LAND MEASUREMENT IN LAGOS
A PLOT. In Lagos State, a plot is usually 60ft x 120ft (18m x 36m, or 648 sqm), but in some other cities in Nigeria, plots are 50ft x 100ft.
AN ACRE. Land vendors use an Acre as a standard unit of measurement. An Acre is almost the same size as a standard football field. It can also be worked out by adding up 6 plots (each measuring 60ft x 120ft)
A HECTARE. A hectare is the same as 15 plots of land or 2.5 acres. It can also be written as 100 meters by 100 meters (100 square meters) or 328 feet by 328 feet.
SURVEY PLAN. A survey plan is a piece of paper that shows the exact size and shape of a piece of land by measuring its boundaries. Surveyors are the people who deal with survey issues, and in Lagos, their work is overseen by the office of the Surveyor general.
The following information must be in a survey plan:
- Who owns the land that was surveyed?
- The land’s address or a brief description of it.
- How big the land was that was surveyed.
- The part of the land survey that was drawn and is shown on the survey plan.
- The beacon has the number.
- The name of the surveyor who made the plan and the date it was made.
- A stamp that shows whether or not the government can take over the land.
GLOBAL ACQUISITION. All of the land in a state is owned by the state and supervised by the State Governor. This is how the name came about.
There are two ways to get something:
- Committed acquisition: In this case, the government has said it wants to use the land for a certain reason in the near future.
- Global/General Acquisition: A land under Global Acquisition is SAFE TO BUY because the title to the land can be perfected without problems and becomes FREE through a process called EXCISION.
EXCISION. Excision is the first step in getting a clear title for land that has been bought. The government knows that people who live in different parts of the country have a right to be there. So, it is common for the state government to give back a piece of land to the people who lived there first. Excision is the process of taking a part out of a whole (also called “partitioning”), and that part will be written down in the official government Gazette of that state. This piece of land that has been cut out and is no longer needed is GAZETTED.
GAZETTE. A gazette is an official record book where all important government information is written down. A Gazette is a very powerful tool that belongs to the community. It can be used instead of a Certificate of Occupancy to give the Villagers title to the land. A gazette also lists the communities or villages that have been given Excision and how many acres or hectares of land the government has given them. The traditional family can sell its land to the public only in the acres or hectares that were given to them or cut off. They can’t sell anything outside of those acres or hectares.
DEED OF SALE. A Deed of Sale is the main document by which a vendor gives all of his rights to the property to the purchaser, who then owns the property completely. It is also called the deed of conveyance. There are also Terms & Conditions about the sale in the document. It protects the purchaser from losing money because of things that could go wrong with the land sale.
DEED OF ASSIGNMENT. A Deed of Assignment is a contract between the vendor of land or property and the purchaser of that land or property. It shows that the vendor has given all of his rights, title, interests, and ownership of the land to the purchaser. It is then written down in the Land Registry, which is legal proof that the land has changed hands and that the public should know about it.
GOVERNOR’S CONSENT. After getting the Deed of Assignment, the next step is to get the Governor’s Consent. A Certificate of Occupancy can be given to the first person to live on a piece of land that has never been lived on by anyone else or bought by the government. If the person with the C of O wants to sell his land to someone else after a certain number of years, he or she must now get the Consent of the Governor before the Government will consider the sale legal. In other words, only the first person or group of people to live on a piece of land can get a Certificate of Occupancy. Every person who wants to buy that land after that must get permission from a Governor. The last step before you can get a building plan approved is to get the Governor’s approval.
CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY (C of O). A Certificate of Occupancy is an official document that shows you have the right to live on a piece of land. It proves that the Lagos State Government is giving you, the applicant, a 99-year lease on land in Lagos.
GLOBAL CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY (Global C of O). This is a certificate of occupancy for a whole piece of land that was given to the owner of an estate. The owner of the estate can then give each owner of a plot in the estate a Deed of Assignment, which shows a Transfer of Ownership. Along the LEKKI–AJAH Axis, prices have gone up by a geometric percentage over the past 10 years. In 10 years, a piece of land bought in 2008 has gone up in value by an average of 750%. Procrastination and “pessimistic paralysis” are the two main reasons why we don’t take action or don’t have the motivation to do so.
Do your research. A quick check at the Lagos State Land Registry to see if the land you want to buy is real could save you a lifetime of regret.
