Precautionary measures to developers

Advocacy planning was a prescription meant for urban planners, the theory applies to  all professions and disciplines that confront the political and ethical dilemmas bound up in their practices-social work, public health, public administration and all of the social sciences that deal with urban policy. In the context of acquisition and development of land in the FCT, advocacy planning shall include:
1. Advising the Authority on the liberalization of land acquisition and development by relaxation of strict requirements wherever it exists.
2. Guiding the prospective developer on how to apply for land and successfully get allocation without engaging in illegality.
3. Advising the Authority on how to amicably resolve the plight of the original inhabitants of Abuja.
4. Guiding the developer on how to apply for development permit and obtain the approval to commence and complete development.
5. Guiding developers to avoid unnecessary loss of their developments to demolitions in the event of any form of illegality.
6. Advising property owners and developers to take precautionary measures when entering into agreements on development or sale of their properties to guide against falling into wrong hands and getting defrauded.
Precautionary measures
1. When people are allocated plots in Abuja they must strive towards its development. One risks revocation of his allocation when he fails to develop, especially if infrastructure is provided to the neighbourhood.
2. Unfortunately, many property developers acquire land more through financial transaction than direct allocation. People must take precautions against acquiring fake or cloned title documents. Because, even after successfully acquiring building plans approval, once the tittle documents are fictitious, the approval is futile.
3. Prospective developers must conduct a search at the AGIS before any land transaction. Successful search is not enough to seal a deal. To guard against buying a cloned document, it is very necessary to trace the plot’s ownerships history and directly reach and confirm that it was the successive owners that disposed it themselves before reaching the last person transacting the business with you.
4. All layouts in the city or Area Councils must have ministerial approval before the plots are allocated. The precautionary measures to be taken before transactions should include the confirmation whether the plot one intends to acquire have the ministerial approval.
5. Never agree with any authority staff that would claim to stamp your plans and backdate the approval, because he cannot cover you when it is discovered. These activities are fraudulent, and are easily discovered because they can never get the adequate backups from the system and records at the department registry.
6. One can apply and get his building plans approved, so long as he observes the above procedure. If lost he can be guided by the many honest professionals available.
7. All prospective house buyers should also confirm that the mass housing or individual housing developer satisfies all the necessary requirements of land acquisition, including having genuine building plans approval before commencement of work. Otherwise in the event of any illegality the occupants would also be inconvenienced and their investments would be very hard to be recovered from the developer.
8. Developers must also be mindful when committing themselves on bridging finance agreements, especially on partnership for disposal of properties. Because it could turn out that the property owner had prior knowledge that his property cannot be marketed at its expected value, or the owner is a subject of investigation for financial scam.
9. Land owners that entered partnership agreements with financial investors for the developments of their lands for sale, must always be on site to monitor all transactions between the developers and secondary investors. Otherwise, the whole developments could be sold without his knowledge.
Your money is valuable do not risk it under desperation. One must take his time to make proper confirmation otherwise he falls into the wrong hands.
Recommendations
The Authority should start looking for ways to make land available and affordable to as many persons as possible. Such could include the direct land allocation of buildable spaces according to the need.
We would like to advice the control department to open a section for inquiry at least to guide unsuspecting persons against dupes. On the other hand it shall have the benefits of guiding and further adherence to the city master plan and boosts the department’s revenue.
The Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (NITP), should establish a channel of communication with the FCT Administration in a form of advocacy service, by periodically appraising the performance of the Administration, offering advice on some aspects of implementation of the City master plan and other advice for sustainable development.