REASON YOU MUST TAKE POSSESSION OF LAND AS SOON AS YOU PAY FOR IT
When people buy Land in Lagos or Ogun, one of the worst things they can do is not make a plan for how they will use the land they paid a lot of money for. We fall in love with the place, the vendor, and the price of the land but we forget that this is Lagos or Ogun where these evil and dangerous land fraudsters have no pity for innocent purchasers of land because we don’t take the first and most important step, which is to make sure the land is safe.
75% of land cases involve trespassing on empty, undeveloped land. This is because the purchaser is happy to have bought the land, but plans to fence it or start working on it later. These bad Land Swindlers sneak around these empty lots, and when they find one that isn’t protected in any way, they immediately get in touch with their hit men to figure out how to market and resell the land to people who don’t know any better and think it’s brand new.
I’ve lost 3 lands in the past because I wasn’t strong enough to buy a land and fence it at the same time. I thought the land would still be waiting for me after 4 months, but it was sold three times in a row to different people, which put me at odds with these trespassers for years. With this in mind, I’ll tell you what you need to do to get possession right away so you don’t have to go through the same things I did.
- Please check your money very well before you buy any land. Land transactions in Lagos or Ogun can drive you crazy because there are so many K-Legs and hidden fees, but if you plan ahead, it will be a piece of cake. Please make a good budget.
- Know the cost of doing a search on the land, how much it goes for, the agency fees, the legal fees, the cost of doing a survey plan, the cost of signing your documents, the cost the family would charge for signing your form 1c and giving you a receipt, the cost of fencing in advance, clearing the land, the cost of settling the omo-oniles, and the foundation fees. Most of these fees can be negotiated, and once you find a good price, you should act quickly and pay for all of these things to avoid problems in the future. Delay in Land transaction is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS because once the vendor(s) or Omo-oniles have spent all the money and you haven’t taken care of most of the things I’ve listed above, the devil will start to mess with their minds to make your life hard and keep you from taking possession.
- Once you’ve paid and the lawyer has signed your papers in your favour, you can meet the vendor or Omo-onile and ask them to help clear the bush or give you materials for building the fence in future deals. This makes them interested in keeping your land safe from future trespassers or land thieves, and it gives you an official night guard to keep an eye on your land because they are indirectly benefiting. Make sure you have some small change to give to street kids or other young people in the area so they can see the fence being built. Buy hot drinks for the community elders and small brown envelopes for the Area fathers so they know you exist and can act as witnesses on your behalf if a marauder or problematic person tries to claim the land.
- Make sure you get a FAMILY RECEIPT that says “Family” on it. The Family COMPOUND NAME and ADDRESS should be written on the receipt to prove that the land was paid for tomorrow. Most people who sell communal land, called Omo-oniles, are not very educated, so the Family Receipt is the only thing they will accept as proof of ownership if there is mud on the land tomorrow.
- It doesn’t matter if your fence is as high as Aso Rock’s or only has two or three layers of blocks. The most important thing is that even a blind man would be able to tell that someone has started working on this land and that it doesn’t belong to the vendor or Omo-onile. Also, try to take pictures or videos of the fence being built so you can use them as proof tomorrow. Make sure to include the Vendors, Omo-oniles, and Area fathers in the pictures so that they can testify in your favor or you can use it against them if they try to act like they don’t know anything. Take control of your land right away by putting up a fence to keep Omo-oniles from stealing it.
- Even if Government people come to your land to bother you for Building Plan or Governor’s consent proof, tell them to buzz off because you will still process your papers. A Governor’s consent alone would not stop these land fraudsters from reselling your land without any physical protection.
- If you can, build a small house near the fence to make it look like someone lives there. If you can afford it, hire someone to keep an eye on the property at night. His job is to warn and scare away anyone who comes onto that land while he grazes there.
- Once you have built your fence far enough to be useful, please start processing your Land documents right away. Together, the documents you get from the government and the fence will help you keep Land Scammers away from the land. Even though you built a fence around your land, please try to go there often. If you leave it alone for a long time, you’ll only make it easier for the thieves you’ve worked so hard to stop. Tell them you can visit your land at any time, and when you do, you can pay the locals to tell you more about it and what’s going on in the community that affects you.
Here are some things you should do to protect your land and take ownership of it. It doesn’t make sense to spend Millions to buy land and then do nothing to protect it. You’d have to pay x2 to get it back. Treatment is better than prevention.
