But why is it so important? A parcel of land or property without a Certificate of Occupancy is as good as owning a vehicle without a logbook. This is not the kind of situation you want to find yourself as a landowner or property owner in Nigeria.<\/span><\/p>\n In this article, we will shed light on everything you need to know about the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) in Nigeria; including how to obtain one for different kinds of land and property.<\/span><\/p>\n The individual or entity that you are buying the land or property from determines how you will get your Certificate of Occupancy. If you are buying from natives, also known as ‘Omo Onile’ in Lagos, you have to first ensure that the land or property you are about to buy has not been acquired by the government.<\/span><\/p>\n When you have confirmed from the authorities that the land being sold to you is legally owned by the seller, then you should find out if the owner already has a Certificate of Ownership for the land or property.<\/span><\/p>\n The second entity that is legally authorised to sell land to you is the state government. If you are buying straight from the government, the process of obtaining your C of O would be initiated as soon as the sale is confirmed.<\/span><\/p>\n Obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy requires following a clearly spelt out procedure that takes a minimum of 21 working days. It is important to find out for sure that your land or property is not already under acquisition. Take a look at the steps below:<\/span><\/p>\n The state government has warned landowners and property owners to be wary of <\/span>fake and cloned Certificates of Occupancy<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n To obtain a Certificate of Occupancy for a state-owned land, you need the following:<\/span><\/p>\n The process of obtaining a non-state-owned land is different from what obtains for state-owned land. For non-state-owned lands, follow the steps below:<\/span><\/p>\n If you just acquired a non-state owned-land, you need the following documents to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy:<\/span><\/p>\n Obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy goes deeper than merely granting you ownership of the land. It also:<\/span><\/p>\n In 2015, the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode approved the release of Electronic Certificates of Occupancy and it has since been officially adopted. Prior to the approval, advertised schedule had been published in several publications.<\/span><\/p>\n To collect their C of O, the allottees listed in the schedule were expected to visit the Lands Bureau at the Alausa Secretariat in Ikeja for the collection of their Certificates of Occupancy.<\/span><\/p>\n The electronic Certificate of Ownership contains and transactional page, which shows all transactions that have taken place on the land. The good thing about this is that it allows you to assess the history of any land in question.<\/span><\/p>\n There are tricks that scam artists use in luring unsuspecting landowners and property buyers into their net. One way they do this is by cloning and forging Certificates of Occupancy. Some of them even go as far as using the fake certificates to obtain loans from banks and other credit finance organisations.<\/span><\/p>\n Many of those who perpetrate this fraud do it through third Legal Mortgages, which is executed without the need for the physical appearance of a guarantor. The end goal of this scam is to obtain bank loans without collateral.<\/span><\/p>\n There is, therefore, a need to carry out proper authentication of Certificates of Occupancy from the authorised government agency.<\/span><\/p>\n The electronic certificate does not in any way render the former yellow version worthless. it remains a very valuable land instrument and can be used as a legitimate document to conduct land and property related transactions until the time when they can be exchanged for the electronic copy of the certificate of ownership.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you know what a Certificate of Occupancy is or why it is deemed the most important document to a land owner or property buyer in Nigeria? A Certificate of Occupancy, also known as the C of O is a document issued by state governments in Nigeria to landowners and property buyers as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":4467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property-guides","types-in-depth-guide","intent-evergreen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3902"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4399,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3902\/revisions\/4399"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/privateproperty.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Buying](\"https:\/\/privateprop.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Buying-land-Certificate-of-Occupancy-5.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt Matters Who You are Buying Land from<\/h2>\n
![\"Certificate](\"https:\/\/privateprop.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Certificate-of-Occupancy-4.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSteps to Obtaining C of O for State-Owned Land<\/h2>\n
\n
Documents You Need for a State-Owned Land<\/h2>\n
\n
How to Obtain C of O for Non-State-Owned Land<\/h2>\n
\n
Documents you Need for a Non-State-Owned Land<\/h2>\n
\n
![\"Certificate](\"https:\/\/privateprop.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Certificate-of-Occupancy-2.jpg\")
<\/span>Benefits of Having a Certificate of Occupancy for your Land<\/h2>\n\n
The Electronic Certificate of Occupancy<\/h2>\n
![\"Certificate](\"https:\/\/privateprop.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Certificate-of-Occupancy-3.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHow do Scammers Trick Unsuspecting Landowners?<\/h2>\n
Final Thoughts<\/h2>\n