Land registration means that where one has an interest or title in land, such as freehold interest or leasehold interest, this title must then be registered in the states land registry by Registrar of title. There are various laws enacted by each state of the federation governing land registration. The registration of title law Cap 121 of Lagos State is the law governing land registration in Lagos State. Section 5 of the registration of title law provides that every conveyance of a fee simple estate in land for a consideration which consist wholly or is part of money, every lease with a term not less than 40 years as well as every assignment of a lease with not less than 40 years to run must be registered. The owners of the interest must register as the owner or leasehold owner of the land. Leases of state land that are granted leases spanning over 5years must also register such interest.
If an individual wants to register his land, he/she will first have to apply to be registered. His application will then be advertised in the estate gazette or widespread newspaper and if within 2 months of the advert, no one objects to the registration, the person’s interest will be registered and will be stamped on the person’s document of title. Registration stands as a kind of security to registered owners of land as registration will serve as notice to all intending purchasers of land since members of the public are free upon payment of a fee to conduct searches into property in order to ascertain the right owner of the land.
If the owner of registered land wants to transfer his land to another by way of lease example, for over 40 years, this leasehold interest must be registered and inserted in the lands register under the name of the land. Thus the land’s registrar will serve as a record of substantial dealing in land. Where a person dies, his name will be deleted from the land register upon prove of death and this will be substituted with the name of the subsequent devisees or transferees.
After a person has registered his interest in land, his certificate of title is usually issued to him and this will reflect his origin of title. If he then wants to transfer the land to another person for a long period of time, his certificates will be sent back to the Registrar of Title for rectification. It should be noted at this point that land will not usually be registered unless the land has been surveyed to the satisfaction of the state’s Surveyor General and the Survey plan is duly signed by licensed Surveyor must be prepared and must be lodged with the Registrar of title.
Legal aspect of land registration
Non registration may:
- Render certain document void
- Render them inadmissible as evidence in a judicial proceedings
Thus, one can see the importance of land registration. However, registration will not cure an instrument of a defect nor will it make an invalid document valid. It does not also protect one against fraud or fictitious names that might have been used in the execution of the document registered e.g. in the case of Johnson vs Owisino 1943 9 WACA 187, an instrument to which all co-owners of the land in question was registered, the WACA held that this was wrong, null and void and for the fact that the document was registered could not make the document valid. The law provides that instrument registered takes effect from the date of registration, thus an owner of registered land enjoys priority over all other purchasers of land.
Advantages of land registration
The system of registration ensures that:
- The title of every land owner is thoroughly investigated and is placed on a public register. Thus, a perusal of this gives an intending purchaser all the necessary information they may require about the previous dealings in the land.
- The registration of land owner’s title is an insurance against any adverse claims by others and is indispensable to the validity of all transactions relating to the land in question
- The instruments are registered by reference to the land in question.
