Lagos warns real estate operators against non-compliance to law

The special adviser to Lagos State governor on housing, Mrs. Adetoke Benson-Awoyinka has said that the registration of professional real estate practitioners across the State is non negotiable.

Benson-Awoyinka stated this while addressing real estate practitioners at a meeting at Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja.

The registration, according to her, has the backing of the law in the interest of the practioners and members of the public.

She said that the registration would protect accommodation seekers from falling prey to fraudulent practitioners and will also increase public confidence in genuine practioners.

The Special Adviser also declared that it has now become illegal to practice real estate business in the state without a valid Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA) License.

She said the need to protect the lives and property of all Lagosians necessitated the coordination, regularizarion and registration of genuine practioners in the real estate business.

“Let me emphasize that engaging in real estate transactions without registering with the state government or obtaining necessary approval is a punishable offense under the law,” she said.

“Just recently, a Physically challenged couple were duped in Mushin by a Real Estate Agent while they were seeking for accommodation. This development which is now becoming a daily occurrence in Lagos property market must be corrected and may not have happened at all if all parties involved are registered with the government”. 

She urged the real estate practitioners to support the government in sanitising the business for the interest of all.

She noted that under the LASRERA law, disgruntled residents now have the right to forward their complaints to the Agency.

According to Benson-Awoyink, if the Agency discovers that citizen’s rights have been violated, government will take legal action such practitioners across all the 57 Local Government and Local Council Areas in Lagos State.