When purchasing a property in order for you to be sure what you are buying is genuine and will not be sold to anyone else after your payment, you have to obtain proper title if none existed before, or perfect the title the property already had in your own favor.
Consequent upon this, section 22 of The Land Use Act of 1978 states that; “it shall not be lawful for the holder of a statutory Right of Occupancy granted by the Governor, to alienate his Right of Occupancy or any part thereof by assignment, sublease etc without the prior consent of the Governor”.
Simply put, even though a property has Certificate of Occupancy which makes the beneficiary the legal interest holder on the land, if he decides to resell or do anything with the property, since the land is held in trust by the state government, the Governor needs to approve to that transaction. Otherwise, the title that will pass is not perfected. This means that the final authority on landed matters is not aware of the transaction and the implications can be grievious at times.
There are two broad Governor’s approval types. One is the approval to transfer part or all of your interest in the landed property to a third party and the other is the consent to mortgage. The latter is usually required when you are pledging your property as security for a credit facility.
SO HOW DOES ONE GO ABOUT IT?
Below is a step by step process containing the essential documents needed to obtain the Governor’s Consent in Lagos State.
However, it is important to note that if the property has a defective title, it is sure to put a loophole in the process.
• A duly completed application made on Land Form 1C which must be dated and signed by the parties to the transaction and sworn to before a Magistrate or Notary Public.
• A cover letter from the Solicitor/Applicant filing the application for Governor’s consent.
• A certified original copy of the Title document of the property.
• The sum of N10, 500 for charting fee, endorsement fee and Form 1C made payable to the Lagos State Government.
• Four copies of the Deed of Assignment with survey plans attached in each copy.
• Photograph of the property.
• A current tax clearance certificate of the parties involved in the property transaction.
All these documents are forwarded to the office of the Surveyor General for charting. If there are no defects in the survey plan, a clean report is sent to the Lands Bureau and a demand notice is issued to the applicant for the following fees which are percentages of the assessed value of the property.
These following fees are paid via bank draft in the name of Lagos State Government and then receipts are issued:
 Consent fees – 8%
 Capital gains tax – 2%
 Stamp duty fee – 2%
 Registration fee – 3%
Present experience is that the process of getting approval, takes at least three months to conclude if assessment fees are paid as quickly as possible and there are no queries in your file, although the State Government has a target period of 30days.
See also our blog on ‘how to calculate fees for obtaining Governor’s consent in different areas of Lagos State’. This will teach you how to do it yourself.
Have a nice day.