Legal
How to verify a land title in Lagos before you pay a naira
The search costs a fraction of the deposit you are about to lose
Almost every land dispute we see could have been avoided by a search that cost less than one percent of the money at risk. The search is not the hard part. Knowing what the result means is.
What to obtain
A certified true copy of the root of title, whatever the seller claims it is.
A charting report against the survey plan, to confirm the land is where the seller says and is not under government acquisition.
A search at the Lands Registry on the specific title number, not on the seller's name.
Reading the result
Charting is the step that catches the most expensive problems. It tells you whether the parcel falls within a committed government acquisition, a road setback, or an area already excised to a family. A plot can have a perfectly genuine deed and still be unbuildable because it sits in a drainage reserve.
A genuine document proving ownership of land the state has already committed elsewhere is still a genuine document. It is just not worth what you are paying.
Three red flags
The seller offers a survey plan but resists charting it.
The root of title is a deed of assignment whose own chain stops at a name nobody can produce a consent for.
The price is meaningfully below the street, and the explanation involves urgency.
Every one of those is survivable with the right advice. None of them is survivable by hoping.