When acquiring a property, you have to take necessary steps to ensure that what you are buying is genuine. Then you have to obtain the proper title if none existed before or perfect the title as the case may be. Obtaining the Governor’s consent to all land transactions is a means of perfecting land titles.
It is very important for a purchaser of land to perfect his or her document by obtaining a Governors consent so as to have a complete rest of mind. Although its good to buy a land that already has a Global C of O or the Land has a Gazette, it still doesn’t give you the full satisfaction that you own the land without any form of fear or intrusion by the Omoniles. Your documents have not been perfected and the consent of the Governor to that transaction has not been obtained.
It’s because of this situation whereby the Omoniles know that purchasers of land do not want to spend money to get their Governors Consent that they will begin to resell people’s lands to multiple buyers because they know it’s only the purchaser that perfects his title by obtaining the Governors consent that can lay claim to that land validly in the eyes of the law.
That’s why it is encouraged that people who buy lands to immediately start the process of obtaining Governors consent after they have bought a land and a Deed of Assignment has been drawn up. Delay has been shown to be very fatal and we should learn from the past experiences of others who have fallen victim to this situation.
Consent… The Land Use Act of 1978 puts all land in a State; town and rural area under the control of the Governor and Local Government Chairman, respectively, in trust for the people of the state. Consequent upon this, section 22 of the Act then states that,
“it shall not be lawful for the holder of a statutory Right of Occupancy granted by the Governor to alienate his Right of Occupancy or any part thereof by assignment, sublease etc without the prior consent of the Governor”.
Simply put, even though a property has Certificate of Occupancy which makes the beneficiary the legal interest holder on the land for 99 years or the residue, if he decides to resell, mortgage or do anything with the property, since the land is held in trust by the state government, the Governor needs to approve the transaction. In other words, the first person on a land is the only person or group of persons entitled to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy. Every subsequent buyer of that land must get a Governor’s consent. There can only be one Owner of the Certificate of Occupancy on that land and it will not be replicated for another person once the land has been sold or transferred to another person. Process The process that accompanies the issuance of Governor’s consent in Lagos State is usually carried out in the Ministry of Lands.
The following documents are required for the purpose of obtaining Governor’s consent:
Dated letter of application with addresses and phone numbers;
Duly completed form 1c (This Form 1 C is a prelude to registering a Governors Consent. It must be signed in the presence of a Lawyer so as to guide both you and the seller unless any slightest error on the form will be queried). The form must be dated and signed by the parties to the transaction and sworn to before a Magistrate or Notary Public;
Certified true copy of grantors title document;
Grantors’ tax clearance certificate /developmental levy receipt and; Grantees’ tax clearance certificate/developmental levy receipt.
Others are:
Four copies of duly executed sublease, deed of assignment (with survey plans attached in each copy), mortgages or power of attorney;
Chartable survey plans;
Evidence of payment of charting, endorsement, and form 1c;
Evidence of payment of ground rent/land use charge;
Letter of confirmation of payment of capital contribution from NTDA in respect of Lekki peninsula schemes 1 and 2, Abijo GRA, Isheri North and other affected government schemes and;
Building plan or photograph of the property.
Cost After submitting the first set of deed of assignment and survey plan, internal scrutiny of the documents submitted is carried out. Thereafter, the documents are sent to the Surveyor General’s office for charting. If there are no defects in the survey plan, a clean report is sent to the Lands Bureau and a demand notice is issued to the applicant for the following fees:
Consent fee – 8% of assessed value of the property;
Capital gains tax – 2% of assessed value of the property;
Stamp Duty fee – 2% of assessed value of the property;
Registration fee – 3% of assessed value of the property and;
Current tax clearance certificates of the parties to the property transaction.
If you have none, an assessment is raised immediately for you. Finally, your application (document) is sent to any of the commissioners that are specifically designated for that purpose to append their signature. When this has been done, it is sent back to the applicant to do stamp duty and final registration. Your deed of assignment then becomes Governor’s Consent; it is now a registered title. It’s the registered title that is called deed.
Some challenges…
Obtaining a Governors Consent from the Land Bureau isn’t the easiest thing to get quickly despite the importance attached to it and urgency needed to secure a land from Omoniles. On the Government website, it is stated that a Governors Consent can be obtained in 30 days but that has proven to be very untrue due to unscrupulous civil servants who would do everything to frustrate the process of obtaining the document without giving them huge kickbacks. A Governors consent that should cost N200,000 naturally could end up costing N600,000 Due to kickbacks, Egunje, Bribes, P.R etc and that 30 days could translate to 6months or a Year depending on how you sort your P.R well.
All in all, a Governors Consent is a very good document to obtain and it is advisable you to get it so as to free yourself from Omoniles 100%. An advantage of having a Governor’s consent is that you can transfer your land to another person without going to the Omoniles or Family Baale to sign your deed and Form 1c which are compulsory requirements needed before you can process a Governors consent. The Omoniles pray seriously for the Owner not to have a Governors consent so that they can make a lot of money running into their Thousands when ever the Owner require the signatures of the family to start the Governors consent.
It’s even very tough now for Land Buyers because a major requirement by the government now is that you must Obtain a Governors consent before you obtain a building plan approval. If it takes 6months to a year before they get their Consent. When will the person now get his approval?
Stepping aside the criticism of those in charge of processing the C of O, You should try as much as possible to get a Governors Consent for all your genuine lands so as to eliminate Omoniles completely and live a straight forward life devoid of Omonile palava