If you are a land owner and do not have proper land title, you need to legalize your land urgently.
A Certificate of Occupancy proves that the building or land complies with the plans and specifications submitted and approved by the local government.
However, a title certificate is what makes you the legal owner of the land on which the property is located. It also describes the types of uses the property can be used for; Commercial, Mixed or Residential.
Since 1978, the Land Use Act of 1978 has been the primary law governing land acquisitions in the country, stating that for the benefit of all Nigerians, all land in the state must be held in trust by the governor.
To obtain a C of O from the government, you must:
- Apply for land information and receive a land information certificate. To do this, you will need to pay an application fee at the Surveyor General’s office and present a chartable survey plan (2 pieces of cloth, 2 pieces of paper).
- Buy a C of O application form(for residential building it will cost 5,000 Naira whereas for commercial building it will cost 20,000 Naira in Lagos State).
- Complete the application form and submit it to the Land Use Allocation Commission (LUAC) office with the following attachments:
- Land information certificate
- Receipt for land information fee
- Receipt for application form
- Publication/inspection fee of N10,000
- Capital contribution (to be calculated based on size and location of land)
- Land purchase receipt/agreement (duly stamped)
- Copy of current tax clearance certificate (individuals)
- Copy of N100 development levy receipt
- Site location sketch
- Four passport photographs of applicant with white background
- Copy of approved building plan (if developed)
- Copy of tenement rate receipt (if occupied) or Land Use Charge
- Cover letter addressed to executive secretary LUAC, stating all documents attached, as above and typed with applicant’s address
- Acknowledgement slip from LUAC.
Once this is completed, the applicant will be issued a letter of confirmation with plot and block numbers, and the Scheme Officer will process the C of O application, sign on the file, and forward the file to the LUAC Executive Secretary.
All this takes 5 days. The Surveyor General then provides the digitized survey to the Scheme Officer. It will take him two days to process this. The LUAC Executive Secretary approves the processing and signs the Letter of allocation.
The Executive Secretary will sign the file and transmit it to the Governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Lands. He or she will then review the entire file and send it along with a note to the Permanent Secretary, Land Bureau.
However, if the file contains queries, the messages will be bounced back via notifications. This process also takes him two days. Upon completion, the Permanent Secretary will sign the memo and send the file to His Excellency, who will approve and electronically sign the Certificate of Occupancy. These two processes take him four days to complete. If there is a query, the message will be sent back via notification. After His Excellency approves and signs the certificate, it will be signed off and sent to the Deputy Registrar for further processing. The Deputy Registrar will further process the file, sign it, and send it to the Title Registrar for final registration.
The Registrar of Titles will then register, sign and request a printout of the certificate. These processes take a total of 5 days. The entire process takes a total of 21 days. During this 21-day period, the application is advertised to attract objection or no objections before being finally processed.
