a person, friend or relative that stays there, send the prepared deed drafted by your lawyer to that person so that he carries the document to the Seller so that he can put a face to the person signing it.

1. QUESTION:  I AM INTERESTED IN BUYING IN A LAND NOW IN LAGOS, WHAT STEPS SHOULD BE TAKEN TO PROTECT MYSELF FROM FALLING VICTIM TO LAND FRAUDSTERS AND GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS?


ANSWER: Follow these simple steps judiciously:

1a. Visit the land personally after you have signified interest to buy the land from the Agent. Never buy a land without viewing it yourself or through your trusted representatives. I will not do this for you guys again this year. Its your land so you must know what you want to buy.

1b. If your abroad make sure its someone you trust that has no vested interest in that land that you should send to look at it for you on your behalf. Try as much as possible to avoid close family members or friends that would still benefit from the transaction in some way i.e Someone that you would be sending money through his account continuously or someone that would be supplying blocks or could collude with the sellers to make a profit off you.

1c. Also try to make the agent  take pictures of the place or land before you visit the land so that when your back home you can compare and contrast what you have seen  through pictures and what you have seen personally or via pictures .

TRUE STORY:


This happened last year to a Nairalander in Malaysia (Name withheld). He saw an advert on Nairaland properties about a land advertised at Ijede Ikorodu and instead of inquiring further to know more about the property or contact me, he was more attracted to the cheap price tag of N500,000 per plot and saw it as an awoof land to scoop up. The agent kept on pressurizing him to pay for the land because according to the agent there were several people interested in the land and the price might increase anytime soon. The Nairalander was so anxious and fell for the tricks of the agent that was putting pressure on him to buy the lands and instead of sending someone to check it out or contacting me to do the search he paid money  (precisely N3Million for 6 plots@ N500,000 PER PLOT)directly to the account of the so called Seller and he was issued a receipt and promised a deed of assignment will be drawn up very soon.

After 3 months he didn’t hear anything again from the agent and the more he bugged the agent with numerous phone calls to ask about his documents, the more the agent became hostile and evasive towards him. He was forced to finally call me to explain his predicament and was now ready to contract me to confirm the status of his lands and get his documents. I got in touch with the agent posing as a neutral buyer on Nairaland since he obviously hasn’t met me before and told him I wanted to buy some plots at Ijede . On getting there I felt like weeping for the Buyer on Nairaland. First of all the lands weren’t located in Ijede as advertised. Its another 30 minutes from Ijede. We are talking off the very very interior part of Ikorodu and to make matters worse the lands were very marshy and swampy that I was trying to decipher how the agent or seller knew where the buyers land started or stopped.

To make matters worse I went with a surveyor to get the coordinates and she later found out that the place is under Government acquisition and was a no go area talkless of documents. When I gave him my search report that it was a very bad place and I won't have recommended it to him if he had contacted me earlier and now he is begging me to look for a buyer  to buy those defective lands which I will never do because I will never willingly endorse or recommend a bad land for another person to buy except I have no idea in any form or manner that the land is defective. 

So the Keypoints to this Question above is to:

A. Always inspect the land you want to buy physically or through a trusted agent. If your abroad, plan your vacation or free time to come and see it physically before you commit yourself unless you will have yourself to blame.

B. Always contact a property lawyer to investigate the land for you. Don’t use any lawyer just because you have a lawyer neighbour or family member who is a lawyer. If He or she is not versed in property tricks your digging a hole for yourself.

C. Always contact a surveyor to take the coordinates of a land before you buy whether you see the land physically or not unless you might just be buying Gbese(Debt)

D. Never pay money to anybody that you haven’t met or know 1 or 2 things about the person selling the land to you and never pay money to anybody either an agent, seller or property company without bringing another person to act as a witness and making the seller and agents plus your witness general witnesses to the transaction.