Creation of Mortgages under the Mortgage and Property Law of Lagos State

Abstract

Effective creation of mortgage is central to its eventual realization. For this reason, it is most desirable that all doubts
as to whether there was intention to create a mortgage should be eliminated. Such doubt typically hovers around a mortgage said
to have been created by the mere fact of deposit of title documents of the landed property. This is because, in the first
place, the act of deposit, without more, is of equivocal significance, as the intention to create a mortgage by such
deposit may be rebutted by oral evidence. Besides, the creation of mortgage security by mere deposit not only carries with it
great uncertainty but also opens a wide room for fraud and disputes. This paper explores the Mortgage and Property Law of
Lagos State and argues that the law has put an end to the creation of mortgage by mere deposit. The paper admits that due
to its novelty in Nigeria, the judiciary is yet to give meaning to the statutory provisions but hopes, however, that whenever the
provisions come for judiciary scrutiny the comparative judicial approach on similar statutory provisions in England would be
adopted.