Avoiding Land Grabbing: Legal Steps to Protect Your Property from Abroad
- Zikan Realtors
- Nov 14, 2025
- 5 min read
Introduction: The Silent Theft No One Warns You About
For many Nigerians abroad, buying land back home is a dream — until that dream turns into a nightmare.
You send money, buy your plot, receive your documents… then one day you hear:
“Someone is already building on your land.”
This isn’t fiction. It’s a ₦100 billion problem in Nigeria’s real estate sector, and the victims are often diaspora investors who can’t visit regularly to monitor their properties.
But here’s the truth:Land grabbing can be prevented — not by luck, but by law.
At Zikan Prop Solutions, we combine legal structuring, documentation control, and technology-enabled monitoring to ensure that once you buy land, no one else can touch it.
Understanding Land Grabbing: How It Happens
Before you can protect yourself, you need to understand the methods land grabbers use.
Common Scenarios
Multiple Sales of the Same Plot: A dishonest seller resells the same plot to multiple buyers.
Encroachment by Neighbors: Adjacent landowners expand their boundaries illegally.
“Omo Onile” Reclaiming Land: Local family members or community youth invade sold lands.
Forged Deeds & Survey Plans: Fraudsters forge documents to claim ownership.
Unmonitored Land Left Vacant for Years: Absence invites trespass.
These crimes flourish when buyers:
Fail to verify titles properly.
Don’t register their documents.
Lack local oversight or legal enforcement.
Step-by-Step: How to Legally Secure Your Land from Abroad
Step 1️⃣ – Buy Only Land with Verified Title
The first and strongest layer of protection is the title itself.
Only lands with any of these documents are legally defensible in court:
C of O (Certificate of Occupancy)
Governor’s Consent
Excision or Gazette (for community land)
At Zikan Prop Solutions, every property undergoes triple verification before it’s offered for sale:
Legal search at the State Land Registry.
Boundary confirmation by licensed surveyors.
Historical ownership review to eliminate encumbrances.
Buying verified land is your first insurance policy against land grabbing.
Step 2️⃣ – Register Your Deed of Assignment
Even if you’ve bought from a legitimate seller, your ownership isn’t fully recognized by law until your Deed of Assignment is registered at the Land Registry.
Unregistered land is like having a receipt without your name on it.
A registered Deed:
Inserts your name into the official land records.
Prevents fraudulent resale.
Grants you full legal standing to challenge trespass in court.
Zikan Prop Solutions ensures all diaspora client documents are registered immediately after purchase, complete with tracking numbers for your records.
Step 3️⃣ – Erect a Legal Notice on the Property
After acquisition, install a clear, permanent “Private Property – No Trespassing” signboard that includes:
Your full name (or estate name).
Your plot number.
The title type (e.g., “Registered with Lagos State Land Registry”).
Zikan Prop Solutions contact number for verification.
This public notice serves as a legal deterrent. Under Nigerian law, once such signage is visible, anyone entering the land does so at their own risk — making prosecution easier.
Step 4️⃣ – Use a Power of Attorney for Local Legal Representation
Diaspora investors can’t always attend to issues in person, but a Power of Attorney (PoA) ensures your consultant or lawyer can act legally on your behalf.
Through a PoA, your authorized representative can:
File police reports against trespassers.
Sue in court.
Defend your property rights.
Complete registration and title processing.
Zikan Prop Solutions helps diaspora clients notarize PoAs that are recognized in both Nigeria and the investor’s home country, ensuring seamless legal control.
Step 5️⃣ – Fence or Demarcate Your Property
Physical boundaries communicate ownership and discourage intrusion.Even a simple corner-post fencing with beacons signals that the land is under private control.
For diaspora clients, Zikan Prop Solutions offers Remote Property Securing Packages — which include:
Corner-post demarcation.
Survey beacon reinforcement.
Drone monitoring footage every quarter.
Your property stays visible and protected — even if you’re 5,000 miles away.
Step 6️⃣ – Obtain a Court-Backed Survey and Gazette Record
For high-value lands, Zikan Prop Solutions can help register your Survey Plan under your name with the Surveyor General’s Office.
Once that’s done, your land coordinates become publicly searchable, preventing anyone from using overlapping surveys to encroach.
If your land is within a gazetted area, ensure the Gazette page number and coordinates appear on your documents — that’s your legal shield.
Step 7️⃣ – Subscribe to a Land Monitoring & Legal Watch Service
Land grabbing often happens quietly and gradually.The best defense is continuous monitoring.
Zikan Prop Solutions’ LandGuard+ Program offers:
Drone monitoring every 3 months.
Legal audit once a year.
Encroachment alerts sent to your email.
Immediate response team to intervene through local authorities if trespass occurs.
That’s how diaspora clients retain total peace of mind while abroad.
Legal Recourse If Land Grabbing Occurs
If, despite all precautions, someone encroaches on your property:
File a Police Report: Include your title documents and survey plan.
Obtain a Court Injunction: Through your lawyer, request a “Restraining Order” to stop any construction.
Initiate Civil Action: Sue for trespass, damages, and recovery of possession.
Notify the Land Registry: Mark the property as under legal protection to prevent future transfers.
Zikan Prop Solutions’ in-house legal team can coordinate all these steps remotely for diaspora clients — keeping your ownership legally unshakable.
Case Study: How a UK-Based Investor Stopped an Encroachment Without Flying Home
In 2022, Ngozi, a nurse in Birmingham, discovered through drone footage that a local developer had started fencing part of her land in Epe.
Zikan Prop Solutions immediately:
Alerted the Police and Local Council.
Produced her registered Deed and Survey Plan.
Filed a temporary injunction through our partner law firm.
The encroachment was halted within two weeks.
By 2025, her property value had doubled — and she didn’t spend a day in Nigeria resolving it.
That’s what structured legal protection looks like.
Why Consultants Are Essential to Land Protection
Most diaspora investors think the job ends at purchase.But in Nigeria’s real estate environment, protection is an ongoing service.
That’s why partnering with Zikan Prop Solutions ensures:
Risk | Zikan Protection System | Benefit |
Fraudulent resale | Land Registry registration | Irrefutable legal record |
Encroachment | Fencing & signage | Physical deterrence |
Omo onile intrusion | Legal representation via PoA | Fast enforcement |
Unverified titles | Legal & survey verification | Ownership certainty |
Absenteeism | Drone monitoring & reports | Remote visibility |
With professional consultants and lawyers on your side, land grabbing becomes legally impossible.
Final Thought: Distance Should Never Mean Dispossession
You worked too hard abroad to lose your property to opportunists at home.
When you combine:
✅ Verified titles,
✅ Legal registration,
✅ Local legal representation,
✅ Continuous monitoring,
...you turn your land from “vulnerable” to untouchable.
At Zikan Prop Solutions, our mission is simple: protect your land like it’s our own.
🏢 Zikan Prop Solutions
🥇 Certified Real Estate Consultant | Multi Award-Winning Realtor
Helping you make the best real estate purchase & investment decisions.
📱 +234 703 000 3514
📲 IG: @zikanpropsolutions
Comments