Quite a while i have written an article on Nairaland relating to property issues and to be honest i learnt more tricks from land fraudsters in 2010 than i could ever imagine. I thought i knew every trick in the book and how to deal with them but they kept on coming at me like a heavy downpour and i couldn’t catch my breath in most situations. In fact it was so bad that i almost gave up handling property matters and questioned my competence in some instances. I have taken a long time to soul search and ponder how to make 2011 more successful and also let people know the tricks and inherent dangers in not doing a thorough search for a property and also lowering your guard in trusting people when it comes to property matters because once they see that slight opportunity that you trust them, they will hit you hard.

Make no mistake about it, no matter how we pray about it or wish it wasn’t true, 419 is rampant in Nigeria and its extremely prevalent when it comes to buying landed property in Lagos. These people are tough and cold hearted and they take no prisoners when it comes to making you part with your money. So below are some rules and tips when buying property this 2011 and please learn from them because i also was a victim when i of all people let my guard down.

1. Rule number one and the most important rule: TRUST NO SELLER OR AGENT NO MATTER WHAT TILL YOU HAVE GOTTEN YOUR DOCUMENTS SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIVERED.


2. Don’t believe all the Marketing Bullshit adverts from Sellers or Agents till you have done your own personal search to confirm. The more they tell you they have a good track record for sales done properly, the more you should be prepared that you might be the first person where things will go wrong and your money will disappear.

3. Every land you are interested in, always and i mean always ask for these documents:

a. The Survey Plan

b. The deed of Assignment and how the property was transferred from time immemorial to the present day Seller:

c. Copy of the Original receipt the Seller used to purchase the land and from whom he bought it from

d. Copy of either the gazette, C/O or governors consent of the land.

e. If possible visit the property personally or send a representative you trust. Never buy a property directly from a property magazine or website without you seeing it personally or sending your representative to see it and comment on it.

If a seller tells you he is not ready to release a document because it’s a private document, please walk away. Every landed document is a Public document of record that can be investigated and searched. The more they tell you they can’t release it, the more suspicious you should be and after demanding it strenuously and its still rejected please walk away fast.

Sweet Talking by a Seller or Agent will only put you in more trouble. If the Seller or Agent says it will take him time before he gets the document but you should fast track the transaction till he gets the document because other people are interested in the land, let him go and eat the land. Without these documents for search,  your only falling victim to these fraudsters.

CASE STUDY NO 1 IN OKOTA:

A Nairalander contracted me to do a search for him in respect of a land he wanted to buy. He contacted an Estate Agent who introduced him to the owners of the land and they claimed to be family members of the Okota Ruling family. When i got to the Omonile's place of residence, i asked them to identify themselves and they brought out everything including driver’s licences, Nepa bills showing their names and addresses, bank account statements, letters and certificates showing they are affilated with the Okota Ruling families. In short everything i asked from them in terms of identification scaled through.

On a further Personal inspection of the land i noticed it was a fenced land and had a small gate man's house there. I asked the Omonile when he bought the land he said in 1978 and showed me an old receipt of the purchase with these old 5kobo stamps attached to it and he told me to take it to the Okota palace to verify it and even gave me a name to meet there to cross check which i did and the person he directed me to brought out a book showing all the transactions since the 1970s till date and confirmed that the original Okota family sold it to the omonile.

I asked the Omonile why he was just selling it after 20 something years and why didnt he build on it since Okota was a prime place, he told me he was short of money when he fenced the land and built the gate mans house 5 years ago and abandoned it but he was now ready to sell the land for N6 million. I asked him where he was living now and he said he lives in Igando and i traced his address to the place he gave me as his official address and i couldn’t help but try to compare the Okota property he said he was building and owned and the igando squalor home he is living in presently to see the differences. I had serious doubts about the seller but i couldn’t find any fault so far.I now decided to up my game by demanding for the documents of the property and he gave me a registered deed of assignment registered in Alausa in the 1980s and upon search it was found to be duly registered in their name and i finally encouraged the Nairalander to do a survey plan search which finally checked out.

After all said and done, i had nothing else to search and had to endorse the sale for the buyer and the property was going for N6.5Million but my spirit still wasn’t convinced that all was right but i couldn’t point out precisely what the problem was and how to detect it. The Agents kept on adding pressure on the Buyer that he should buy the land because other buyers were also interested and in return the Buyer added more pressure on me to endorse it quickly because he didn’t want to lose the land because to him it was a steal. On the eve of the night of paying the sum, i felt very uneasy and i took the receipt and deed of assignment and kept on going through it over and over to see if i could pick any faults but i couldn’t.

