Almost every day, it seems I am sorting out one Omonile Land purchase problem gone badly. From investigating the true Owner(s) of the alleged land down to verifying the authenticity of the documents presented by the seller, taking matters into your own hands  can sometimes result in disasters financially or you the seller getting duped because you are too ignorant on how to spot Red Flags that should make you abandon that transaction.

 

To this end I have listed my 5 tips on 5 Costly Land Purchase Mistakes You are making that would lead to you getting Defrauded.

 

1.  ONCE YOU BUY THE LAND YOU MUST FENCE IT “NOW NOW” SYNDROME

 

Once the Seller of a Land begins to sing into your ears that the moment you purchase the land, you must start fencing it immediately, know that you’re probably about to buy a stolen land that belongs to someone else.

 

Why would he be so frightened to sell a land that he claims belongs to him and still push you to fence it immediately so that other land speculators or Omoniles would not encroach on it?

 

 If he is confident that he is selling you the right land that he maintains he owns and he is in current possession of the right documents, he would not hurry you up to take possession immediately.

 

Although common sense when buying lands in Lagos dictates that you should immediately take possession of the land, it should look very suspicious when it is coming from the proposed land seller who is advising you to do it even before money changes hands.

 

A confident Owner will always tell you that he knows where and whom he purchased the land from and would take you anytime you want to see the previous owner and would stand by your side whenever a trespasser intends to claim that land.

 

 

 

2.  BUYING A FENCED PROPERTY WITHOUT ANY FORM OF PROOF OF FENCING

 

This is a very popular land scam amongst many land fraudsters and I have also being a victim of this hoax before. It normally follows a specific format and it’s very difficult to deviate from it that is why it is so successful.

 

The Land Seller knows you are interested in buying a land and he tells you he has a piece of land that he has for sale is a Fenced Land. He knows every land buyer would like to buy a land that is fenced because it would save the new buyer the cost and stress of erecting a new fence.

 

The buyer immediately values the on-going rate for Lands in that Area and compares it with the cost the Seller is offering it and realizes that it is a very good deal especially as he has taken into consideration the cost of fencing the land and the money he is saving but he is forgetting to put 2 and 2 together to ask the

 

Seller Important questions such as:

a. How old are the blocks that were used to construct the fence? The Signs of brownish blocks or spirogyra growing out of the blocks is a sign that the land has been there for a very long time and untouched and probably belongs to someone that cannot be immediately traced.

 

b. When did the buyer claim he purchased the land or how long has he owned the Land?

 

c. Does he have any Building plan to show that he has the right to construct the fence and erect any building on the Land?

 

d. Even if he didn’t obtain any Building plan, what is the proof that he was the one who constructed the fence? Does he have any receipts of architects, builders, suppliers or anything to show that he engaged anyone to construct the fence?

 

e. What year did he construct the fence? If it is a freshly plastered fence, please look at the survey plan and the documents to compare the ages and timing of the plastering.

 

f. Finally look at the person that is claiming to be the Seller. Does he look like someone that can fund the cost of fencing a land and leaving it to resell at a later date?

 

One of the major questions you must ask the Seller of the Fenced land is why did he go out of his way to fence a land 5 or 7 years ago and all of a sudden he is interested in Selling the Land now? Well I have an Answer for that…..News Flash…

 

”NO OMONILE WILL EVER BUY A LAND, FENCE IT AND WAIT TO SELL IT AFTER A NUMBER OF YEARS HAVE PASSED BY”.

 

Once you hear that old stale line, know you’re about to be scammed because the land was never theirs to own from the beginning.

 

 

 

3. THE “COME AND PAY NOW NOW BECAUSE OTHER PEOPLE ARE INTERESTED IN THE LAND”

 

This scam is simply predicated on Fear. The Sellers or Land Fraudsters know you desperate to own the Land so they play on your emotions to prevent you from doing a proper back ground check. Some will go as far as saying some people came to see the owner to pay for the land this morning but it’s a first come first serve and if you pay now, you will get the land.

 

At times they will tell you that the owner isn’t around but they are representatives of the Seller and you should write a check in the name of the alleged owner after which you can take possession of the land.

