There are so many Real Estate companies in Nigeria more especially in
Popular cities in Nigeria offering Nigerians the opportunity to own
homes through installment payment to help an average Nigerian balance
his budget monthly and still have that desire to own their own lands or
homes. While i appreciate their efforts to promote this laudable idea of
providing affordable housing, i am also appalled with the level of
scams, lack of information and deceitfulness that most of these real
estate developers practice to hood wink people into paying huge monthly
monetary installments without performing their own part of the bargain
when the chips are down. Every day i get one phone call, email or the
other asking me to verify these lands offered up for sale by these
companies and whenever i venture out to engage a surgical due diligence
on them, i am shocked at their responses and what they intend to offer
to .
Most Nigerians just fall for their beautiful marketing strategies to buy these lands without questioning the source of their title and what they are to get in return. You hear marketers on behalf of these estates promoting the benefits of a new estate that is close to a proposed international airport or free trade zone and that the futuristic estate would have good roads, hospitals, schools, boreholes etc that would generally make you believe that you might be purchasing a future Lekki phase One with just a minimum of N25,000 monthly for 2 to 3 years but what they fail to tell you how it can be realised and the likely authentic documents they possess to make it materialize and feasible.
With this in mind, i am calling out all the real estate developers in Nigeria to change their ways and be accountable to the buyer/subscriber. We are in a season of change and we shouldn’t wait for politicians to change when the real transgressions are right in front of us. Every existing installment payment Land or property buyer with a real estate company or potential future subscriber whether in Lagos or Ogun, Portharcourt or Abuja should ask the Real Estate Companies these series of questions before you pay the next dime to them. They owe you this much since they are collecting your funds:
1. Every Subscriber must ask the Real estate Company to show you proof how they obtained the authority to market these lands to you. They must show you how they purchased it, what documents were given to them as proof, who sold it to them, how many acres or hectares of land they bought, How they derived title to sell to you and which ones are can be confirmed at the land registry of your state.
Most of these Real estate companies are fond of pushing beautiful marketers in your face to tell you all the attractive things about this estate but when you grill them with some of the questions i highlighted above, they begin to squeeze their faces like my towel as if you are offending their intelligence. They would then refer you to the legal secretary or the M.D of the company and unsavory stories would begin to emanate in a very hostile way. What is so hard in sighting physically the documents the real estate company is claiming to be its source of authority to sell to you? Would you buy a car from a car sales man and not inspect the proof of ownership before you buy it? Sometimes you would hear very odd excuse such as “We are not allowed to show anybody these documents so that fraudulent people won't reproduce it"…What a load of Codswallop!!! That shouldn’t be the subscribers business. If they want your money, you should show you their proof of title and those who sold it to them so that you can investigate it.
The hazard of not asking this important question is that you might be buying a plot of land that has existing family land wahala, court cases, lands under acquisition that could be revoked anytime or buying a land that belongs to another group of people and you would be liable for any potential judgment against the real estate company to pay millions of Naira to the true owner in future. Don’t let the stubbornness of the Estate marketer prevent you from doing the needful. If they fail to furnish you with these information’s, please either you cancel your subscription with them if you are an existing subscriber or you don’t do business with them if you are a new potential buyer.
2. Every Subscriber must know and demand in advance the Contract of Sale the real estate developer intends to give you: A general misconception with most of these Real estate developers is that it is when you finishing paying their installment fees, you would be given the contract of sale between you and their company. This is very wrong in principle. Why should a contract of sale be one sided without the subscriber knowing what he has paid for and the contents of what he or she might be signing in advance. This job has been designated to the beautiful marketers to elucidate the Contract of Sale for you in very beautiful terms and to assure you there is no problem after you pay but i have seen so many hidden and dangerous clauses inserted in the Contract of Sale that would not favor any potential subscriber once they know about the contents.
