Lawyer please can you find it in your heart to help me on the issues below:

I was made to believe that the land use Act of Nigeria allows for no freehold rather a leasehold of 99 years maximum.
Is this true?
If it allows for only leasehold of 99 years, is a deed of lease for 99 years the same as a deed of assignment in a land transaction?

In deed of assignment, does it specify a leasehold of 99 years or a free hold? (In case I am wrong concerning the land use Act)
Thanks in advance.

Hmm . . . Interesting Question and quite a challenge and i will attempt to explain it to you in a simplified manner:

Lawyer please can you find it in your heart to help me on the issues below:

I was made to believe that the land use Act of Nigeria allows for no freehold rather a leasehold of 99 years maximum.
Is this true?
If it allows for only leasehold of 99 years, is a deed of lease for 99 years the same as a deed of assignment in a land transaction?

In deed of assignment, does it specify a leasehold of 99 years or a free hold? (In case I am wrong concerning the land use Act)

1. FREEHOLD Meaning:

Free Hold or fee simple is the estate in land that a person has when the lands are given to him and his heirs absolutely, without any end or limit put to his estate. Land held in fee simple can be conveyed to whomsoever its owner pleases; it can be mortgaged or put up as security as well.

[2] The owner(s) of real property in fee simple title have the right to own the property during their lifetime and typically have a say in determining who gets to own the property after their death. In a sense, one might say fee simple owners "own" the property "forever"; however, only holders of an allodial title on land really do own the land forever, and the land is not subject to property tax.

Historically, estates could be limited in time, such as a life estate, which is an interest in lands that terminates upon the grantee's (or another person's) death, even if the land had been granted to a third party, or a term of years (a lease for a specified term, such as in an estate for years). It also could be limited in the way that it was inherited, such as by what was called an "entailment" which created a fee tail. Traditionally, fee tail was created by words of grant such as "to N. and the male heirs of his body", which would restrict those who could inherit the property. When all those heirs ran out the property would revert to the original grantor's heirs. Most common law countries have abolished entailment by statute

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fee_simple

What it Means is that a freehold also known as a Fee simple estate gives you the owner of that land the ultimate right to occupy, own, possess and transfer that land without anybody claiming any form of right on it and it can be transfered to your children and childrens children for life eternity.

2. LEASEHOLD ESTATE:

A leasehold estate is an ownership interest in land in which a lessee or a tenant holds real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord.

Leasehold is a form of property tenure where one party buys the right to occupy land or a building for a given length of time. As lease is a legal estate, leasehold estate can be bought and sold on the open market. A leasehold thus differs from a freehold where the ownership of a property is purchased outright and thereafter held for an indeterminate length of time, and also differs from a tenancy where a property is let on a periodic basis such as weekly or monthly.

Until the end of the lease period (often measured in decades; a 99 year lease is quite common) the leaseholder has the right to remain in occupation as an assured tenant paying an agreed rent to the owner. Terms of the agreement are contained in a lease, which has elements of contract and property law intertwined.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leasehold_estate

What this Means is that you have a property that has been given to you to occupy for a given period of time which is being owned by some lord, governor or person.

Now in relation to the 1978 Land Use Act, it simply stripped possession of land from individuals in a freehold or fee simple system that has being practiced way back by our forefathers till 1978 and vested all Lands in the State in the hands of the Governor and any property you buy directly has to be granted to you through a certificate of Occupancy issued under the hands of the Governor of the state hereby making you a tenant in that land to that governor for 99 years and renewable after 99 years.

This process only works once the Certificate of Occupancy is being granted to that Land and from then onwards, the Governor knows that your a tenant on its land from the day the certificate of occupancy was issued in your name and the 99 years begins to count down slowly. In Law it is known as the "99 years Unexpired Residue clause"

For example, if you bought a land in the Year 2000 and you were granted and issued a Certificate of Occupancy in your name in the year 2000 also, the 99 years starts to count and that land will not expire until the year 2099 where the whole process of renewal to get a new certificate of occupancy will arise in your name again.

If in the year 2009, you now decided to sell that land to Me, the certificate of occupancy in my name will no longer be 99 years for me but 99 years minus 9 years which means i have 90 more years to enjoy that property until renewal. If i now decide to sell that property in 2049 to Mukina 2, she will only have 49 years unexpired residue to enjoy that land until renewal.

