There are other relevant documents you must have as house owner apart from C of O — Expert

ESV. Biodun Olapade is the CEO of Biodun Olapade & Co, a registered and professional firm of Estate Surveyors and Valuers that offers services in estate agency and auctioneering, property and facility management, valuation for all purposes, land use and advisory services. It is a registered firm with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). The partners are members of professional body of Nigeria Institute of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), member, Estate Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria (ESVARBON), and licensed to practice within the length and breadth of Nigeria, with its headquarters in Ikeja and branches in Abuja, Port Harcourt and Ibadan. The firm has been in existence for almost three decades. 

Biodun Olapade, M.Sc, apart from being a member of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators of Nigeria, he is also a certified Mediator with Lagos State Multidoor Courthouse. In this interview with Wilson Adekumola, he highlights relevant documents a house owner must have apart from Certificate of Occupancy (C of O).  Excerpts:

What is your assessment of the real estate sector in Nigeria since you have been into it?

Big question! As a service provider, it is interesting in that here in Nigeria, clients do not appreciate professional services since knowledge expressed formally in opinion through reports are not tangible. It is service unlike goods. Except when they are compelled like in valuation reports they are in most time ignorant of expressed professional opinion. Many non-professional intruders operating without licensed and standard regulatory procedure made things worse.

Collectively, non appreciation of service affects remuneration on professional services rendered and irrespective of the standard scale of charges, people pay peanuts that are not attractive, almost not enough to meet overhead of a standard practice.

 What has been your experience in the real estate industry?

To maintain a standard practice without a compromise for excellence, one needs to be rugged and determined with passion, otherwise, it is easier to run into trouble. Recall that protection of interests of members of public is the key thing while sustaining the ethics of professionalism. To be a good practitioner, one requires continuous learning with less love of money.

The industry is not an industry that can be undertaken by just anyone.What are the things to put into consideration in starting real estate business in Nigeria?

You must have capacity knowledge and development after professional certification, team building and sustenance of clientele. The challenges in the country make all in one point difficult to attain and without link in chain as illustrated. The challenges are enormous.

There are so many agents selling landed property today, and this sometimes makes the industry confusing to outsiders. How can one differentiate the real estate valuers from mediocre?

Professional Estate Surveyors and Valuers (ESV) have guided rules, otherwise referred to as code of practice, and minimum standard of operation is expected to be ensured all the time. The fact that erring professional are sanctioned makes a distinction, as organized rules, orders and ethics as set by both professional association and regulatory body must be ensured in all professional and non-professional activities.

Again, apart from agency of property letting and sales, and probably management of small properties which non-professional may delve into, many aspects of the professional services such as valuation of property, plant and equipment for all purposes, facilities management, feasibility and viability appraisals, etc, are specialized job reserved for professional ESV.

We observed that the real estate practitioners are subjected to multiple taxations in Nigeria, for instance, property tax, land use tax, income tax, etc. And, this subsequently affects the price of property.  What is the industry doing to influence government to reduce the taxes?

Professional ESV are agents of government, and like I said earlier, there are systematic approach to meeting client’s needs without compromising the laws on each aspect of life, especially those relating to land and properties.

The need to patronize professional ESV is important as any form of taxes on land can easily be negotiated with scientific based knowledge and procedural appeal.

Remember that evasion of tax is criminal, and as professional ESV, who is equally an agent of government, licensed to practice, standard and order must be maintained without violation or collaboration with clients for evasion of taxes

 What are the roles government can play in creating enabling environment that supports investment?

Investment in real estate should be in line with policies that would ensure that land, labour, building materials and finances are accessible and affordable.

Apart from this, regulatory policies on building approvals and land titling must be relaxed upon.

Government servants, be it political or technocrats  should view all policies with social angle rather than revenue generation with imposition of high premium, dues and building approvals and titling with timely procurement and less of bureaucracy without inducement and corruption, are all advocated as ease of doing business in real estate related matters.

 The bureaucratic process involved in land registration in Nigeria is annoying. What is the real estate doing to ameliorate this situation?

The real estate is doing nothing about that. Government is right in all cases on their policies. The democratic process has also made provision for the legislature, not only to make laws but to be a ‘watch dog’ on the executive arms to ameliorate the sufferings of the citizens.

Election of right people to legislative arm of government, including professional is key.  Citizen should also know their rights to lobby and sponsor bills, especially those that are related to land, and to counter those policies that are not friendly, made by the executive arm, or difficult policies hindering property delivery and management.

You just said citizens should know their rights to lobby and sponsor bills related to land, can you shed light on this?

I am talking about right to be heard. Citizens should visit the legislative assembly seat at the gallery to watch proceedings. They should also sponsor a motion through their association of group by lobbying legislators representing their locality or interest to present petition on government policies and regulations that are not friendly to the society. Such petition is often referred to various committees of the house for proper scrutiny or investigation.

Before government policies or executive orders become law, watchful eye should be put to make contributions and criticism that would make things easy. Unpopular and stringent policies or regulations made by civil servants on land and building approval in particular can be petitioned and sanctioned through such process in most times succeed to the agency of government who does things most times even without the Governor’s knowledge or detailed understanding. It is the rights of citizens not just privilege.

 The Lagos State Government has tried to clamp down on the activities of the land grabbers popularly known as “Omo-Onile” through the Property  Protection Law by issuing a 21 year term to any defaulter. There are houses with C of O yet, owners get threatened by these land speculators.  Do you think the owners of such houses have anything to fear?

Yes, Lagos State Government as pace setter has tried on this and initially the fear of sanction was there but now, there seems to be relaxation. No one for instance is convicted or jailed since the law was made.

Generally, our country is known to have the best laws but implementation is a big problem. The society is so large with lots of indiscipline, which has almost become part of our life. Again, government at state level seems to have limited power on implementation, since the police that enforces rules and regulation is controlled by the federal government.

Our priorities in Nigeria are misplaced as the over 220 million population is poorly policed. Certain powers at central should be released to at least have a state police to complement the federal police in ensuring enforcement of most of the laws.

Welfare of officials of law enforcement agencies should be looked into, to ensure less or no corruption.

 Apart from C of O, what are other relevant documents a house owner must have?

I said earlier that bottlenecks of building approvals and land titling should be reduced or eradicated. Certificate of Occupancy otherly referred to as C of O is not the ultimate as there are other roots of title land.

Most properties are without registered title which makes them to be “dead assets” as they cannot attract credits and other benefits.

There are land certificate, deed of assignment or deed of gift or vesting deeds and title from deem grant. Explanations on all these are voluminous. But, let me conclude that government should reduce bottlenecks or ease the processing of all of them up to and including processing of letter of administration and probate letter as well as deed of mortgage which are all verifiable root of title to which legal search can be relied on before transfer cases on land to or within a state should also be compiled and digitalized like land registry with ease of search from the comfort of one’s location after payment of token to conduct search or searches.

 For somebody who desires his own house, what candid advice would you give?

In the absence of social housing, and coupled with high inflation rate on goods and services that support life existence, it is difficult to have roof on one’s head. My advice is to start somewhere, no matter how remote the location is with available means to buy land, build it gradually and where possible maintain a rented accommodation at a place close to city centers or place of work. The far and remote location  of today using the “theory of concentric circles” will one day become a city center and if not , the house built on installments in remote location can serve as retirement home in future. It is better to do something with little income than to delay. Procrastination is dangerous.