Geoffizzy LAND Matters

1. FREEHOLD Meaning:

Free Hold or fee simple is the estate in land that a person has when the lands are given to him and his heirs absolutely, without any end or limit put to his estate. Land held in fee simple can be conveyed to whomsoever its owner pleases; it can be mortgaged or put up as security as well.

[2] The owner(s) of real property in fee simple title have the right to own the property during their lifetime and typically have a say in determining who gets to own the property after their death. In a sense, one might say fee simple owners "own" the property "forever"; however, only holders of an allodial title on land really do own the land forever, and the land is not subject to property tax.

Historically, estates could be limited in time, such as a life estate, which is an interest in lands that terminates upon the grantee's (or another person's) death, even if the land had been granted to a third party, or a term of years (a lease for a specified term, such as in an estate for years). It also could be limited in the way that it was inherited, such as by what was called an "entailment" which created a fee tail. Traditionally, fee tail was created by words of grant such as "to N. and the male heirs of his body", which would restrict those who could inherit the property. When all those heirs ran out the property would revert to the original grantor's heirs. Most common law countries have abolished entailment by statute

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fee_simple

What it Means is that a freehold also known as a Fee simple estate gives you the owner of that land the ultimate right to occupy, own, possess and transfer that land without anybody claiming any form of right on it and it can be transfered to your children and childrens children for life eternity.

2. LEASEHOLD ESTATE:

A leasehold estate is an ownership interest in land in which a lessee or a tenant holds real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord.

Leasehold is a form of property tenure where one party buys the right to occupy land or a building for a given length of time. As lease is a legal estate, leasehold estate can be bought and sold on the open market. A leasehold thus differs from a freehold where the ownership of a property is purchased outright and thereafter held for an indeterminate length of time, and also differs from a tenancy where a property is let on a periodic basis such as weekly or monthly.

Until the end of the lease period (often measured in decades; a 99 year lease is quite common) the leaseholder has the right to remain in occupation as an assured tenant paying an agreed rent to the owner. Terms of the agreement are contained in a lease, which has elements of contract and property law intertwined.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leasehold_estate

What this Means is that you have a property that has been given to you to occupy for a given period of time which is being owned by some lord, governor or person.

Now in relation to the 1978 Land Use Act, it simply stripped possession of land from individuals in a freehold or fee simple system that has being practiced way back by our forefathers till 1978 and vested all Lands in the State in the hands of the Governor and any property you buy directly has to be granted to you through a certificate of Occupancy issued under the hands of the Governor of the state hereby making you a tenant in that land to that governor for 99 years and renewable after 99 years.

This process only works once the Certificate of Occupancy is being granted to that Land and from then onwards, the Governor knows that your a tenant on its land from the day the certificate of occupancy was issued in your name and the 99 years begins to count down slowly. In Law it is known as the "99 years Unexpired Residue clause"

For example, if you bought a land in the Year 2000 and you were granted and issued a Certificate of Occupancy in your name in the year 2000 also, the 99 years starts to count and that land will not expire until the year 2099 where the whole process of renewal to get a new certificate of occupancy will arise in your name again.

If in the year 2009, you now decided to sell that land to Me, the certificate of occupancy in my name will no longer be 99 years for me but 99 years minus 9 years which means i have 90 more years to enjoy that property until renewal. If i now decide to sell that property in 2049 to Mukina 2, she will only have 49 years unexpired residue to enjoy that land until renewal.

What the Government does with the land use act is to make sure it has a steady source of income from all the lands vested in the state and to know which lands are available and those that arent. I agree this system is quite extortionist in approach because the government bullies land owners in grabbing lands unduely and stating its under acquisition for no just cause and it takes ages for compensation talkless of the time and money to be spent getting a certificate of occupancy and governors consent.

Luckily since the Land Use Act was passed in 1978, There has been no need for anyone to experience the 99 years renewal clause because its until 2077 before the first case of renewal will apply and then we would really know the outcome or potential dangers of the land use act but for now, you shouldnt worry yourself about anything yet but just to obtain the necessary documents and be free from their wahala.

Deed of Lease and Deed of Assignment.

The use of Deed of Lease was quite common from the passage of the Land Use Act in 1978 to transfer property especially government property in the Ikoyi, Surulere, Victoria Island Axis from 1978 to the the Middle 1980's. These lands were mostly federal government lands and high profile lands and it was the first foray into the issuance of the certificate of occupancies for the first time to people. The Government was determined to let people know that the Land Use Act was in Force and for people to know that from then hence forth all lands were leases to the people with the government being the landlord but as time went on, due to the complexities of our property law system whereby you cannot ignore the issue of communal or family owned land, these deed of lease encountered many problems because these lands did not regulate their documents to get a certificate of occupancy but the land has to be transfered somehow either to a family member after death or through a gift to another or an immediate sale to a person.

Gradually it changed from being a deed of lease to a deed of Assignment because an Assignment means "To Transfer" and it was in that deed of Assignment all the important information needed to trace the history of the land could be derived from which is a very important document under the law to trace how the property transfered from Mr Lagaja down to Mr Alariwo. It gained popular acceptance amongst the local communal structures and families who had to knowledge or intelligence to figure out the whole Land Use Act fiasco.

Since then the deed of Assignment has become a very popular way and mode of transfering property from A to B that is legally acceptable (But certain terms and Conditions apply only known to your lawyer that makes it admissible in Court and the land registry unless it will be discarded as a worthless piece of paper grin)

If you see any deed of lease today in respect of buying properties, it should be the old colonial properties in the 1950's down to the 1980's and is no longer fashionable today in transfering property .

Another way you can see it today is if you are buying a land, house or property directly from the government and it is issuing you the certificate of Occupancy Directly, then the Deed of Lease will be in perfect order.

A deed of Assignment cannot and will not express a leasehold of the 99years unexpired residue unless that property has a certificate of occupancy. If there is no certificate of occupancy, there is nothing to show that the property is free from government knowledge and the Land Use Act applies to that land that there is a lease of 99 years. In fact most lands without a certificate of occupancy are very dangerous lands to buy because of the inherent wahala that accompanies it hence i always advice for the owners to go and get their certificate of occupancy or better still purchase a land with a global C/O or Certificate of Occupancy.
Cheers!

Leasehold estate - Wikipedia A leasehold estate is an ownership of a temporary right to hold land or property in which a lessee or a tenant holds rights of real property by some form of title from a lessor or landlord. Although a tenant does hold rights to real property, a leasehold estate is typically considered personal prope...