How To Do Property Search At The Lands Ministry In Ikeja

Doing land property search in a commercial state like Lagos can be very stressful. This can be more stressful, especially if you are new to acquiring properties or do not have a lawyer or surveyor to guide you.

The reason why it’s very important that you conduct such research is that it gives you piece of mind after you’ve purchased your property. It validates everything completely.

Note that not all property can be verified at the land registry, unless it’s registered under the state government.

Land registries are in all states of the federation and that of Lagos state is located around Alausa, in Ikeja area of Lagos state.

Here are some of the few steps you need to take in order to conduct proper property research.

-Gather All Required Documents

Before you proceed to Alausa for property search, you need to ensure that you have all the required documents such as the photocopy of the documents,like photo copy of the deed of assignment,deed of sublease,deed of conveyance,deed of grant,deed of transfer,photocopy of the excision gazeeted by the government and the informations of the gazeete must be clearly visible for easy synchronization with the original copy. If you don’t have this it can be very difficult to actually search on any property. You also need to have the survey report on hand. This will make everything easier for you, the document must have either being registered with state government or emanated from the state government.

When you get to the land registry, you will be asked to fill a form to apply for the certified true copy of the documents you have been issued to search on. The form used to be N3750, but right now the payment fee is around 5,6750 ,which is  probably a little higher to the former fee due to inflation. You will be asked to pay to the bank and you will have to wait a few minutes for them to issue you a receipt of payment, which is to be submitted to the Land Registry office.

HOW TO PAY FOR CERTIFIED TRUE COPY OF THE TITLE DOCUMENTS AT LANDS REGISTRY IKEJA

Making your payment at the lands registry for certified true copy of the title documents at ikeja for purpose of search will require you to obtain the revenue code ,agency code and payer identification(payer id) code  from the lands registry and the recipient is lagos state ministry of lands,please ask if the recipient changed before going to the bank to pay.the nearest bank where you can do your payment is zenith bank, at the zenith bank they will issue you a customized teller for payment to lagos state government, according to zenith bank staff these tellers are not alterable and you have to fill them carefully. When you have made your payment successfully, you will wait to be issued with the alpha beta receipt(code name for lagos staterevenue receipt )issued by alpha beta consults ltd for lagos state government.

Then proceed to the lands registry and the originals of the payment receipt and a copy of the documents you are searching on, the applicant is to have a photocopy of the alpha beta receipt and a copy of the document too, depending on your level of approach, you can get an express service that same day,otherwise you will be asked to return in two days time for the certified true copy.

Like I mentioned earlier, It’s  important that you photocopy the receipt and certificate that will be given to you by the bank, as you might be asked to submit duplicates to the Land Bureau. Also, endeavour to fill in every query, which will include the type of property and your reason for search on the property.

-Carry Out Your Search

After filling out your application and submitting it, you will be given access to a computer that is already logged in to the E-search portal. There you can search and verify any property as long as it is registered under the Lagos state government.

Some of the few things to look out for are: title, date, owner’s name and address, and the condition under which the land was bought.

It’s also important that you write down some of these things as they can help you in creating a proper search report for your client.

-Verification at the Lagos State Surveyor General’s Office

It is also important that you go and verify things like the location and size of the land at the office of the surveyor General. This will also reveal the original status of the property, and also whether it is a government property or not.

-Real Estate Company Verification At The Corporate Affairs Commission

Most real estate agencies and companies are registered with the cooperate affairs commission. So checking there is also important, and you can actually do that through their online website too.

How to do Property search at the Corporate Affairs Commission

The corporate affairs commission enhances your property search ,this is where the property is owned by a real estate company,or the buyer is a company, it is very common these days to see a company acquire another company lands, houses or estate, so now it is very important to do search at the corporate affairs commission before you buy the property.

How do you do property search at the corporate affairs commission? Well doing such search can be done through cac accredited agents, things you can look out for at property search at the corporate affairs commission:

1. Name of the company selling or buying as it appears on the cac records.
2.  the Directors of the company and shareholders of the company ,& its assets and company debts,
3. The company charges and its activeness in the market.
4. Whether there is winding up proceeding against the company.
5.  Whether there is fraud case against the company.
6. Whether the company share holders have transferred their shares to another before selling the property to you.
7. Whether the company is now facing bankruptcy proceedings at the court or by cac.

SEARCH AT THE COURT REGISTRY– Every court in Nigeria has a registry, it will be very ideal to o to court and find out if the property you want to buy is subject of litigation from an adverse party or government , the process of doing search at the court registry is very easy and not stressful, but you will need to submit your application to search the name of the seller on the courts registry, to find out if there is any matter pending in the court with that name .this will save you the stress of buying trouble with your own money, to do this approach a consultant to file an application to search at court registry, the application will be submitted to ACR of the court, Application for title search is majorly done at the high courts, but most land cases are still at the customary or area courts, so doing a search there will not be bad, where the vendor is a company, also follow up a search at the federal high court.

-Traditional Search

This is usually important if you are buying any property from an indigent person. Majority of the Lands emanated from families rather than by a single person. So you need to make proper enquiries to find out who the original owners of the lands are and whether the principal members of the family including the family head agree to the selling of the land.

-Physical Verification

Checking and visiting the property yourself is also another great way of doing property search. Here you can get to know the issues and defects associated with the property. Also, you get to know the actual location of the property by visiting the place or by using google map gps to find property location

Bottom Line

Adequate property search is very important, especially in Lagos, so as to prevent issues after buying such properties. It’s pertinent to do good search before paying for any property, be it land, house, etc.