“Most of the lands supposedly acquired in the 40s, 50s and 60s in Lagos on a 99year lease are coming to an end”.
- If you have ownership of a piece of land , why paying tenement rate?
- Are land truly sold in Nigeria or are we simply selling 99year leaseholds ?
Most igbo businessmen and civil servants acquired landed property all over the country . Most of the lands supposedly acquired in the 40s 50s and 60s in Lagos on a 99year lease are coming to an end. Most of these landed properties have been developed but with less than 49years remaining for the leasehold.
What this means is the land have , in some cases less than 30 or 40 years to revert back to their original owners.
Most smart Igboman are selling their landed property acquired by the parents in the fifties because they may not be able to transfer the leasehold to their children.
So if you are in the market to buy land , you may just be acquiring a leasehold and not a piece of landed property in perpetuity.
If you must pay tenement rate to the original chieftaincy family especially in Lagos state, you must understand that payment of such rate is meant to ensure that you do not acquire the land by adverse possession under the law.
Adverse possession is a legal means for one to legally acquire a land belonging to another by occupying the land openly like he owns it for a statutory time period. Since the lease hold is usually for a 99year period, the owners run the risk of loosing their land by adverse possession , hence the requirement to pay tenement rate to show that you have a land Lord.
Some people are today buying these leaseholds that have only 20years remaining at enormous amounts of money believing they own the property in perpetuity.
If the only title document from any government body is a certificate of occupancy , that should tell you that even the government sees any document you have about the land not as ownership document but a leasehold that will expire in due time.
I see another round of igbo cry of marginalization in the next 20to 30 years when most of the Lagos chieftaincy families starts to take back their lands sold 99years before as the original leaseholds expire.
These raw lands have been developed with improvements in the millions , in most cases, and all will revert back to the owners of the land.
I hope I am wrong or the government finds way to address these impending problems .
But for now, please be careful in you acquisition of landed property outside your state and when acquiring one in Lagos, please find out the years remaining on the leasehold because it may help you with the price. A lease of 99 years should cost substantially more than one of just 20 years.