What the Government does with the land use act is to make sure it has a steady source of income from all the lands vested in the state and to know which lands are available and those that arent. I agree this system is quite extortionist in approach because the government bullies land owners in grabbing lands unduely and stating its under acquisition for no just cause and it takes ages for compensation talkless of the time and money to be spent getting a certificate of occupancy and governors consent.

Luckily since the Land Use Act was passed in 1978, There has been no need for anyone to experience the 99 years renewal clause because its until 2077 before the first case of renewal will apply and then we would really know the outcome or potential dangers of the land use act but for now, you shouldnt worry yourself about anything yet but just to obtain the necessary documents and be free from their wahala.


Your second Question is respect of the Deed of Lease and Deed of Assignment is quite straight forward.

The use of Deed of Lease was quite common from the passage of the Land Use Act in 1978 to transfer property especially government property in the Ikoyi, Surulere, Victoria Island Axis from 1978 to the the Middle 1980's. These lands were mostly federal government lands and high profile lands and it was the first foray into the issuance of the certificate of occupancies for the first time to people. The Government was determined to let people know that the Land Use Act was in Force and for people to know that from then hence forth all lands were leases to the people with the government being the landlord but as time went on, due to the complexities of our property law system whereby you cannot ignore the issue of communal or family owned land, these deed of lease encountered many problems because these lands did not regulate their documents to get a certificate of occupancy but the land has to be transfered somehow either to a family member after death or through a gift to another or an immediate sale to a person.

Gradually it changed from being a deed of lease to a deed of Assignment because an Assignment means "To Transfer" and it was in that deed of Assignment all the important information needed to trace the history of the land could be derived from which is a very important document under the law to trace how the property transfered from Mr Lagaja down to Mr Alariwo. It gained popular acceptance amongst the local communal structures and families who had to knowledge or intelligence to figure out the whole Land Use Act fiasco.

Since then the deed of Assignment has become a very popular way and mode of transfering property from A to B that is legally acceptable (But certain terms and Conditions apply only known to your lawyer that makes it admissible in Court and the land registry unless it will be discarded as a worthless piece of paper )

If you see any deed of lease today in respect of buying properties, it should be the old colonial properties in the 1950's down to the 1980's and is no longer fashionable today in transfering property .

Another way you can see it today is if you are buying a land, house or property directly from the government and it is issuing you the certificate of Occupancy Directly, then the Deed of Lease will be in perfect order.


A deed of Assignment cannot and will not express a leasehold of the 99years unexpired residue unless that property has a certificate of occupancy. If there is no certificate of occupancy, there is nothing to show that the property is free from government knowledge and the Land Use Act applies to that land that there is a lease of 99 years. In fact most lands without a certificate of occupancy are very dangerous lands to buy because of the inherent wahala that accompanies it hence i always advice for the owners to go and get their certificate of occupancy or better still purchase a land with a global C/O or Certificate of Occupancy.
Cheers!

Thanks a lot.

Keep it up.

My uncle have just agreed to sell his land on the island. Its federal land given on a 99 year lease wid. He have not  got the  c of o yet but I have  agreed with the buyer to have part of the payment which will be used for the payment of the land rent and getting the c of o out while the rest will be withheld until the c of o is given. I wanted to know can He still issue a deed of assignment or should he give a recipt of the money received and hold on to the deed of assignment till  the c of o is give with it? Also I wanted to know if there was some sort of agreement that could be drafted to show that they have given him part payment for the land and that on recipt of the c of o and deed of assignment they will give him his balance? Also what should the title of the agreement be and what should it contain. I will be grateful for a quick response because I don't want anyone to dupe my uncle and want to make sure his lawyer is on the right track. Thank

Please explain to me the difference between Deed of Assignment and Deed of Agreement. I am getting different interpretations and it is confusing. When I buy a family land, which one should I prepare for the family to sign? Rather, which one has more weight of the two?

I bought a plot of land in Enugu and what I hav is a deed of lease.... "I will obviously go on to get a C of O. Are you trying to say that a deed of conveyance is more in order? N/B the said plot was bought from a layout " designed by the community under the supervision of the state min of Lands and was approved"

koolblu1 If you bought from a community or family land in Enugu, it will most likely be conveyed with Deed of lease. In other words you are basically a leaseholder for 99 years. A deed of conveyance will bear a similar shade to a Deed of lease, it's usually a matter of nomenclature and type of property involved.

One major thing to bear in mind is that since the Land Use Act transfers all Land to the Governor, the same 99 years lease applies whether the instrument is a lease or conveyance etc.

