Hello readers, let’s have a little discussion about laws. Today, the first law that comes to mind is the most popular of them all, “The Land Use Act”.
The Land Use Act essentially states that all land in Nigeria belongs to the government and the government only lease the land to individuals or corporate bodies as appropriate for a period of 99 years.

As a land owner it is required that you pay the land use charge yearly, When a real estate buyer happens to buy a property and it is discovered that the land owner has not been paying, then the buyer will have to carry the burden and pay all the fees pending till date.
The land use act also means that when the government issues a certificate of occupancy or C of O to you for a property purchased, the C of O is only for a period of 99years. As it is the first C of O were issued sometime in 1976 when the land use act came into effect. I wonder what will happen when the first set of C of O by government expires.
A new C of O has a life of 99 years before the government withdraws it or demands renewal, for instance a property that has a C of O that is 30 years old has a life of only 69 years left. A lot of people don’t consider this when buying homes in lagos, whereas some try to negotiate a lower sale price based on the life of the C of O.
• Another real estate law or property law to consider is “The Right of Way”
This basically states that “The government has right of way” . . . the right to create roads as appropriate for economic development. The government has a master plan for every area of Lagos Nigeria. In the same vein, every other state of the federation, as well as the federal government, have a master plan for different locations in the country.
So if you build residential or commercial property on any of these government development areas, the government will eventually pull down your property. That is why it is important to investigate the ownership of a property as appropriate with the Lagos state government.
• A third real estate law or Lagos property law to bear in mind is what is commonly called the “Distance to government road rule”.
In effect, this law states that each property owner should leave a distance of at least 30 meters between the walls of his property fence and the road.
If you do not obey the distance to road rule, nothing may happen immediately since the government is usually slow in reacting to such violations.

However, when the government decides to expand the road, your fence will be taken down without apology.