They restrict you from so many things that you should normally get for free if you were buying a private land, charge you very high hidden service charges for so many mundane things, Bill you for this future development and that development levies, restrict you from owning this or doing that, force you into using their staffs, workers and allied partners before you can do anything, deduct monthly or yearly fees so odd things and so on. It’s crazy when you sit down to read these contract of sale and after you have paid and realize your mistake, you feel much cheated but you can’t do anything about it because you have signed your future away legally.
A classic example of this problem can be seen in the refund clause of these contracts of sale. Since no real estate company wants you to stop payment, they refuse to explain to you or allow you read the penalties for stopping payment. A popular real estate company in Lagos that has its adverts splashed everywhere has one of these hidden refund clauses that would make you go bonkers and run away from them once you default in payment. They charge over 10% of the amount already paid and you would receive that money 3-6 months after depending on the availability of funds in their coffers. So it’s even possible for you to wait for more than 2 years before you even receive your money back depending on the availability of funds and you can’t do anything about it because you refused to scrutinize a copy of their contract of sale before you began to make payment. To make matters worse, if they encounter any problem, judgment, liquidation issues, raising of new capital issues etc your money and imaginary land is gone and its all legal because you refused to ask for the Contract of Sale to negotiate it according to your own terms.
3. Final Documents, Ownership and Possession: The ultimate scam most of these real estate developers pull can be traced to this part. After payment has been made, you are entitled to get a letter of allocation, deed of assignment, survey plan and your receipt. You also entitled to know exactly where your plot of land is located on the layout and for you to take immediate possession but i know there are Millions of you out there that can testify that you have been very serious victims of this foul play by some dubious real estate developers. They would give you a thousand and one stories why you cannot be allocated your land immediately, they would give you stories why the agreed price that should be paid for your legal documents has changed and why you should pay a higher fee, they would give you stories why your survey plan would take more than One month for it to be ready when an average survey plan shouldn’t take less than a week. They would give you stories why your deed of assignment is taking forever to be ready and most importantly, you would know you have a land on paper but in real life you can neither locate the land nor take possession of that land.
The way out of this is to make sure that you do a personal site visit before you attempt to give them a dime of your money. You should know the personal plot and block number they intend to sell to you and it must be documented in the Contract of sale and to hold them liable if they renegade or attempt to change it. You should get a real estate lawyer from the moment you intend to start paying to peruse a sample Contract of Sale or Deed of Assignment and the lawyer should be the one disturbing them every day for these documents so that they know you are protected legally and they won't see you as one of the naive Ones that they can deceive. You must pressurize them for the survey plan and the moment you make full payment, you must obtain your receipt immediately.
With respect to taking possession, you must slug it out with them. Maximum 2weeks after payment you must be shown your land and you must take possession. Anything beyond 2 weeks without any concrete and reasonable explanation that makes sense must lead to a show of force and to cause maximum problem with them because they have your money tied down with nothing to show. Do not give them any breathing space and don’t be friendly with them. It’s a business to collect your money and it’s your business to obtain your land. They are not your family members, partners or friends and you shouldn’t treat them as one. Most of the problems i have seen emanating from Real estate developers and subscribers could be traced to the friendly way these transactions were consummated at the beginning. In exchange for the smiling and humble face, you’re first in line to be treated badly when the chips are down. Those they perceive that would ferment Boko Haram Wahala with them would be treated with dignity and attended to first.
These are some of the Changes we expect this new democratic dispensation from Real Estate Developers towards their Subscribers. It’s time to stop these sharp practice of getting rich quick with other people’s funds and savings. Most of you have no idea what these People go through when they spend years to pay these installment fees with their last garri Naira and adhere to it strictly so that they can become landlords only for these Real estate companies to erect stumbling blocks along the way or dash their hopes by not allocating them these lands or furnishing them with good title. Its wickedness and it should stop. As much as you want to make profit you should bear in mind the blood and sweat of these Buyers praying day and night for your companies to fulfill your own part of the agreement. The more you tell buyers the truth and open up your documents, the more they trust you, would do business with you and take that risk if any knowing that you have their best interest at heart.
Please Change or we expose you and flush you out the system and you would still pay damages for your misrepresentations.