So even if you get a C of O it formally acknowledges that the Governor is aware that you are in occupation of your land and of course that gives you a better guarantee and perfect title.

Belovedly:
My uncle have just agreed to sell his land on the island. Its federal land given on a 99 year lease wid. He have not  got the  c of o yet but I have  agreed with the buyer to have part of the payment which will be used for the payment of the land rent and getting the c of o out while the rest will be withheld until the c of o is given. I wanted to know can He still issue a deed of assignment or should he give a recipt of the money received and hold on to the deed of assignment till  the c of o is give with it? Also I wanted to know if there was some sort of agreement that could be drafted to show that they have given him part payment for the land and that on recipt of the c of o and deed of assignment they will give him his balance? Also what should the title of the agreement be and what should it contain. I will be grateful for a quick response because I don't want anyone to dupe my uncle and want to make sure his lawyer is on the right track. Thank

Hi, I hope your Uncle's transaction went well. First I think a lot of people especially prospective buyers over rate the essence of a C of O. Usually once a clean title is registered in a Lands Registry it should suffice. The C of O is just a formal acknowledgment that the Governor of the state is aware you in occupation of the land, in other words you are now officially the Gov 's tenant for 99 years (lol)

Second, it would be very inappropriate to give a Deed of Assignment or of any sort to a prospective purchaser without getting the full price of the land/property. It's as good as giving away your uncle's property to charity, even better.

As for title of agreement It could be a simple deed of assignment, transfer or conveyance. That should be the buyers headache not yours/uncles.

Take care.

johnny4u2:
Please explain to me the difference between Deed of Assignment and Deed of Agreement. I am getting different interpretations and it is confusing. When I buy a family land, which one should I prepare for the family to sign? Rather, which one has more weight of the two?

To be frank, A deed of Agreement sounds rather strange to me with regards to sale of land. Perhaps if could be used for some other type of property.

A deed of lease or assignment would be appropriate in your case.

Take care.

1 Please what is the difference between deed of lease and deed of assignment.

2 which one is advisable if you are buying from the village land owners ( virgin land)

dubemcapital:


1 Please what is the difference between deed of lease and deed of assignment.

2 which one is advisable if you are buying from the village land owners ( virgin land)

1. A lease is a rent for 3 years and above. So any rent agreement for 3 years and above should be by deed. So d document or agreement for that is called Deed of Lease. While an assignment legally means transfer of ownership. And the document or agreement to transfer ownership should be by a Deed and therefore called or titled Deed of Assignment.

2. So from the answer to question 1 above it is obvious that the valid document to prepare when buying a property from family should be a Deed of Assignment and not Deed of Lease.

It's not so simple and it's also not really how you explained it. These things are particular and have very many determining factors. You should learn more about the triple net lease and leases in general and there are very many forums and blogs with lots of information. But still, a lawyer indeed it's the best option to clarify this issue, so go for it. A good lawyer would explain all the shades of this to you, so you'll understand better. I do read very much information online, but when it comes to such issues I always go for secure sources.

AmeliaLiana:
It's not so simple and it's also not really how you explained it. These things are particular and have very many determining factors. You should learn more about the triple net lease and leases in general and there are very many forums and blogs with lots of information. But still, a lawyer indeed it's the best option to clarify this issue, so go for it. A good lawyer would explain all the shades of this to you, so you'll understand better. I do read very much information online, but when it comes to such issues I always go for secure sources.

I totally agree a little bit more research and the advice of a lawyer will be the best option for such a question.

In essence is it safe to say that it is only advisable to accept a deed of lease if you are buying from government and deed of assignment if you are buying from an individual.

Also what is the implication of accepting a deed of lease from an individual since the lands are owned by the state by virtue of the land use act.

TheLawyer:


1. A lease is a rent for 3 years and above. So any rent agreement for 3 years and above should be by deed. So d document or agreement for that is called Deed of Lease. While an assignment legally means transfer of ownership. And the document or agreement to transfer ownership should be by a Deed and therefore called or titled Deed of Assignment.

2. So from the answer to question 1 above it is obvious that the valid document to prepare when buying a property from family should be a Deed of Assignment and not Deed of Lease.

i stumble across this trend and it has really been helpful.

my question is how do one confirm if the deed of assignment is genuine?? i am buying a land from a community/village in ogun state and the head of the commiunity(Baale) is said to issue me a deed in his family name.

and what other document should i request for? i have the family receipt already