Will your children inherit your property?

The Punch in its Metro Page of September 11, 2013, recounted the story of a dispute between one Ikechukwu Ozichukwu and his mother, Mrs Comfort Ebubechukwu over a property in FESTAC Town. The property which had belonged to his father who was now deceased, had caused some much rupture in the family that it had resulted in litigation and police petitions. Surely that was not the intention of the senior Ozichukwu when he purchased the property. Sadly, this is not an unusual incident as the inability of investors in property to arrange their affairs results in acrimony in the family or the property not reaching the intended beneficiaries. Even Nigeria’s first Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief FRA Williams has his estate tied up in the court as his children contest what is due to who. In this articles, we want to explore from a practical view point, the options open to you when arranging who will inherit your property.  
Writing a Will:
A Will, a written document that states how a person wants his property distributed when he/she dies. It  can be made by any person (even blind and other disabled persons) above the age of 21 years under his own hand so long as the requirements for due execution of a Will are met.
It is advisable for a qualified legal practitioner to prepare a Will. This is mainly because of the intricacies and technicalities involved in the making of a Will.
The Will must be made by a testator with testamentary capacity for it to be valid. Testamentary capacity means the capacity and ability to make a valid Will. Testamentary capacity involves two elements namely age and a sound disposing mind. The executors appointed in a Will bear the responsibility of proving the Will or having the Will admitted to Probate.
There are practical issues with disposing your property through a Will. First, the legal technicalities have to be adhered to strictly before a Will is considered valid. Even if all has been done properly, a bloody minded relative can still go to court and tie up the assets for several years in litigation. Also the person making the Will should note that the process of obtaining grant of probate usually takes a minimum of 3 – 6 months which can be delayed for years depending on the complexities of the estate involved with 10 percent of the value of the entire estate payable as tax to the Government, excluding other ancillary costs such as payment for publication and payment for obtaining the application forms. If the beneficiaries do not have this amount, they will not be able legally to deal with the property. Another issue is the quality, integrity and capacity of the Executors. Out of negligence or willfully, they can frustrate the testator’s wishes and your beneficiaries would have to go to court either to remove them or enforce the provisions of the will.
Most people find the probate process tedious and burdensome, especially as they have just suffered a bereavement. It should be noted that a Will is still the most legitimate way of conferring absolute title on the beneficiaries but the testator should have these issues in mind when instructing his lawyer to prepare the Will.
Why not give it out while you are alive?
A Will takes effect when the testator has passed on and as we have seen; since he/she is not around he cannot deal with the issues. Some have tried to sort out this challenge by giving out the property while they are alive.
One way of doing this is to give out the property as a gift. A deed of gift is an effective way of transferring valid legal title and in Lagos State, the consent of the Governor needs to be obtained subject to antecedent costs which sums up to 12 percent of the value of the property. The duration of registration varies between an average of 3 months to 6 months at the minimum, subject to availability of all requirements.
The challenge with a gift however, is that the owner of the property cannot change his mind later on – say for instance if the person he gave the gift to, does not in his opinion deserve the property, it will be too late to change his mind as title would have passed to the done of the gift. It also means that he cannot receive rent (legally) or even sell the property as it is no more his.
Drawing up a Living /Revocable Trust
This process offers both pre-death and post-death advantages. It is a documented agreement/arrangement where a person appoints or designates another person to hold his property in trust for the beneficiary whilst he is alive and even after his death. The trustee will hold, manage, invest in and deal with the property in the ways provided in the trust deed.
Under this arrangement, the trustee transfers the assets to the beneficiaries in line with the provisions of the trust deed.
Although not subject to the rules of probate or intestacy, for a valid transfer to be effected, the transfer instrument has to be registered in accordance with the laws governing registration of titles and in Lagos State and the applicable costs for effecting the transfer will apply. Although a living trust keeps your affairs private when compared to a Will, it may not necessarily reduce the time and expenses associated with administering your estate when compared to obtaining grant of probate to a Will
Joint Tenancy with Right of Survivorship
Another way of ensuring your assets devolve on your desired beneficiaries is by creating a joint tenancy when purchasing a property. For example, a father who wishes to give a house to his son will purchase the property in their joint names and where he wants to give another to a daughter, he buys it in his and his daughter’s names. Under this arrangement, all tenants (the joint owners) have equal rights to the assets and where one passes away, the other partner/spouse/child assumes full ownership of the property without the need for an application for an approval or otherwise to the court, state or federal government to administer the property.
Although this may seem like a simple and easy way to confer title on a prospective beneficiary, a number of factors should be considered before charting this course. Such factors are largely dependent on the stability of the relationship between/amongst the parties.

Chief F.R.A. Williams
SAN. His estate is still
been contested.

Where someone wants to share one property among more than one child while he is alive, he can do so by buying the property in a corporate name and issuing the shares in the company, in the proportion he wishes the property to be shared by the children and make them all directors. He can further regulate how they deal with the property by preparing the company rules (Articles of Association) in a way to restrict the behavior of the children acting as directors/shareholders. In so doing, the person must note that the company must be run in accordance with the laws governing companies and also must take cognizance of the tax laws as the Government is giving even more scrutiny to the tax status of companies
It may appear that there is no rock solid way to passing property to one’s children and loved ones without a tedious and costly process. It should still be noted that despite all the hoopla of families fighting over property, there are many who deal with the process seamlessly and in some degree of concord. These situations are usually where there is self-respect and love and though it is not legally binding, it could be that properly instilling these behavior in one’s loved ones is stronger than any Will or other arrangements. For instance, a lawyer of over forty years, simply left a note, that was not even signed, in his handwriting, which all his children recognized and followed to the letter.