Reasons Why Prospective Land Buyers Fall Prey For Property Scams

This article is propelled by daily complaints by prospective buyers that are swindled by unscrupulous land sellers.

People come to us all the time with a view to seeking our assistance in recouping their lost money in a dubious land transaction. The problem we encounter now and then is that majority of the people including the elites approach the professionals after they had lost their hard earned money to 419 sellers or when they have committed certain amount to the contract. They want to avoid engaging experts so that they will reduce their cost but ironically they end up losing everything. We hereby encourage all the prospective buyers to read this before buying a landed property.

PRE CONTRACT ENQUIRIES
The first thing a buyer should do when he is interested in purchasing a landed property is to engage the seller/owner in discussion to elicit some facts which will assist him in carrying out search into the property
The following questions are some of the checklists of what to enquire about before a buyer commences his investigation:
Who is the bonafide owner of the property?
Who is selling the property?
From whom did the seller acquire his title
Why is he selling?
What are the document that the property has?
Are all relevant taxes been paid?
Is there any occupier on the property?
Has the necessary consent been obtained?
Have relevant land charges and rent been paid?
It is not advisable to buy land without verifying the owner, the land and the documents that the seller have on the property. What usually happen during this stage is that the owner or his agent will come up with the antics that there are other buyers who are interested in paying for the same property with a view to excite the buyer into paying without conducting the proper search.
Our advice is always that nobody should be over excited into paying before conducting his search no matter how long it takes and no matter how related the buyer might be to him. it is the buyer that has something to lose not the seller or his agent. Buyers should be patient and not be in haste because a hasty climber has a sudden fall. The seller is not under any obligation to disclose all the facts in relation to the property thereof. The buyer should always remember the principle of caveat emptor.
The buyer must take his time to conduct search on the land to determine whether the property is encumbered or not; and to know how the buyer acquires /possesses the land and why he wants to sell it. Buyers should not rely on reasons given by the seller as to why he intends to sell, it is only an independent search and investigation that can show the true nature of the land and its owner.
Sometimes, a seller intends to sell and transfer liability to the buyer because there are two persons (especially family land) laying claim to the ownership of the land. The phobia, that the seller’s original owner may lose out, will prompt sellers into disposing of their land. Sometimes if there is pending litigation on the said land, the owner quickly sells it off to shift the burden to the unsuspecting buyer. Sometimes the owner may buy a bad and incurably defective land e.g a land on pipeline or sometime a land under acquisition.
Where the property is being offered for sale by any other person apart from the real owner, then buyer should ask for power of attorney which authorizes the person to sell.
If the land in question belongs to a family, all the principal members must consent to the sale or they execute a power of attorney signed by all their members authorizing their representative to transfer and execute deed of assignment on their behalf.
At this stage the buyer must not believe all what the seller told him hook, line and sinker because if there is /are defect (s) on the property the seller will never disclose it no matter how close the buyer might be to the seller.

THE OWNER/SELLER
Before binding himself by a contract, one of the important things to be investigated by the buyer is the accl