BEFORE BUYING LAND WITH C OF O, CHECK THE SURVEY PLAN

When acquiring a property, it is always important to know if the property has a Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) or some other title. But it is more important to know if the C of O is defective. It is not uncommon for errors to be made during land title preparation.

One thing you must do before acquiring a property with Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) is to check the survey plan.

The most common error on a survey plan is wrong coordinates. This error is mostly a product of typos or wrong GPS parameters. And it goes undetected because it is often impossible to know if the coordinate of a location is wrong by visual inspection.

Errors in a C of O (or other land titles) can be corrected with a Deed of Rectifaction. However, before you decide to acquire a property with defective title, it is important to know the requirements for rectification so you can decide if it’s a process you want to go through.

REQUIREMENTS FOR RECTIFICATION OF TITLE

Application letter addressed to the Permanent Secretary, Lands Bureau.

2Nos. Deed of Rectification

2 Nos. Sunprint Survey plan for survey rectification

Newspaper publication (half page) in a widely circulated

Means of identification (National ID, Driving License, Voter’s Card or data page of valid International passport

Sworn affidavit with photograph attached

Receipts evidencing payment of rectification charges:

1.5% aggregate broken down into;

Rectification Fee @ 0.75% of assessed value,

Stamp duty @ 0.375% of assessed value and

Registration @ 0.375% of assessed value