Section 70 Property and Conveyancing Law of the Western Region of Nigeria 1959

Section 70 of the Property and Conveyancing Law of the Western Region of Nigeria 1959 is about Statutory commencements of title. It provides as follows:

(1) After the commencement of this Law thirty years shall be substituted for forty
years as the period of commencement of title which a purchaser of land may require;
nevertheless earlier title than thirty years may be required in cases similar to those
in which earlier title than forty years might immediately before the commencement
of this Law be required.

(2) Under a contract to grant or assign a term of years, whether derived or to be
derived out of freehold or leasehold land, the intended lessee or assign shall not be
entitled to call for the title to the freehold.

(3) Under a contract to sell and assign a term of years derived out of a leasehold
interest in land, the intended assign shall not have the right to call for the title to the
leasehold reversion.

(4) On a contract to grant a lease for a term of years to be derived out of a leasehold
interest, with a leasehold reversion, the intended lessee shall not have the right to
call for the title to that reversion.

(5) Where by reason of any of the three last preceding sub-sections, an intending
lessee or assign is not entitled to call for the title to the freehold or to a leasehold
reversion, as the case may be, he shall not, where the contract is made after the
commencement of this Law be deemed to be affected with notice of any matter or
thing of which, if he had contracted that such title should be furnished, he might
have had notice.

(6) A purchaser shall not be deemed to be or ever to have been affected with notice
of any matter or thing of which, if he had investigated the title or made enquiries in
regard to matters prior to the period of commencement of title fixed by this Law or by any other statute, or by any rule of law, he might have had notice, unless he
actually makes such investigation or enquiries.

(7) Where a lease whether made before or after the commencement of this Law, is
made under a power contained in a settlement, will, written law, or other instrument,
any preliminary contract for or relating to the lease shall not, for the purpose of the
deduction of title to an intended assign, form part of the title, or evidence of the title,
to the lease.

(8) This section, save where otherwise expressly provided, applies to contracts for
sale whether made before or after the commencement of this Law, and applies to
contracts for exchange in like manner as to contracts for sale, save that it applies
only to contracts for exchange made after such commencement.

(9) This section applies only if and so far as a contrary intention is not expressed in
the contract.