Right To Own Land

By Ubong S. Ebong Esq. -
Let's quickly talk about the right of individuals to own immovable property, that is, land & structures erected on land. To do justice to this topic I'll be analysing this right from 3 perspectives:
1) right to acquire land (which I'll be discussing last),
2) right to protect your land ownership,
3) right to compensation in the event of a compulsory acquisition.

Starting from no. (2) above, every land owner has the right to protect his/her land from both: unlawful intruders/trespassers & people making adverse claims of ownership (that is other persons who are claiming ownership over your land). The proper way to enforce this right is through the court system & not by resorting to self-help or physical aggression as that would likely create more problems than it would solve.

For no. (3) above, every land owner whose land is compulsorily acquired by the government is entitled to adequate compensation. Now the few points to be noted here are:
a) the acquisition must be done by the government itself,
b) the acquisition must be done for a public purpose such as constructing roads, constructing public hospitals & schools etc,
c) the land owner must be properly notified of the intended acquisition within a reasonable time,
d) the land owner must be promptly paid adequate compensation for his/her land or property,
e) where the land owner is dissatisfied with the amount of compensation offered he/she can approach the court to review & determine the proper compensation that is adequate.

And finally on no. 1 (which I deliberately skipped due to its bulkiness), every Nigerian citizen has the right to acquire land. In our modern era, the 2 most popular ways of acquiring land are: through purchase & through inheritance. While acquisition of land via purchase or inheritance is simple to understand, the tricky part is getting it done properly & safely. 

For acquisition via purchase, there is need to safeguard the sales transaction from both adverse claims & fraud. In other words, there is need to ensure that the purported seller of the land actually has the power to sell the land in question free from any contrary claims from other persons (or what we lawyers call encumbrances), & there is also need to ensure that the purported sale is properly documented to avoid fraud. 

The need for a lawyer to take care of both issues cannot be over-emphasized. Lawyers are trained on how to investigate what we call the "root of title" to confirm if the seller has the proper authority to sell the land without problems. Lawyers are also trained on how to draft the necessary documentations for land transactions to ensure that the seller does not cheat the buyer & the buyer also does not cheat the seller in any way. Just so you know, ONLY a lawyer can validly prepare a land sales document so please don't be misled by 'hustlers'.

On this point let me just add that there have been many land cases where people lose their lands because they didn't have proper documentation to prove their ownership of the land in dispute. There have also been several instances where people have ended up wasting a lot of time & money simply because they didn't get a lawyer to properly investigate the ownership claims of a land seller before buying from him, only to later discover that some other person (or even persons) are also claiming ownership over the same land.

For land acquisition via inheritance, the major challenge is how to ensure that ownership of the land in question will actually pass to the intended persons when the owner of the land dies without interference from third parties. For example, how can a father ensure that his property will actually be inherited by his children when he dies?

The simple answer, get a lawyer to prepare your Will, which will clearly contain instructions on how you wish ur properties to be shared. A valid Will can very easily be enforced using the full might of the court against any person who attempts to forcefully take over the properties in question after the demise of the owner. Considering the many life examples of greedy friends & family members stealing properties of deceased persons, I believe we can all advise ourselves that a Will is necessary to protect the future interests of our loved ones in the unpredictable & undesired but unavoidable event of death. I will talk more on Wills at a later date but for now just know this bit.

So now you know your rights in relation to land acquisition & ownership. Please be properly guided & consult your lawyer because like they say, "prevention is better than cure!"

#KYR


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