How to Get Governor’s Consent in Lagos State

Obtaining the Lagos state Governor’s consent to all land transactions in Lagos state is the means of perfecting title

The issue of getting a property can sometimes be very daunting if you have to think about the stress and many processes involved. First, you have to be sure what you’re buying is genuine and will not be sold to anyone else after your payment except by you.

Then you have to obtain proper title if none existed before or perfect the title it already has in your own favour.

The Land Use Act of 1978 puts all land in a State; town and rural area under the control of the Governor and Local Government Chairman respectively in trust for the people of the state.



Consequent upon this, section 22 of the Act then states that, “it shall not be lawful for the holder of a statutory Right of Occupancy granted by the Governor to alienate his Right of Occupancy or any part thereof by assignment, sublease etc without the prior consent of the Governor”

Simply put, even though a property has Certificate of Occupancy which makes the beneficiary the legal interest holder on the land for 99 years or the residue, if he decides to resell, mortgage or do anything with the property.
Since the land is held in trust by the state government, the Governor needs to approve to that transaction. Otherwise, the title that will pass is not perfected. This means that the final authority on landed matters is not aware of the transaction and the implications can be grievous at times especially if one of the parties to the transaction decides to be “funny”.
The process that accompanies the issuance of Governor’s consent is usually carried out in the Ministry of Lands.

Hence, the following documents are required for the purpose of obtaining Governor’s consent:

1. Dated letter of application with addresses and phone numbers.

2. A duly completed form 1c. The form must be dated and signed by the parties to the transaction and sworn to before a Magistrate or Notary Public

3. Certified true copy of Grantors title document

4. Grantors tax clearance certificate /developmental levy receipt,

5. Grantees’ tax clearance certificate/developmental levy receipt

6. 4 copies of duly executed sublease, deed of assignment (with survey plans attached in each copy), mortgages or power of attorney.

7. Chartable survey plans

8. Evidence of payment of charting, endorsement, and form 1c (#10,500)

9. Evidence of payment of ground rent/land use charge

10. Letter of confirmation of payment of capital contribution from NTDA in respect of Lekki peninsula schemes 1 and 2 Abijo GRA, Isheri North and other affected government schemes.

11. Building plan or photograph of the property.

In summary, having submitted your first set of deed of assignment and survey plan, internal scrutiny of the documents submitted is carried out.

There after, the documents are sent to the Surveyor General’s office for charting. If there are no defects in the survey plan, a clean report is sent to the Lands Bureau and a demand notice is issued to the applicant for the following fees:

• Consent fee-8% of assessed value of the property
• Capital gains tax-2% of assessed value of the property
• Stamp Duty fee-2% of assessed value of the property
• Registration fee -3% of assessed value of the property
• Current tax clearance certificates of the parties to the property transaction. If you have none, an assessment is raised immediately for you.

Then, your application (document) is sent to any of the commissioners to the government that are specifically designated for that purpose to append their signature. When this has been done, it is sent back to the applicant to do stamp duty and final registration.

Your deed of assignment then becomes Governor’s Consent; it is now a registered title.

It’s the registered title that is called deed.

In all this process takes at least three months to conclude if you pay your assessed fees on time and there are no queries in your file, though the state government has a target period of 30 days.

Please note that if you have defective title to the property, the consent process does not cure any defect in title.

Sourced- Nigeriarealestatehub