INVOLVE COMMUNITY LEADERS WHEN BUYING LAND IN SEMI-URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

INVOLVE COMMUNITY LEADERS WHEN BUYING LAND IN SEMI-URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

Community Chiefs, Elders and Leaders are in the best position to point you in the right direction when buying land in semi-urban and rural areas in Nigeria.

Engage them secretly while doing the transaction, to know the true owner of the land.

They are in a position to show you the correct boundaries too. Inform them of your desire to buy the land, and seek their input.

Engage as many of them as you can, but be sure that their input is not tainted with malice or ill-will.

Do not underestimate the value of local knowledge. These are people who will know the history of the land, the families connected to it and disputes that will never appear in the seller’s documents.

They may also know whether the person presenting himself as the owner has power to sell.

This will eliminate fraud and misrepresentation of facts as they will indicate to you which land is community or family land and the identity of the owner.

In rural areas, everybody knows everybody. So it is very easy to get facts about the land.

But community information is not a substitute for legal due diligence (investigation).

After making these inquiries, get a Property and Real Estate Lawyer to investigate the ownership, Government interest, verify the seller’s authority, review the relevant documents and prepare the purchase document before you pay.

A few conversations with the right people can expose what a seller may never tell you.

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