TIPS FOR ACQUIRING NIGERIAN PROPRETY

1. Use the “Search facility” in the Nigerian Property Database to identify the property of your choice. Click here

2. If you find any property that interests you, you should contact us to register your interest. You can do this by completing the online Property Enquiry Form or complete the registration form at our offices and pay the nominal registration fee of £50 or its equivalent in US$ or the Nigerian Naira at the prevailing exchange rate. The payment of the registration fee entitles you to arrange viewings for up to five properties. Our decision to charge a registration fee has been necessitated by the need to weed out time wasters and unserious individuals who make frivolous enquiries about our services.

3. Although the adverts, in most cases, include large, colour, digital photographs and a full description which gives you an idea of whether a viewing would be worthwhile we would still suggest that you arrange viewing the property of your choice, at least through a friend or any other third party. Please note that the cost of arranging for viewing will be borne by you.
 
4. After viewing, you should put in an offer and if it is accepted by the vendor you then proceed to instruct your solicitor to get in touch with us. We would advise that you appoint a solicitor conversant with conveyancing in Nigeria. In the alternative you can instruct us to handle the legal documentation on your behalf through our solicitor’s resident in Nigeria. You will subsequently be required to make a deposit of £200 or equivalent to cover our recoverable expenses which include costs of postage, courier etc. An account of all recoverable expenses will be made and sent to you at the end of the transaction. If you must put in more funds to cover our recoverable expenses you will be informed before such costs are incurred. Your solicitor calls the vendor’s solicitors, requests for copies of the title deeds and starts contract negotiations.

5. We would recommend that you, at this stage, request for a surveyor’s report on the property. This is necessary because if the surveyor spots something wrong with the property it will give you the opportunity to renegotiate the price or pull out altogether. While this may not be necessary on new properties we would strongly advise that you request for this report if you are buying an old property. The cost of arranging for a surveyor’s report will be borne by you.

6. The solicitor handling the transaction on your behalf conducts searches, checks inclusion of fixtures and fittings etc and contract details with the vendor’s solicitors.2

7. Depending on the payment terms for the property and whether you are applying for mortgage finance, you may be required at this stage to pay a deposit depending on the payment terms. The deposit is held by us or your solicitor until exchange is made. The payment of the deposit is to confirm your interest in the property.

8. Contracts are signed and exchanged with the vendor’s solicitor. Deposit is transferred to the vendor’s solicitor or to the vendor’s designated bank account. If you pull out once the deposit is paid you may lose your deposit. At the time the contracts are exchanged a completion date for the payment of the balance of the purchase price is set.

9. If you are getting mortgage finance you should inform your mortgage lender of the completion date and be sure that they will be able to disburse funds on that date.

10. On completion date, balance is transferred to the vendor’s account and contracts are exchanged. Before this date the Deed of Transfer would have been prepared and singed by the parties.

11. Your solicitor then takes steps to perfect and register your title at the Lands Registry.

Note
The above steps are guides only. We do not claim that all property transactions conducted through us will follow the steps described above. We recommend that you seek advice from your solicitor or other professional about the steps to be involved in any property transaction you may be involved in.