A – Z of Nigeria Land Documents 

Nigeria Land Documents

Ever wondered about what is what with all these legal terms when it comes to buying Land in Lagos, well here are ALL your prayers answered!

SURVEY PLAN

A Survey plan is a document that measures the boundary of a parcel of land to give an accurate measurement and description of that land. A survey plan must contain the following information:

1. The name of the owner of the land surveyed

2. The Address or description of the land surveyed

3. The size of the land surveyed

4. The drawn out portion of the land survey and mapped out on the survey plan document

5. The beacon numbers

6. The surveyor who drew up the survey plan and the date it was drawn up

7. A stamp showing the land is either free from Government acquisition or not

EXCISION

Land Use Decree on the 28th of March, 1978 that vested all lands in every state of the Federation under the control of the State Governors. The Land Use Act coupled with other laws made it possible for the Governor who was now the owner of all lands in the state to actually have the power to Acquire more lands compulsorily for its own public purpose to provide amenities for the greater good of the citizens.

GAZETTE

A gazette will show the communities or villages that have been granted excision and the number of acres or hectares of land that the government has given to them. It is within those excised acres or hectares that the traditional family is entitled to sell its lands to the public and not anything outside those hectares of land given or excised to them.

A Gazette is a very powerful instrument the community owns and can replace a Certificate of Occupancy to grant title to the Villagers.

DEED OF ASSIGNMENT

A Deed of Assignment is an Agreement between the Seller of a Land or Property and a Buyer of that Land or property indicating proof that the Seller has exchanged every one of his rights, his title, his advantage and responsibility for land to that the Seller that has quite recently purchased arrive.

 Such recorded Deed of Assignment come in the form of either a Governor’s Consent or _Registered Conveyance.

CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY

A Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) issued by the Lagos State Government officially leases Lagos land to you, the applicant, for 99 yrs. As already indicated above, all lands belong to the Government.

What happens after 99 years? That question is still subject of debate among experts. Most have adopted a wait-and-see attitude. That makes sense, but for now is largely a case of “We shall see when we get there”