Registered survey

A licensed surveyor visits the land, fixes the boundary beacons and draws a plan showing the plot's size, shape, beacon numbers and coordinates. The plan carries the surveyor's name, signature and seal.

Becoming registered. A copy of the plan, often called the "red copy", is lodged with the state Surveyor-General's office, as the state survey law requires, and the plan is given a plan number. From then on the government holds its own record of the plot. Plans drawn by unregistered people skip this step, which leaves the land with no government record copy.

Why it matters. Applications for a C of O or Governor's Consent are processed with a survey plan, which is charted and endorsed at the Surveyor-General's office. Charting places the coordinates on the government's map to show whether the land is under government acquisition, or falls on a road, drainage channel or other reserved land. A buyer can have the same check done before paying.

Provisional survey. In listings, "provisional survey" usually means a plan that has been drawn but not lodged. It may show the size and boundaries, but until it is lodged the government holds no record copy, so it should not be treated as the final survey.

Backdated plans. Surveyors' bodies in Lagos and Oyo have warned buyers that a "backdated" survey is a scam and that a surveyor who offers one is likely an impostor. A genuine plan carries the date it was actually made.

• Lagos: surveys are lodged and charted at the Office of the Surveyor-General of Lagos State, which also charts plans for title and consent applications.
• Ogun, Oyo and other states: each state has its own Surveyor-General, and the plan must be lodged in the state where the land is. A Lagos plan number means nothing for land across the border.
• Everywhere: only a registered surveyor can prepare a plan that will be accepted for lodgement.