Driving home that night i suddenly had that urge to park along the road to review all the documents properly and that’s when God decided to open my eyes. The Deed of Assignment registered in Alausa in the 1980s was a perfect clone from the one i was reviewing. Everything was properly typed out and stamped exactly and dated exactly[b] except one very tiny mistake[/b]. The person who drafted the clone Deed of Assignment was an expert forger but he slept off at the end of the drafting and in one small corner he forgot to proof read his work thoroughly. In a particular line of the deed of assignment where it was to be dated 16 of April 1983, he ended up typing 16TH OF MAY 2010. That small error was all i needed to cancel the transaction. I took that same cloned deed of assignment to Alausa and gave it to 4 experts there and none of them where able to discover the error until i pointed it out and they were extremely amazed at the level of forgery.

It was’nt discovered due to human power but through God i must confess and when i confronted the Omoniles about the fraud, they simply demanded for their papers and said they weren’t selling again. The next day i came to confirm about the owners, i was told they had disappeared and moved out from the place they were staying. I further learnt that they planted a mole in the Oba's palace in Okota and doctored the log book that recorded all the transactions for people who search to be convinced its real and i finally discovered that the plot of land belonged to professor in The U.S that bought the land in the 80s from a third party seller and was developing his land little by little but didn’t know Omoniles where attempting to sell his property at his back.

So the moral of this story brings out the following tips:

a. Never trust any Omonile who brings out any document for a property that you can see that is quite new but the documents are old looking

b. Always be wary about properties that are fenced. Try to get to the bottom of it why the so called seller fenced the property and he is ready to sell because he might be selling you another man's property

c. Whenever you see foundation on a property, always demand for the building plan approval to confirm unless they might be selling you another man's property

d. Always demand for the survey plan for a fenced property and try and trace the beacon numbers either on the ground or on the wall and compare them with what you have on the survey plan and compare the date the survey plan was made and drawn and the name on the survey plan.

e. Never be in a hurry to buy a land and don’t let the agents or sellers push you till you have completed your search and convinced all is well unless when your pushed, you part with your money and you won’t see both the agent and seller again.

f. Always try and visualize a person selling a multi million naira land and his personality. Someone that looks like a person that hasn’t counted or seen N500,000 EVER CANNOT CLAIM TO BE AN OWNER OF LAND THAT RUNS FOR MILLIONS.

G. Please, Please and Please Investigate the Owner and the documents thoroughly. Don’t skimp on the search fees it could save your bank account and family savings. I get it all the time people shouting they can’t pay N50,000 for search but are ready to throw away N2 Million and above and later come back to cry to me where things went wrong.

This year i won’t even entertain such cries for assistance or help. I will rather force you to pay that money to do the right thing or ignore you because listening to some buyers last year made me cut corners to do a search and take money from my own pocket and i ended up not investigating it thoroughly because i felt sorry for them and wanted to help but when it went wrong in one or 2 situations i felt the brunt of it so its not going to happen this year again. FREE SEARCH LEADS TO FREE PROBLEM AND CHEAP SEARCH LEADS TO EXPENSIVE WAHALA FROM THE BUYER. 2010 thought me that and i have learnt from it. So please dont call me for free search anymore this year. If you pay me your widows mite, its better to hold me responsible for any flaw than hope i do it for you free and that widows mite will make me be more serious and committed to your job


CASE STUDY NO2   (DODGY SURVEYORS)

Everyone knows that i have been a foremost promoter of doing a survey plan search with a surveyor before buying and if possible going to the land with an Alausa Surveyor to confirm whether it is free from acquisition or not. Well i also fell victim of dodgy surveyors i recommended to people that ended up colluding with the omoniles to decieve buyers and me. Such instances occured in Okun Ajah, Mopo Ibeju, Sangotedo, Ikorodu, lafiaji, Eputu, Akowonjo and mowe.

These surveyors have found a way to beat the system because of their greed and its almost next to impossible for a buyer or me to know where they have gone wrong. If it is a familiar place they have been and they have met the owners of the land before and upon their search they have found out that the area is not free from government acquisition, they end up colluding with the omonile and the omonile ends up promising to give them a free land or induce them with money far above what the buyer will give them for surveying the land. So when they are to go to the land to investigate it with their GPS, they will search the coordinates and come back with a favourable report that the land is good. Because they are authorities in this department, you have no choice but to accept their word. You end up giving them the contract to do your survey plan and later on when you bring another surveyor there to investigate the land you realize that the land is committed or not free. Even on the survey plan of the land you have bought, they will be so bold as to stamp FREE FROM ALL KNOWN ACQUISTION but in reality your land could be sitting on a Pipeline or Coastal road for all they care. You confront them and all you hear is SORRY or that the instruments they used then were faulty blah blah blah.

