A Deed of Assignment is a legal document that evidences a sale of land and transfers interest, right, ownership and title in a real property from the transferor (the seller) to the transferee (the buyer). This document (deed of assignment) is of high importance in landed property transactions and it’s considered a must for the transfer of ownership in land.
It is the legal document that records that a land owner or prior owner of a land who is the seller of the land have transferred all his title, ownership, interest and right on the land in question to the buyer. Without this document in land transactions, you have nothing, hence its reason of high importance and value in real estate law and real estate transactions.
A land owner or purported land owner who is selling a land and is against the buyer of the land having a deed of assignment on the land in question is a fraudster. Deed of assignment is the first check that authenticates the genuineness of a land transaction.
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Deed of assignment can suffice also as a valid root of title (although it is said to be not a good root of title), be it as it may, it is a step in the right direction in favour of whosoever can provide or in possession of the document (deed of assignment) on a particular piece of land as It can serve as an evidential proof of ownership (albeit rebuttable) of that land. (To learn more of why deed of assignment is not a good root of title, read the article already published in this platform in that regard titled “Your land C f O does not prove that you own the land).
It should therefore be taken into consideration that a deed of assignment despite how important it is in a land transaction is not a good root of title save and except it has been duly perfected. It is still a worthless piece of paper and your ownership of the property which it evidences can still be contested by a third party.
Therefore, for you to make your deed of assignment valid and sacrosanct, you need to duly perfect it. Perfection of a title document or deed of assignment is the registration of that legal document with the appropriate land registry where that land is located or situated. Without perfection of the deed of assignment, the legal document is worthless and of no value because the transaction is still incomplete or inchoate.
From now onward, whatever landed property transaction you get yourself involved in, make sure to get a deed of assignment on that property as it is the proof that title, interest, rights and ownership on that land have changed hands from the previous owner (the seller) to you the buyer and when you obtain a deed of assignment on the property also make sure it is duly perfected if not the deed of assignment will be valueless as an unperfected deed of assignment is a worthless piece of legal document and it’s of no importance.
N/B: Always get a lawyer involved in your dealings.