‘There are risks involved in property acquisition’

By Mashe Umaru Gwamna

An Estate Surveyor and Valuer ESV Tochukwu

Emmanuel Agu said there are risk factors involved in acquiring property in Nigeria

He said risk associated with property acquisition are many.

He said some are foreseable and some cannot be foreseen.

The Estate Surveyor made this known to Peoples Daily during a chat in Abuja.

According to ESV. Agu, “Property is a thing or things that someone owns like, piece of land, building or both together, vehicle and knowledge otherwise known or referred to as intellectual property.

“It has quality, power that belongs naturally to something”.

He said there are several ways of acquiring landed property, we are going to focus on land and building He emphasized that the most common way to acquire property is by direct purchase from the previous owner, other ways are through auction sale, mortgage, sale by treaty private and public and compulsory acquisition among others .

ESV. Agu further explained that acquisition of landed property direct purchase could be from the land or building owner.

“This is purchased directly from the owner of the property”.

He said there are steps to following when purchasing such property from the owner .

“Ascertaining the title document which includes: Occupancy, Right of Occupancy, Customary Right of occupancy, Land Title Certificate, Land Agreement”.

Others are, the survey plan attached to the title document is important in assisting you to identify the actual location of the land where same is not within a developed area.

Where there is a land agreement, you must examine what we call “recital”.

“This deals with historical analogy or background of the title holder and consequently confer some authenticity of whosoever claim to be the owner”,he said .

Speaking on auction sales,He said this type of sales are mostly concerned buildings.

He said one of the major things that must be looked in an auction is the method of instruction.

“If it is a liquidated property, then one must exercise caution and price it low in case there is litigation”.

Similarly,he said mortgage properties are mortgaged for loans as securities could be acquired after foreclosure of the mortgage.

He stated that, in having a mortgaged property, “There are documents one would look for here are such as, deed of Mortgage empowering the Bank or Institution to take over and sell the building, registration of such deed and to examine whether its seller ought to obtain court order or nor before selling, If he ought to, the court order must be obtained”.

Others includes,Whether there was a consent to the transaction by the appropriate authority. You can also find out if there was any valuation exercise done shortly before the sale.

“You request whether the current seller now has all it takes to do perfection of title i.e. to change the name of the former owner to new owner. It is believed that a surveyor should strive to find out all these information.”

Similarly, “if the property is occupied, you need to find out the terms of occupation that’s whether they are monthly tenant or yearly tenant and outstanding rent, if any”.

He also explained, compulsory acquisition saying that, the democratic republic nature of governance which we operate in Nigeria allows for compulsory acquisition of a person’s property or extinguishments of his or her right to property.

“Compulsory acquisition can only be done by government and there are laid down procedures the procedure is that after identifying the areas to be acquired, such must be published in Gazzette and the Air to enable those who have interest in such areas to be aware.

“Then enumeration of the area to determine the quantum of compensation to be paid and prompt and adequate payment thereafter”, he said .

Giving more insight on the risks involved in property acquisition,he explained that where you’re given a property to sell or you want to purchase property on behalf of your client.

“The following is very key to check confirmation of the house to be sold to correspond with the description, visit the site and location.

Ask for copies of tittle Deed or Certificate and history of the ownership of the property. Conduct search at Land Registry.

“Where the house being sold belongs to a limited liability company conduct search at CAC to determine the quantum of debt if any.

If you’re satisfied with the above, you can now go into negotiation as to the price and modality of payment”.

According to him, payment is done, take the following steps.

“Ask for sighting the originals of the document, inclusive of the document, inclusive of building approved plan.

Discuss how to take over possession n case some occupants are in the premises.

By doing the above or going through the procedures, you would have taken enough caution”, ESV Agu stated .