The Ogun State Homeowners’ Charter Initiative

Customarily, property ownership are largely informal and undefined, whereby there are no documents to prove ownership and lands are self protected which has led to many resorting to self-help in order to physically protect their property.

As a result of this problem, the Ogun State Government has shown an uncommon understanding of the issues and has designed a new system of property rights protection through a simpler registration and certification process tagged the Homeowners’ Charter Initiative.

Ogun Homeowners Charter logo

The initiative is aimed at correcting the recurring issues in processing documents on landed property, by making it possible for property owners to directly process their Building Plan Approval, Certificates of Occupancy or other title documents within months.

It also aims to aid homeowners to regularize the legal status and documentation of their properties, whilst providing enumeration data for the medium term planning of roads, schools, hospitals and other essential services.The new initiative also incorporates various regime of discounts including 66.6% discount on survey, 50% rebate on land charges, and a whopping 78% discount on a typical family bungalow.

As a result, owners of eligible properties built without the required approvals, or illegally built on land belonging to Ogun State Government will be given a window of opportunity to obtain Building Plan Approval, Certificates of Occupancy or other title documents. The benefits for property owners who wisely take advantage of this window include getting proper documentation which confirms one’s true status as a homeowner.

This window should be of interest to everybody. This is because, lack of proper title is not only a problem or loss to the owner, it is a loss to the government and to the whole economy. Most importantly, Government cannot capture data that is important for infrastructure planning and measuring city growth.

Mini offices set up in many areas to enable easy registration

This is a key reason emerging urban concentrations and new towns like Mowe/Ibafo axis seems neglected and largely without good road and infrastructure. Many of the properties are not registered, and in government records, these areas are still largely unoccupied.

Have any thoughts on this matter? Drop your comments below.