By Owning a land or house is a need in life that everyone strives so hard to achieve, but sometime in the process, one can get scammed by unscrupulous land/house vendors in collaboration with their dubious agents. In the light of this, it is essential to enlighten the public (home and abroad) about necessary precautions to be taking when buying a landed property to avoid been scammed.
Akinlolu Akintayo
It is pertinent to be very conscious that in exchange for a piece of land or a house you would be parting with a huge sum of your life savings to a “stranger” so be very cautious not to deal with a dishonest real estate company or property seller who convinced you to purchase a doubtful property with no verifiable title, fake or forged title documents. Losing your land, home, and money would be too painful, stressful, and horrifying to handle. Therefore, you need to act diligently and thoroughly investigate the property of your interest in order to avoid ‘had I known’.
While buying landed property, self-help is not recommended since, there is every probability that you may overlook some vital information or searches to be done and that singular mistake may lead to a doom, therefore you need the service of an experienced property expert or lawyer. However, if you or your property agent/lawyer can follow the steps discussed below, it is certain that you will be able to buy a property free from any encumbrance, fraud and trouble.
Do not buy a land or house based on an image, flyer, or video only. Instead, endeavour to physically visit the property so that you can see what is on site and decide if you like it or not. The majority of images you see online sometime are not what is on ground. If you cannot visit the site by yourself, send a trusted member of your family, a friend, a colleague, a lawyer, or a property expert to inspect it on your behalf and do a live video call with you; and as well take pictures. You might be saving yourself a future calamity by doing that.
After inspecting the property and you’re satisfied, the next thing is to demand for copies of the title documents on the land or house so that you can carry-out a search on them. A title document here refers to the proof or evidence of ownership possessed by the seller on the land or house he/she/they intend to sell to you.
The title documents the land seller must possess may come in the form of a Deed of Assignment, Survey Plan (not provisional), Purchase Receipt, Excision or Gazette, Letter of Allocation, Copy of Will, Letter of Administration, C of O, Memorandum of Understanding, Layout, Deed of Rectification or Court Judgment.
Note that any serious vendor/seller of land or house either as a personal seller, family, community or real estate development company MUST hand- over photocopies of the necessary title documents of the land to you to verify. Any seller that declines to provide you with copies of the documents so that you can verify them is a potential land or property ‘con artist.’ Any illogical reason they give you for not revealing information to you to aid your verification is a warning sign and red flag; you MUST walk away.
As soon as they hand you copies of the title documents, give them right away to a property expert or lawyer for verifications. Many seasoned property experts, have examined several land documents over the years and can detect or observe errors, alterations, “doctored” title documents by viewing and advise you whether to move forward with further search/investigation on the documents or to terminate the transaction right away if the documents seem not genuine.
For example, my over 18 years of experience as an expert in land administration, perfection of land title document, property valuation and other facets of real estate practices has made me know that Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), Deed of Assignment, Survey Plan and others can cloned, forged or faked; and understand how to identify such fake documents.
Therefore, a property title search/verification should include the followings:
a. Inspect the property physically by visiting the site and ask questions from people within the neighborhood.
b. Verify the title documents at the Lands Registry or Survey Department.
c. Conduct a survey plan search at the Surveyor-General’s office.
d. Even if the survey search is okay, you still need to take an independent Land Surveyor to the site to take the land coordinates directly on site for charting to be sure the coordinates are not different from the ones on the survey plan, the deed of assignment, or C of O, given to you by the seller. The reason being that, some land owners do obtain registered Deed of Assignment or C of O with fraudulent coordinates on their survey plans. For example, the coordinates on a survey plan might show that the land is free from government acquisition when charted while in reality the land is within acquisition.
f. Investigate at the appropriate Court to determine whether the property or seller is involved in any pending legal proceedings.
g. If the land or house has a will, check at the probate registry to verify a will or letter of administration on the property.
i. If the property is covered by a published Gazette or Excision, check the Cabinet office with the details to ensure the Gazette and Excision are authentic.
j. Knowing the complete profile of the seller to know if you are dealing with the appropriate person that has the capacity to sell or not (ask for a government issued means of identification of the seller such National Identification Card, Data page of International Passport or valid Driver License). Check the names, picture, age, sex, address and other details and be convinced that they match with that of the seller.
k. Investigate the previous owner of the property (If any) to know if the land or property was properly transferred to the seller.
Once these steps are vigorously taken by your property adviser or lawyer, a search report should be given to you as the potential buyer detailing the search process, what was investigated, where it was investigated and the final report of the investigation.
The property lawyer would then advice you (the Buyer) whether to buy the property or not. The person conducting the search must also be an INDEPENDENT PERSON that has no affiliation or ties with the Seller.
Akinlolu could be reached on:
+2348032296562, +2349049045703 (Whatsapp).
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