Scammers selling Houses are on the rise in Lagos, especially in Lekki. Be Viligant so you don't become their next Victim!!!

This issue has caused so many tears to many first-time homebuyers who did not conduct a proper verification exercise before they bought those Wayo houses. These buyers assume since it’s not Omo-Onile land they intend to buy, then everything the developer tells them about the property is 100% true.

The risk is heavier because you are losing a very huge sum of money at once and it would be very hard to recover from it if you are one of their victims. With this in mind, I have taken my time to investigate so many Developers, builders, and luxury properties put up for sale to help expose most of the things you need to watch out for before you buy a property.

1. ALWAYS INSPECT THE PROPERTY PHYSICALLY:

Most people are fond of buying properties online or through pictures without visiting them physically. I have never really understood why they do that. Buying a House demands more physical inspection than buying a piece of land.

These days we have software apps that can make a building marked for demolition look like Aso Rock. Please don’t rely on these pictures. Take time to see what you want to buy physically and spend at least 20-30 minutes going around the property.

Most of these properties have one latent defect or the other hidden in plain sight ranging from poor quality of the walls, drainage, pipes, ceiling and fittings.

If you don't inspect the house you want to buy properly, you might be buying a house with a defective POP that could fall on your head or injure your kids.

The developer masks all these defects with beautiful paint jobs, gorgeous ceiling P.O.Ps, attractive tiles, CCTV, A/Cs, elegant kitchen cabinets, dazzling bathroom Jacuzzis and showers and many more good looking things to misdirect the buyer from checking the most important things like the water supply, toilet flush system, the bath drainage, the taps, the cabinet fittings, creaking walls, shaky staircase banisters, faulty lights and wiring, terrible conduit wiring, leaking roof, bad door and windows etc.

In fact, you should do a proper inventory of so many structural things you notice so that you don’t end up spending millions correcting the defects you should have discovered during a physical inspection.

2. ASK FOR THE DOCUMENTS OF THE HOUSE TO INVESTIGATE THE TITLE:

The first thing you must demand to see from the seller or developer is the building plan. Once he starts giving you stories about why there is no building plan or he is processing at the land registry without any concrete proof, please run away as fast as you can because you are looking for Lagos state-building control agency’s trouble.

The property could be marked for demolition or you would be forced to pay penalties on behalf of the developer who has collected his money and disappeared. No building plan, no purchase. It’s that simple.

Your House could be sealed by the Lagos State Building Control Agency if the house does not have an approved building plan.

The agent or developer will regal you with so many reasons why the Building plan is not yet ready but once you decipher that the reasons don’t make sense please don’t look back. A building plan is a very important document for all properties in Lagos must-have.

Failure to have one comes with very huge consequences from the Lagos state government. So please don’t play with this.

Secondly, ask for the title document of the property e.g. proof of ownership. Most developers don’t own the piece of land they constructed the property on. They usually do joint venture agreements with the true holders of the land.

They end up constructing 2 or more duplexes on that property and offer the owner of the land one of the duplexes while they sell the remaining ones to purchasers to recoup their profit.

In most cases. the document the original owner of the land has, contains a lot of deficiencies such as survey plan issues, wrong location of where the property is supposed to be on the layout, fake governor’s consent or C of O, deeds of assignment that were not properly executed by the family or outright fake documents to deceive the buyer.

Always investigate the House you want to buy because it could be subject to a law suit in the house, the community or with AMCON. Don't go and buy Gbese ooo!

Also due to the fact that multiple properties have been constructed on the same plot of land, a lot of issues if not properly handled by an experienced property lawyer could lead to you having very bad documents in future whereby after paying for the property, ownership of the property could still reside in the developer for life.

You might end up being a tenant to the owner of the original document for life whereby you cannot transfer, sell or mortgage the property you just spent millions on without taking permission from the developer or paying a fee before you do anything on the property.

Thirdly you must investigate through your lawyer all the hidden issues about the surrounding area where the property is situated. Many people buy properties happily only to find out the following week that there is an existing lawsuit going on at either the Appeal court or Supreme Court with respect to the whole area.

Most people think because the area is developed there would be no more issues only for them to discover that 2 major communal families have been fighting for decades with respect to the ownership of the whole town. If one party wins the case, they would send their agents or Lawyers to go round all the properties to force them to pay ratification fees for building on their lands without permission.

The charges could be between N1Million to N50Million depending on the location of the property and if you refuse to pay it, they have the right to destroy your property and take forceful control of it because they have a court judgment to back them up. It does not matter whether you bought your house in a plush estate or not.

When the time comes you must pay the ratification sum and the developer or seller would not lift a finger to help you. Investigating it thoroughly would prevent you from being a victim of this issue.

3. KNOW THE PROPER HIDDEN COST OF BUYING A HOUSE IN LAGOS:

Before you buy that house, do your personal survey to know the ancillary cost of buying a property that must be paid before you take possession.

The earlier you know these fees the better it is for you to plan. Don’t rush to buy a property without preparing for all these ancillary fees so that you don’t buy a house that you won’t enjoy.

Remember to always consult an experienced Property lawyer like Omonile Lawyer to guide you through these house buying booby traps so you don’t fall victim like so many others who wished they knew all these things and sought professional help.

What other house buying problems have you encountered? If you enjoyed this article, please drop a comment below.

Omonile Lawyer is proud to have saved more than One Billion Naira for our clients since we started assisting clients over 15 years in conducting a Property search for them. For just N70,000 to retain us as your Search Agents, we would conduct a comprehensive search on that land or House to make you save Millions of Naira that you would have lost to Property Fraudsters Ignorantly. To verify a land or house that you are desirous of purchasing, request a search below and we would make sure your money remains in safe hands. We don't work for Seller. We work only for you.