The Omoniles have learnt to use them thoroughly to their own advantage since they know you might want to do due diligence. The truth is that it’s very rare or let’s say BIG MANISM that will make a Registered Surveyor follow you to the site to do a routine land search. They usually send their boys and whatever coordinates the boy writes for the oga, the oga just stamps it as being okay without even seeing the land sometimes. Some of The Alausa surveyors i trusted last year really messed me up atimes and i had to give up recommending anyone again. Most of the time the buyers end up blaming me for introducing them when in reality i had no idea this was what they were doing to buyers and collecting money plus free lands from the omoniles to distort the truth. This Greed and Fraud extends to all sectors of our country and its getting more difficult to see who you can trust.

When i confronted a past surveyor general of Oyo state on this issue, he told me point blank that such practices will not stop unless they change the procedure of checking land coordinates in Survey General's office and the buyer is ready to pay the right fees for a thorough survey check.


He says the law on survey check states that a survey plan must be done on the site personally and after that a[b] LAND INFORMATION WILL BE DONE WHICH COULD TAKE UP TO A WEEK AND THE SURVEYOR GENERAL WILL SIGN ON IT TO SHOW WHETHER ITS FREE OR NOT AND IF IT ENDS UP NOT BEING FREE BUT IT WAS ERRONEOUSLY SIGNED AS FREE, THE STATE GOVERNMENT WILL COMPENSATE THE BUYER[/b].

But the flaw in this system means that the proposed buyer must shell out almost a[b] N100,000 or more to do a survey plan and register it before the Land Information is drawn up and gotten and if at the end it is found that the land is not free, the buyers money goes into the drain and he performs this process all over again till he gets the right property to buy.[/b]

The Bitter truth is that how many people will be ready to go through this process? Virtually 1% of buyers so we still have to rely on these Surveyors doing their thing and hope for the best that they are competent enough, loyal enough to you first and trust worthy to deliver.

So despite the Ups and Downs of 2010 with some dodgy Surveyors, i promised myself not to introduce anybody to any surveyor personally again again but i have also found out that not helping other people because of a few dodgy surveyors means am not fulfilling Gods work to assist because of my anger of the system and untrustworthy surveyors. I have now found 2 surveyors that i can alternate with to introduce people to help with their various searches. I can only vouch for my own work that its almost perfect and i take blames for my own short comings but not the short comings of other people because i introduced them to you. While i believe they are morally upright people that SHOULD DO YOUR JOBS PERFECTLY, still have it at the back of your mind that they are human beings and can also go hay wire so they must be monitored seriously. Remember RULE NO 1: DONT TRUST ANYBODY.

So the Moral of this story brings the following TIPS:

a. Once i introduce you to the surveyor, whether private or Alausa, make sure you know his office and where he works. Your not paying me money and i dont share their money, so you must know who your giving money to and if your satisfied with him. Its not enough anymore for you to say ' LAWYER INTRODUCED ME TO HIM OR HER'. That excuse died with 2010 and i am no longer taking liability for a surveyors job. I have my own office, my law firm duly registered and my documents to back me up when called upon located in Ikeja. So also get to know where the surveyor works and know what works he or she has done I can only recommend based on previous good works and monitor them for you but your the one paying them.

b. Also when a surveyor is going on a search, make sure you ask him or her about the GPS to take the coordinates. Most of them have computers where the whole coordinates is stored in so once they punch the coordinates in the system, they should have the answer in minutes. Please try to make them show you the coordinates through the system personally or scan it out to you. It replaces the land information to an extent since your coming through the back door to be 100% sure of what you’re buying. If your surveyor can't give you concrete facts to back up his case, please abandon him in a Jiffy. Don’t get sentimental. I was a victim in 2010 because i was sentimental. This 2011, Mr. Sentimental has Died. No Dulling!!!

c. Most surveyors charge exorbitantly but one thing i will advise from now on is this. Never pay a surveyor his full money until he has done the survey plan and has placed the beacons on the land. Also demand for the red copy after the survey has been done and pay that extra money for land information search to cover you. PENNY WISE POUND FOOLISH is the cause of so many landed problems and i vow to be very hard on them on behalf of buyers who can’t have access to them because of distance or work schedule. 2010 Has made me tougher to understand their tricks and i won’t let them get away with it in 2011.

d. Talking of the beacons: Make sure your surveyor places these beacons on the ground after the survey has been drawn. The absence of beacons lead to boundary disputes and gives omonile the opportunity to steal lands because it cannot be identified properly. Don’t let lazy surveyors take advantage of you this 2011.


