Every experienced property lawyer in Nigeria has the same story, told with slightly different names. A client arrives, distressed, having paid for land. Something has gone wrong. A rival claimant, a government notice, a second buyer with the same plot number. The lawyer asks one question: did you conduct a search before you paid? And the answer, almost always, is no. The second question is always the same too: would you like to hear what the search would have told you? By then, of course, it is an academic question, and an expensive one.
The search is the single most effective thing a Nigerian land buyer can do, and it is also the most commonly skipped. The reasons people skip it are always the same. The seller seemed trustworthy. A relative introduced them. The estate had a big signboard and a fenced entrance. The price was going up on Monday. The documents looked very official. There was no time.
Every one of those reasons is a feeling. A search is a fact. It costs a small fraction of the price of the land, takes days rather than months in most states, and is the only way to find out what the government’s own records say about the specific piece of earth you are about to spend your savings on. This guide explains what a search actually is, the different kinds, how to instruct one properly, how to read the result, and what each possible answer should make you do. It pairs with our complete guide to buying land in Nigeria.
What a search actually is
A search is a formal enquiry made at a government office, asking what the official records show about a particular parcel of land or a particular title document.
There are really two enquiries, and a careful buyer runs both.
A title search at the land registry. This examines the file relating to the title. Who is the recorded holder? What is the history of transactions on it? Are there registered encumbrances such as a mortgage? Is there a caveat, meaning somebody has formally warned that they claim an interest? Is there a pending transaction?
A charting or survey search at the office of the Surveyor-General. This takes the coordinates from your survey plan and places them on the state’s official map. It answers the physical questions. Is this parcel free of government acquisition? Is it committed to a scheme? Is it inside an excision? Does it sit on a road setback or a drainage reserve? Does it overlap another registered parcel?
Neither one replaces the other. The registry knows the paperwork. The Surveyor-General knows the ground. You want both.
What you need before you can search
To instruct a search you need certain items from the seller. A seller who will not release these before payment is a seller telling you something.
- A copy of the survey plan, with coordinates and beacon numbers.
- A copy of the title document, whether a Certificate of Occupancy, a registered deed, or an excision reference and gazette details.
- The plot number, block, layout or estate name, and local government area.
- The name of the current recorded holder as it appears on the title.
- Any prior deeds in the chain, if the land has changed hands before.
That last item matters more than people realise. If land moved from A to B to C, and C is selling to you, you need to see every link. A break anywhere in the chain is a break in your title.
How to instruct a search properly
Use your own lawyer. This is the whole point. The seller’s lawyer, the estate’s in-house lawyer and the lawyer your agent recommends all have a relationship with the other side. Find a property lawyer independently, ideally one who practises regularly in that state, and instruct them yourself.
Give clear written instructions. Ask specifically for a title search and a charting search, and ask for a written report addressed to you, not a phone call. A written report is something you can rely on, keep and, if it turns out to be negligent, hold somebody to.
Ask what it will cost up front. There is an official fee at the registry and a professional fee for your lawyer. Both are modest against the price of land.
Allow time. Some states have digitised systems and can produce results quickly. Others are slower. Build this into your negotiation rather than letting it be used against you.
Do it before money moves. If you must secure the plot, pay only a small deposit under a written agreement that says it is fully refundable if the search discloses an adverse result. Get that in writing before you transfer anything.
Reading the result
Here is what the answers mean and what you should do about each.
| Result | Meaning | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Free from acquisition, title clean, holder matches seller | The best outcome | Proceed |
| Under government acquisition | The state has taken this land | Stop |
| Committed to a government scheme | Earmarked for a specific public purpose | Stop |
| Within an excision, gazette confirmed | Released to the community, saleable | Proceed with the normal customary checks |
| Falls in a road setback or drainage reserve | Part or all is unbuildable | Ask for a different plot, or renegotiate hard |
| Overlaps another registered parcel | Two titles over the same ground | Stop |
| Caveat or pending litigation registered | Somebody claims an interest | Stop until fully explained by your lawyer |
| Mortgage registered against the title | The land secures a debt | Only proceed with a formal release from the lender |
| No record found at all | The title may not exist as described | Stop, and ask why |
The instruction that appears most often in that table is “stop”. That is not pessimism. It is the entire value of a search. You are paying a small sum for the right to walk away before it is expensive to walk away.
The searches beyond the registry
Two more enquiries are worth making, and neither costs much.
A company search. If you are buying from a company, a search at the Corporate Affairs Commission tells you whether the company genuinely exists, when it was registered, who the directors and shareholders are, and whether the person signing has authority. A “real estate company” that was registered three months ago and shares a director with two dissolved companies is worth knowing about. See how to check if a real estate company is real.
A neighbourhood search. Informal, unofficial and remarkably effective. Go to the land on a normal working day. Speak to at least three separate neighbours. Ask who owns the plot, who they bought their own land from, whether there has ever been a dispute, and whether anyone has been on the land recently. Neighbours have no reason to lie to you and often know things no file contains.
In some states you should also enquire at the physical planning authority about the approved layout and the permitted land use, particularly if you intend to build something commercial.
Timing: the negotiation problem
Sellers frequently resist searches, and their argument is always about timing. Other buyers are interested. The offer expires. Prices are being reviewed.
Handle it like this.
Say plainly that you are a serious buyer, that your money is ready, and that you conduct a search on every purchase without exception. Offer a small holding deposit against a written agreement that reserves the plot for a defined number of days and is fully refundable if the search discloses any adverse finding. That is a normal commercial arrangement and any genuine seller will accept some version of it.
If the seller refuses any verification period at all, you have learned the most important fact in the transaction. A time limit designed to prevent a search is not a sales tactic. It is the product.
A worked comparison
Consider two buyers, each looking at a plot priced at 8,000,000 naira.
Buyer A pays for a title search, a charting search and a company search. Total cost, including her lawyer’s fee, comes to a few hundred thousand naira. The charting shows the plot falls within a road setback for a planned expansion. She walks away and buys elsewhere.
Buyer B skips it because the agent was recommended by a church member. He pays the full 8,000,000, plus about 1,500,000 in survey, deed and levies. Three years later, road works begin and he loses a substantial portion of his frontage.
Buyer A spent a fraction of one per cent of the purchase price to avoid the loss. That is the arithmetic of a search, and it is why professionals never skip it, on any deal, at any price.
Final thoughts
There is no clever secret to buying land safely in Nigeria. There is no special contact, no insider relationship, no particular estate that is automatically safe. There is only verification, done before payment, by somebody who works for you.
A search will not make a bad location good. It will not tell you whether the road will come or whether the price will rise. What it does is narrow enormously the range of things that can go catastrophically wrong. It tells you whether the land exists as described, whether the person selling it is the person the state recognises, whether the government has plans for it, and whether anybody else has already claimed it.
Instruct both searches, the title and the charting. Use your own lawyer. Get a written report. Add the company search if a company is selling and the neighbourhood search always. Structure your deposit so that an adverse finding gets your money back. And if the result says stop, stop, even if you have already fallen in love with the plot and told your family about it.
The land you did not buy will never cost you anything. The land you bought without checking can cost you everything.