 

They will not allow you confirm the size of the land as represented on their survey plans neither will they give you the opportunity to confirm if the land is under acquisition or not.

 

They will call all the names of prominent people who have bought lands there without giving you their numbers or showing you the so called prominent people until you pay for a land that has so many problems.

 

The quandary here is that when you acquire that land and you don’t know who you bought it from personally or who signed your document, how are you going to defend yourself in future in case any issue arises?

 

Never buy a land based on fear or emotions or because you’re tired of searching for good lands because all the lands you have been searching has one problem or the other unless you will end up choosing the one that is filled with so much issues and it would be too late to get a refund.

 

 

4. BUYING A RELOCATION LAND

 

If you by chance get to know that the land you are about to purchase is a land that has been recently relocated to the Seller, be very careful before you buy that land. A Relocation land simply means there have been issues or series of issues that has led to the Seller being offered another land other than the one he purchased originally or that was allocated to him.

 

Such a land means that it has either a litigation or communal problem and it’s fraught with so much difficulty to get the genuine documents. That land has 2 or more people that are laying claim to that land and they have also been probably duped by Omoniles previously or it’s a land with trespass or border issues that has led to a lot of issues.

 

Make sure you engage a property lawyer to check the documents to see if they correlate and confirm if the survey plan originally given to the Seller is the same survey plan that he is presenting to you to sell.

 

Since it is a Relocation Land, the Documents will never be the same and the Survey Plan will never match, so therefore what Documents is the Seller giving to the Buyer as proof of purchasing a land? Most buyers are victims of this relocation scam and you have to pay more attention to it so that you don’t end up being the next victim.

 

 

 

5. SELLER OR AGENT INSISTS THAT IT’S HIS PEOPLE THAT WILL DO THE SURVEY PLAN AND DEED COMPULSORILY AND WOULD NOT ENTERTAIN NEUTRAL LAWYERS AND SURVEYORS:

 

Why should a Seller of land be the same person that should do your survey plan and still do your Documents? There are a lot of stubborn and fraudulent Sellers or Agents trying to play a fast one on a buyer by claiming to be Surveyors and having lawyers who would draft the agreement for the land you just bought from them.

 

It’s never done and who is going to protect your independent and stand as your witness incase anything goes wrong? How do you determine that the Surveyor is a registered surveyor and knows what he is doing?

 

How do you ascertain the authenticity of the Lawyer who drafted the deeds? Once you hear such things protest fiercely until you have your way. Most of the time they give the survey plans to quack surveyors to draft the survey plan and the quacks are always parading themselves as qualified surveyors and are extremely loud in the process of convincing you they have been doing it for years.

 

The seller would also want to play the role of the Agent to short change other parties to the transaction and will do anything to further sway you on why you shouldn’t get an Independent party to handle the situation. Even when you demand to see the Original sellers or Families he bought it from, he becomes very aggressive and obnoxious.

 

He would tell you all the reasons why he can’t take you to see the family because they will demand more money from him to sign the documents so it’s better to hide it from them to save money.

 

Well that to me is false Economy because there is no way the Omoniles would not know about the transaction one way or the other in future and there is no way you won’t still pay them that money in double folds and to make matters worse, the land you bought might actually be a land that has problems and if the Omoniles have known, you would have been cautioned accordingly to avoid that land.

 

In summary before you buy a land in Lagos or Ogun, consider the factors above so that you don’t make that costly mistake of Losing Money to these Land Fraudsters.

 

 

CONTACT THE OMONILE LAWYER TO CONDUCT A LAND VERIFICATION ON THAT LAND YOU INTEND TO PURCHASE SO THAT YOU WONT BE DUPED OR DEFRAUDED AND TO HELP YOU SAVE MILLIONS OF NAIRA BY PURCHASING LANDS THAT FOLLOW THE DUE PROCESS ACCEPTABLE BY THE LAND REGISTRY OF YOUR STATE.

 

WE ARE THE BEST AT WHAT WE DO AND WE HAVE A 100% SUCCESS RATE IN DISCOVERING HIDDEN LAND LAND SCAMS OR FRAUDULENT OWNERS AND MAKING OUR CLIENTS SMILE AT THE END.