CASE STUDY NO 3. IKORODU: (How to Detect Land Owned by Another Person that is being offered for sale)

A Friend of mine saw a bungalow he was interested in and decided to buy it in Ikorodu. Upon search we found out that the Seller was the true owner and had all the documents to back it up. In fact he was living in that bungalow for the last 2 years after he just built it and put it up for sale for N7Million. My friend was really interested in it and[b] he had an agreement with the seller that he would pay him N4Million as the first installment and the remaining balance of N3Million for the second balance in 2 months time[/b]. Everything was agreed to and the first N4Million payment was made to the seller in his lawyers office and as an extra security for my friend i said the seller should collect the keys of the bungalow to move in and after he settles the final balance, the original documents such as the survey plan, deed of assignment and original receipts including the building plan will be given to my friend. The seller agreed and handed over the keys and took the N4Million and a contract of sale was drafted and signed in his lawyer’s office and witnessed by a lot of people.

My friend immediately took possession of the bungalow and moved some of his things in to show intent / immediate ownership and hoped that before the end of the 2 months he would balance up the remaining amount owned. Due to the nature of his job off shore, he was away for about a month and a half and when he got back to his bungalow; he noticed the bungalow has been over taken by another person who had moved into the bungalow.

The place was repainted and totally newly furnished and all my friend's loads and properties had disappeared as if they never existed . The new owner claimed that he bought the same property from the Seller 2 weeks before my friend came back for N10 Million Naira and he paid at once and in exchange he was given the survey plan, deed of assignment and receipt by the Seller and when he moved in he did not see any property in the house to make him realize that it was being inhabited by anyone previously. All attempts to locate the Seller till date has proved abortive to either arrest him for fraud or sue him for fraud and breach of contract. The lawyer and Agent kept on denying that they haven’t seen the Seller but because of the pressure on the Seller's family, the N4Million was refunded but my friend lost a lot in terms of other fees he paid to get the property i.e survey fess, legal fees, agency fees, miscellaneous etc and all his belongings he left in the house but at least he was fortunate to get his original capital paid.

The Moral of this Case study provides the following Tips to learn from:

a. Be very careful before you attempt to enter into any installment payment. Look at the people your dealing with. Investigate them properly. Cover all your lose ends. More especially if you can pay at once to get the property please follow that route. There are so many bad people in the property business that are ready to exploit that loop hole especially since if a second buyer comes forth they can resell that same property to him for a higher price and refund your money  if they are kind enough or deduct from it and tell you stories.

b. Also if you’re buying a land, always try and look out for signs to show that land doesn’t belong to the omonile. Once you see it has been newly cut as if they want to start construction work, immediately know its a stolen land because nobody will cut his land today and sell tomorrow.

c. Also learn to know how to identify fenced lands and the blocks used. If a seller is telling you that he just fenced the land but the fence looks very old with the blocks as if it has being molded in the last 10 years, know the seller is trying to trick you to buy another person’s land.

d. If the fenced walls looks new, ask him why he wants to sell so soon after spending so much to fence it and try to get the architect who fenced it for him to confirm. Use that trick that you need the same architect to assist you in constructing a structure on the land and when the seller begins to dilly dally about the whereabouts of the same architect that built his own fence then you know he is a scammer.

d. Also when you get to a land and you see beacons around the land; ask immediately for the survey plan to compare the name on the survey plan with the sellers name and the beacon coordinates with the ones on the ground. Also check the date the survey plan was made and the surveyors address on the Survey plan to confirm and cross check whether it was the same surveyor that did it. If the seller is playing games with providing the survey plan for the same land that has beacons then you should just walk away.


To be honest there are so many stories and tricks i learnt last year that i can fill the property forum for days with, but i have to stop here for now and learn too from these tricks to become a better and smarter Property Transactional Lawyer. Also please i implore you to learn from these tips too to perfect your property transactions. Before you part away with your money perform these searches or contact me. I have become very very good at this in spotting fraudulent landed deals, although not perfect and still learning new scams everyday but this year i hope to save people millions and millions of Naira especially those living abroad that do not have access to know what is going on here and how to go about it and pray these land fraudsters change their ways and learn to get a job instead of scheming on how to steal and defraud people's money.


