Lagos mortgage law amended to address current realities, says Fashola

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has signed into law a bill amending the state’s mortgage and property law of 2010 in what aims at making the law meet current realities in housing delivery. The amended law makes the state’s mortgage board truly independent, meaning that the board, unlike in the past, can operate without interference from any person(s) in the discharge of its duties. Governor Fashola signing the law on Monday, explained that the Lagos mortgage board was created initially to deal with the problem of who was to own the houses that government wanted to sell because if people were going to acquire a mortgage and ultimately own the house built by government, there must be somebody who owned that house and who would invest the title in them. According to him, al- though the traditional method was always to use the ministry to own the houses, government, on advice, saw that the ministry did not have any legal capacity to hold title “because it is not one of the artificial legal entities recognised by law”, adding that the board was created “as the owner of all the houses so that it could vest titles in ultimate buyers”.