Title Search

The searches come before payment, not after a deposit.

Collect the documents first: the title document the seller relies on, the survey plan with its plan number, and identification for the seller. Where the seller is a company, ask for its CAC documents too, because a company search confirms it exists, who its directors are and whether it is in good standing.

Then run the searches. A lands registry search is conducted at the registry of the state where the land is, and practice and fees vary between states. A Surveyor General search uses the plan number.

Read what comes back rather than glancing at it. A registered mortgage means the property is charged and cannot be transferred free of it without discharge. A caveat means somebody is claiming an interest. A gap in the chain of registered instruments means the root of title needs explaining.

Then inspect physically and ask in the area. Records do not show an occupier, a family in dispute or a structure on the land, and a buyer who searched but never visited has done half the job.

Registration is not universal, which is the complication.

A large amount of Nigerian land is held under unregistered instruments, or under customary title with no registered document at all. A search returning nothing does not necessarily mean the seller has no title. It means the records do not evidence it, and the buyer must establish the root of title another way, by tracing how the seller acquired the land and verifying each step.

That is where family land requires particular care. A search will not tell you who the family head and principal members are, and it will not tell you whether the earlier sale in the chain had the right signatures.

Government acquisition is the other frequent finding, and it is why the Surveyor General search matters. Land within a committed acquisition may be unusable regardless of what the seller holds, and excision and gazette documents are what take a parcel out of it.

The practical Nigerian routine before payment is: lands registry search, Surveyor General search, physical inspection, enquiries in the community about who claims the land, verification of the seller's authority to sell, and a company search where the seller is a company. Then pay in stages against documents, not in full in advance.

Three checks answering three different questions, and a buyer needs all of them.

The lands registry search answers who and what. Who is the registered owner, what instruments have been registered, is there a mortgage or a caveat.

The Surveyor General search answers where. Is the survey plan genuine and registered, do the coordinates fall where the seller says, and does the parcel lie within a government acquisition.

Physical inspection answers what is actually happening on the ground. Who is in occupation, is anything built on it, is there an access route, are there neighbours or a family with a competing claim.

Records are silent about occupation, and occupiers are silent about registration. A buyer who does only one of the three has an incomplete picture, and Nigerian land disputes live in exactly the gaps between them.

A search reflects the records, and Nigerian records are incomplete. Unregistered instruments and customary holdings do not appear, so a clean search is not proof of good title.

Forged documents also circulate, and a document that looks correct can be worthless until the search confirms it was actually lodged.

Searches are also a snapshot. An instrument registered after your search but before your own registration can affect your position, which is why prompt registration matters.

And a search says nothing about the human situation. A family in dispute, an occupier claiming long possession or an unrecorded earlier sale will not show up in any registry.