Purchase of land had pose a lot of fear in the heart of so many due to disputes that could results to losing
both the land and money invested in same. To buy land free of disputes, it is necessary to adhere to some
tips.
The different Sources of Land available for sales
* Government land (Local, State and Federal)
* Individual Ownership
* Family Land
What to watch out for in each of the source before purchase.
A. GOVERNMENT LAND
1. Identify the particular site/land
2. Collect the survey plan to see it conforms to the site layout and the beacons number.
3. Collect the photocopy of the title document (i.e Deeds) to see:
* It tallies with the Survey Plan provided
* Take registration number i.e. No. …., Page ……., Volume …….. Dated … cited in the title
document.
* Do the search at the appropriate Land Ministry/ Local government to confirm the ownership.
Note: The last person that registered at the Land Ministry/ Local Government might have sold out
to another; meaning the present owner is yet to get his /her title deed registered.
* In such cases, collates all the documents involved in the changing hand transactions.
* Possible problem could arise when you have one, two or more transactions unregistered.
* In such a situation, consult a Registered Estate Surveyor and Valuer for Professional advice.
B. INDIVIDUAL OWNERSHIP
Things to look for are as follows:
1. Identify the site/land with the beacons
2. Ensure the beacons number tallies with that of the Survey Plan provided.
3. You can go further by making a personal enquiry from the people in the neighborhood as to the
owner of the land.
4. Collect the photocopy of the title document (i.e Deeds) to see:
* It tallies with the Survey Plan provided
*Take registration number i.e. No. …., Page ……., Volume …….. Dated … cited in the title
document.
* Do the search at the appropriate Land Ministry/ Local government to confirm the ownership.
Note: The last person that registered at the Land Ministry/ Local Government might have sold out
to another; meaning the present owner is yet to get his /her title deed registered.
* In such cases, collates all the documents involved in the changing hand transactions.
* Possible problem could arise when you have one, two or more transactions unregistered.
* In such a situation, consult a Registered Estate Surveyor and Valuer for Professional advice.
C. FAMILY LAND
This could be more tedious as most of the time, they don’t have registered documents. Even, the
Survey Plan might not exist. They do use objects such as economic trees, stones, rocks etc. as a
form of demarcation/landmark.
The followings are the processes of acquiring such lands:
1. Identify the land with some principal members of the family and their estate surveyor. Know the
boundaries of the land.
2. Go behind to do personal findings within the community about the family that owns the land and
the history.
3. With your estate surveyor and lawyer, try to see the principal members of the family and listen
carefully to the history of the land.
4. Check if it tallies with your background check.
5. If it does, your lawyer needs to take details of the family heads, at times minutes of the meetings
where consensus was made to sell same with their names written and signed. Also discuss on the
price of land
6. With the consent of the family, get your surveyor to determine the size of the land. The
representative of the family must be present to work with the surveyor.
7. Your surveyor must do his finding to ensure the land is not under any form of acquisition nor
overlap.
8. After this, you can conclude on the price of land
9. Payment mode is always in cash, especially when the family are illiterates.
For the payment:
* The agreement must be prepared and brought by lawyer
* Your lawyer, estate surveyor, witnesses, video man and photographer must be on sit
* All the principal people to sign for the family must be on sit
* All the original document the family have must be available to hand over after payment
* There must be video coverage and photographs as the payments, signing of agreement and
handling over of documents is taking place.
* Also, the land should be bulldoze as the transaction is going on.
Best wishes to all land buyers