If you have any experience with any bad or dubious real estate company that is playing games with people's money or depriving them of their landed properties please expose them here. Most of them are heavily represented on Nairaland and if calling them out for the whole world to see would make them change so be it. For the more complex ones I would take my time to investigate them and bring them to book. This nonsense must stop. We can't continue like this and blame politicians for all our woes when we are duping innocent Nigerians left right and centre.
Most Nigerians just fall for their beautiful marketing strategies to buy these lands without questioning the source of their title and what they are to get in return. You hear marketers on behalf of these estates promoting the benefits of a new estate that is close to a proposed international airport or free trade zone and that the futuristic estate would have good roads, hospitals, schools, boreholes etc that would generally make you believe that you might be purchasing a future Lekki phase One with just a minimum of N25,000 monthly for 2 to 3 years but what they fail to tell you how it can be realised and the likely authentic documents they possess to make it materialize and feasible.
With this in mind, i am calling out all the real estate developers in Nigeria to change their ways and be accountable to the buyer/subscriber. We are in a season of change and we shouldn’t wait for politicians to change when the real transgressions are right in front of us. Every existing installment payment Land or property buyer with a real estate company or potential future subscriber whether in Lagos or Ogun, Portharcourt or Abuja should ask the Real Estate Companies these series of questions before you pay the next dime to them. They owe you this much since they are collecting your funds:
1. Every Subscriber must ask the Real estate Company to show you proof how they obtained the authority to market these lands to you. They must show you how they purchased it, what documents were given to them as proof, who sold it to them, how many acres or hectares of land they bought, How they derived title to sell to you and which ones are can be confirmed at the land registry of your state.
Most of these Real estate companies are fond of pushing beautiful marketers in your face to tell you all the attractive things about this estate but when you grill them with some of the questions i highlighted above, they begin to squeeze their faces like my towel as if you are offending their intelligence. They would then refer you to the legal secretary or the M.D of the company and unsavory stories would begin to emanate in a very hostile way. What is so hard in sighting physically the documents the real estate company is claiming to be its source of authority to sell to you? Would you buy a car from a car sales man and not inspect the proof of ownership before you buy it? Sometimes you would hear very odd excuse such as “We are not allowed to show anybody these documents so that fraudulent people won't reproduce it"…What a load of Codswallop!!! That shouldn’t be the subscribers business. If they want your money, you should show you their proof of title and those who sold it to them so that you can investigate it.
The hazard of not asking this important question is that you might be buying a plot of land that has existing family land wahala, court cases, lands under acquisition that could be revoked anytime or buying a land that belongs to another group of people and you would be liable for any potential judgment against the real estate company to pay millions of Naira to the true owner in future. Don’t let the stubbornness of the Estate marketer prevent you from doing the needful. If they fail to furnish you with these information’s, please either you cancel your subscription with them if you are an existing subscriber or you don’t do business with them if you are a new potential buyer.
2. Every Subscriber must know and demand in advance the Contract of Sale the real estate developer intends to give you: A general misconception with most of these Real estate developers is that it is when you finishing paying their installment fees, you would be given the contract of sale between you and their company. This is very wrong in principle. Why should a contract of sale be one sided without the subscriber knowing what he has paid for and the contents of what he or she might be signing in advance. This job has been designated to the beautiful marketers to elucidate the Contract of Sale for you in very beautiful terms and to assure you there is no problem after you pay but i have seen so many hidden and dangerous clauses inserted in the Contract of Sale that would not favor any potential subscriber once they know about the contents.
They restrict you from so many things that you should normally get for free if you were buying a private land, charge you very high hidden service charges for so many mundane things, Bill you for this future development and that development levies, restrict you from owning this or doing that, force you into using their staffs, workers and allied partners before you can do anything, deduct monthly or yearly fees so odd things and so on. It’s crazy when you sit down to read these contract of sale and after you have paid and realize your mistake, you feel much cheated but you can’t do anything about it because you have signed your future away legally.
