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Why is this landowning family (a.k.a. “Omonile”) requesting that I pay them some money for foundation after I have spent millions to buy this property?
The person I bought the property from bought it directly from them.
Barrister, is there no way I can avoid paying this “foundation money”?
Is it even legal?
I often hear stories like this in the course of my work as a Solicitor advising real estate investors.
In Lagos State and many Nigerian States, these fees or levies charged by land owning families are not illegal.
What the law frowns at is unauthorized persons (people that do not have any interest in a property as owners) going about and obstructing people from developing their property until “foundation money” is paid to them.
As long as a property has not been registered (i.e. there is no Certificate of Occupancy – C of O or Governor’s Consent covering the property), it is still subject to traditional/customary system of use, control and transfer.
One key aspect of our traditional land ownership system in Nigeria is payment of customary fee by the purchaser of a land to the original land owning family.
This customary fee is not rent though.
It is a way of acknowledging the ownership right of the land owners.
In some other instances a family that won a case in court declaring them the rightful owners of a community/family land has the right to demand a certain levy from the buyers who bought their landed properties from the wrong family, notwithstanding that the buyers have already fully paid for the property.
This is known as ratification in law.
Ratification in land transactions is simply a process whereby the original owners of a land allows a buyer to you occupy a property subject to payment of a certain fee to them.
The purpose of the ratification fee is to officially approve the sale by the buyer who bought the property from person/persons who are not the original owners of the land.
Ratification is a way of preventing a buyer from losing his property altogether because in law anyone that is declared the rightful owner of a property by a Court, automatically owns all the development on the land.
What should you do if you plan to buy property that is not registered from a family or community
I usually advise real estate investors to budget some money to pay “omoniles.”
Once you are sure of the family that originally owns the land, you should promptly pay the customary fee/ratification fee immediately after payment of the purchase price.
This will ensure that your development of the property is not hindered by these “Omoniles.”
However, if unauthorized persons are threatening to grab your property or prevent you from developing your property because you have not paid “omonile” fee to them, please quickly contact a real estate Solicitor who will advise you on the right legal step to take in the circumstances.
Please feel free to send a direct message to my inbox if you need help on this issue or any other property related issue.
Sesi Hundeyin is a Property Lawyer, writes from Lagos
