Issuance of Certificate of Occupancy (C of O)

A Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) is a document issued by Authorities to a land owner as evidence of ownership of land. It contains the terms and conditions for the grant of the land.

A C of O is issued by the Governor of a state or the President in the case of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) which power he exercises through the Minister of FCT.

It is issued after a person has applied for a grant of right of occupancy and is so granted the right. After the requirements are met, the Certificate is issued as Evidence of Title.

The C of O is the only evidence under our Laws that shows legal interest over land in an Urban Area.

The process and documents required for obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) is different for each region of the country. I will make an attempt to brief us on how its done in Ogun state considering the fact that the state have areas that are sometimes thought to be a part of Lagos state.

Also, in recent times we’ve had a number of Lagosians migrating to the gateway state as Ogun state is commonly called to acquire landed properties and even rent houses becauseit is a whole lot cheaper and probably easier there as compared to Lagos.
The process and documents required to obtain a certificate of occupancy in Ogun state is as follows;

Procedures and requirements for Certificate of Occupancy
1. Complete application form with specified fees paid
2. Publication fee
3. Development charge
4. Purchase receipt of the Land/Agreement duly stamped
5. Sun prints of Survey Plan of the land (4 copies)
6. Photocopy of Current Tax Clearance [/b]Certificate of [b]Applicants (Ogun State)
7. Photocopy of Ogun State Education Levy for Corporate bodies within the last four years
8. Photocopy of Development levy receipt for individuals within the last four years
9. Four(4) passport photographs of applicant
10. Photocopy of approved building plan (if land is developed)
11. Photocopy of the Certificate of Registration/Incorporation where the applicant is a corporate body.
12. Photocopy of receipts of all payment made by the applicant
13. Execution fee
14. Survey Inspection fee
15. Charting fee

Also in a related development, the Certificate of Occupancy for Ogun state now comes in electronic format. This format has been fully put in place by the Ibikunle-Amosun led Administration. The electronic Certificate of Occupancy will guarantee safety and assurance of properties when it is issued; it is sure that land owners have bought land rather than law suits, and the process of obtaining the ‘e-C-of-O’ will be faster and less cumbersome.

The migration from paper C-of-O to the electronic format is to tackle counterfeiting of the document, eliminate fraud and ensure efficiency in land administration.

It is believed that the state government considered the option of issuing the e-C-of-O with peculiar security features to avert the possibility of fraudsters and criminally-minded printers imitating hard copies of the document

I will also like to bring to our notice that some parts of Berger-Ojodu, Alagbado, Ajegunle, Alakuko, Agbara are located in Ogun state.

Other locations that have close proximity with Lagos are Akute, Lambe, Alagbole, Lafenwa, Sango(toll gate), Oke Aro, Ajuwon and Mowe are all parts of Ogun state and should not be mistaken for Lagos.

Invariably a number of notable outskirts of Lagos which are mostly mistaken as part of the city of excellence actually belong to the gateway state.