A classic example of this problem can be seen in the refund clause of these contracts of sale. Since no real estate company wants you to stop payment, they refuse to explain to you or allow you read the penalties for stopping payment. A popular real estate company in Lagos that has its adverts splashed everywhere has one of these hidden refund clauses that would make you go bonkers and run away from them once you default in payment. They charge over 10% of the amount already paid and you would receive that money 3-6 months after depending on the availability of funds in their coffers. So it’s even possible for you to wait for more than 2 years before you even receive your money back depending on the availability of funds and you can’t do anything about it because you refused to scrutinize a copy of their contract of sale before you began to make payment. To make matters worse, if they encounter any problem, judgment, liquidation issues, raising of new capital issues etc your money and imaginary land is gone and its all legal because you refused to ask for the Contract of Sale to negotiate it according to your own terms.
3. Final Documents, Ownership and Possession: The ultimate scam most of these real estate developers pull can be traced to this part. After payment has been made, you are entitled to get a letter of allocation, deed of assignment, survey plan and your receipt. You also entitled to know exactly where your plot of land is located on the layout and for you to take immediate possession but i know there are Millions of you out there that can testify that you have been very serious victims of this foul play by some dubious real estate developers. They would give you a thousand and one stories why you cannot be allocated your land immediately, they would give you stories why the agreed price that should be paid for your legal documents has changed and why you should pay a higher fee, they would give you stories why your survey plan would take more than One month for it to be ready when an average survey plan shouldn’t take less than a week. They would give you stories why your deed of assignment is taking forever to be ready and most importantly, you would know you have a land on paper but in real life you can neither locate the land nor take possession of that land.
The way out of this is to make sure that you do a personal site visit before you attempt to give them a dime of your money. You should know the personal plot and block number they intend to sell to you and it must be documented in the Contract of sale and to hold them liable if they renegade or attempt to change it. You should get a real estate lawyer from the moment you intend to start paying to peruse a sample Contract of Sale or Deed of Assignment and the lawyer should be the one disturbing them every day for these documents so that they know you are protected legally and they won't see you as one of the naive Ones that they can deceive. You must pressurize them for the survey plan and the moment you make full payment, you must obtain your receipt immediately.
With respect to taking possession, you must slug it out with them. Maximum 2weeks after payment you must be shown your land and you must take possession. Anything beyond 2 weeks without any concrete and reasonable explanation that makes sense must lead to a show of force and to cause maximum problem with them because they have your money tied down with nothing to show. Do not give them any breathing space and don’t be friendly with them. It’s a business to collect your money and it’s your business to obtain your land. They are not your family members, partners or friends and you shouldn’t treat them as one. Most of the problems i have seen emanating from Real estate developers and subscribers could be traced to the friendly way these transactions were consummated at the beginning. In exchange for the smiling and humble face, you’re first in line to be treated badly when the chips are down. Those they perceive that would ferment Boko Haram Wahala with them would be treated with dignity and attended to first.
These are some of the Changes we expect this new democratic dispensation from Real Estate Developers towards their Subscribers. It’s time to stop these sharp practice of getting rich quick with other people’s funds and savings. Most of you have no idea what these People go through when they spend years to pay these installment fees with their last garri Naira and adhere to it strictly so that they can become landlords only for these Real estate companies to erect stumbling blocks along the way or dash their hopes by not allocating them these lands or furnishing them with good title. Its wickedness and it should stop. As much as you want to make profit you should bear in mind the blood and sweat of these Buyers praying day and night for your companies to fulfill your own part of the agreement. The more you tell buyers the truth and open up your documents, the more they trust you, would do business with you and take that risk if any knowing that you have their best interest at heart.
Please Change or we expose you and flush you out the system and you would still pay damages for your misrepresentations.
If you have any experience with any bad or dubious real estate company that is playing games with people's money or depriving them of their landed properties please expose them here. Most of them are heavily represented on Nairaland and if calling them out for the whole world to see would make them change so be it. For the more complex ones I would take my time to investigate them and bring them to book. This nonsense must stop. We can't continue like this and blame politicians for all our woes when we are duping innocent Nigerians left right and centre.
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