Next time i would add more tricks i learnt when people want to sell Government Schemes, Omoniles who resell other people's lands bought and how to protect your land from being resold and why its necessary to document your papers in Alausa after you have bought it to prevent land scammers from playing on your intelligence.
Cheers

Thanks Lawyer for the tips, all your posts are really helpful especially for those not living in nigeria. I have to say your friend was very lucky to at least receive his 4million naira back, only God knows how many have been in the same situation and never receive their money back. It's so sad the way things are in nigeria, lots of people outside country wants to come home and buy properties but dealing with all these 419 agents and their fraudulent activities can be discouraging. What so sad is that your own family members that suppose to be helping makes the matter worse by conniving with these 419 agents.

old boy i salute you.
you are real gem.
thanks for the info.

This lawyer guy should be nairaland's man of the century

Mobinga:

This lawyer guy should be nairaland's man of the century

Dude but nairaland is not a century old

Honourable SANL, I salute. The Ikorodu case study is quite timely for me. I was about going into such an agreement for a land in Abuja, I know better now.

Once again, I salute you - SENIOR ADVOCATE OF NAIRALAND (SANL)

please can i have ur contact please i need ur help. You can send me a mail on how to reach u on pmmgv@yahoo.com

Good stuff Lawyer, Much appreciation.

God bless u lawyer 4 dis.

DetectiveLawyer ,

Good job!Thank you so much for the much needed and helpful tips.
God bless U

The lawyer is very correct, i am an agent and sell properties at Ibeju lekki where i also have a land am developing at hand now. I do tell my client to do their search after seeing the properties they want to buy. The problem with some omonile is that when government give them their own to use or sell they go ahead to sell even commited once.

They the omonile can also deceive agent that the land are not committed land as an agent as still go ahead to do my own search because i don't want anybody to start chasing me around.

There are committed and non committed lands at Ibeju Lekki. I am presently leaving at Meiran hoping to move down to Ibeju Lekki.

You can visit www.haleonicestateagent..com

quite informative, thanks Lawyer (SANL)

D LAW!!! may you walk and never stumble!

I wish u good luck this 2011.

good work Mr Lawyer >>> accept my gratitude

eghost247:

Dude but nairaland is not a century old

, people will never overlook simple things,

Ess:

, people will never overlook simple things,

But Baba, Its the tiny grains that make the full picture. Attention to 'simple' details is key.

great job, lawyer. God reward you for ur service to humanity.

Nice one. My take on these issues is just that if you have enough money, best to buy a completed property and move in immediately to secure your possession. reading all these things are really scary, i am thankful to God that i did not experience any of these while i was fixing my bricks and mortar, to think that the land was fallow for upwards of 3years while i was away.

In addition to what the poster said, nothing works like neighbourhood search in addition to the other steps he outlined. Independent enquiries from neighbours in and around the land reveals a lot especially when u coduct that search in cognito.

Ehen, SANL, this took too long in coming
Congratulations! When we go wash am

I guess your motto for this year is "2011, my coming out of hibernation year".

MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS U, THE LIKES OF YOU ADD MEANING TO NAIRALAND, PLS I WOULD LOVE TO INTERACT WITH YOU. THIS MY EMAIL drogwuchepaul@yahoo.com

wow!! This is just scary.

Lovely write up. Thanks for the info.

Please, can you send me your e-mail to skyeauto@yahoo.ca
I have similar problem in Okota and don't know how to go about it.

Really informative and well written article. It must have taken you quite a while to compose this. Well done for being a brother's keeper.

Thank you lawyer.

@Lawyer,

Very good job! Thanks for investing your precious time in such a price-less informative piece. I have copied pasted in word document for my library and to circulate to my siblings and I hope you don't mind (four of us live in the diaspora and have made some bad mistakes in the past). I 'm sure if I had seen this piece most of those loses would have been averted/avoided

Dude but nairaland is not a century old

@Eghost,
What's your point. The guy may have slipped in your comprehension class but He's clearly made His point Lawyer did a good Job and He is impressed.

There's no where in the thread so far where you have appreciated or challenged the Author based on the several instances He's cited from His PERSONAL EXPERIENCES . If you have any case against OP state your case and leave the poor fellow who is celebrating him alone .

Very informative. God bless u. When do we expect ur next post? Wouldnt want to miss it

This is a legendary post. Kudos Lawyer

@lawyer,thanks alot,pls do you know about e recertification going in alausa for ogudu gra and omle phase1?i bought my land from owner with c of o and did consent and deed of assignment but they said this pilot scheme for above gra's and not for 3rd party owners am confused

Thanks Lawyer for this beautiful piece of advice and lecture. God be with you to the top

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