WHO ARE FRAUDULENT AND DUBIOUS SELLERS?
A fraudulent and dubious seller is an individual who thrives in selling landed property that;
- Has been sold to previous buyers,
- Does not belong to him/her,
- Does not have valid title documents,
- Knowingly falls within government acquisition and committed.
Having defined who a fraudulent seller is, it’s important to properly discuss some of the antics these dubious individuals employ to defraud innocent buyers of their hard earned money. Some of them are;
Providing documents that are not genuine: This is a common practice among customary landowners popularly known as “omoniles” and majority of the Real Estate companies we have today. These people display documents especially title documents granted by the government such as Certificate of Occupancy, Registered deed of assignment, Gazette displaying list of published village excision which after detailed investigation conducted by an expert in land verification turns out to be documents for the wrong piece of land.
Planting questionable individuals to corroborate their stories: customary landowners are experts in the business of telling perfect lies. Some of them go as far as planting shady individuals at strategic places and times to corroborate their lies. I remember an incident where after conducting our investigation, we requested the seller take us to meet with the Baale of the village to corroborate the story that was told to us since the Baale under Yoruba communal land system is the custodian of communal lands. We were taken to meet with a young man at a bar and was told that was the Baale, after several questions put to the young man he suddenly flared up and started to raining curses on us. Eventually we had to excuse ourselves to avoid further harassment.
Advertisement and display of eye catching unreal images: real estate companies are masters in this art. Most real estate companies in land selling business create computer generated images of how an estate they are selling has developed or will develop in the shortest possible time, this is a way of self-advertisement for them, however some of this companies never live up to their promises. Several years after, the estate is remains very under developed, eventually they tell you there is an issue and some of the subscribers have to be relocated to another site, at the end the eye catching and dreamy image of paradise on earth that was painted to you becomes lost then you are faced with the reality that all what was shown to you was all intended to deceive.
These and many more are some of the few antics employed by fraudulent and dubious sellers.
Having briefly highlighted and discussed the above, the question that comes begging to be answered is “how does a prospective buyer or real estate investor protect himself from this menace?”
As an individual who has been a victim of this menace, the only recommendation I always give to prospective investors in the real estate market is endeavor to always employ the services of a person who is well grounded in property law practice and an expert in land verification services to guide you through this difficult journey as one bad experience or investment can be life changing.
Don’t be a victim of either an Omonile Land scams or fraudulent real estate developer. Get in touch with Omonile Lawyer and we promise to help prevent you from losing your hard earned millions to crooks.
