# The inspection-fee scam in Nigerian property, and how to avoid it

A large share of the worst property stories I hear do not start with a forged Certificate of Occupancy. They start with a smaller payment, made in a hurry, to a person the buyer has never met, for a chance to “come and see the land.” The call is warm. The plot is said to be going this week. The fee is described as a token, a commitment, or the cost of fuel. Then the phone dies, the office cannot be found, and the land — if it ever existed — was never going to be shown.

This is the ghost-agent pattern, one of four common tricks Xavorian was built around. The others are the fake listing, the fake or thin paperwork, and the double sale. This article is about the fee asked for before you have seen anything that would justify paying anyone. It is general information, not legal advice.

# A normal appointment is not the same thing as a fee

Many genuine sellers will ask you to book a time. That, by itself, is ordinary. Several current Xavorian listings say inspection is by appointment, including a four-bedroom duplex at Sabo Lugbe, by Alco Junction, listed at ₦65,000,000, a four-bedroom detached house behind Ministers Hill in Mabushi, listed at ₦650,000,000, and one hectare at Dominion Villa, Ketti-Kabusa, listed at ₦150,000,000. Booking a day and a meeting point is not the same as sending money so that someone will “put you on the list.”

Be especially careful when the fee is demanded before you have a specific property, a specific address, and a specific person whose name you can check. A request to pay for fuel, a “file retrieval,” an “allocation form,” or a slot to view several plots, sent by a number you cannot place, is the shape of the scam. The amount is often small enough to feel like a reasonable risk. That is the point.

# Slow down at these four moments

Before you transfer anything, identify the property. Ask for the address, the size, the title type, and a page or a document set you can keep. If the only “listing” is a WhatsApp status with no location you can find independently, you are not ready to pay a fee. On a marketplace page you can at least start from a fixed URL, such as this 500 square metre plot in Ijebu Imodi, Ogun, listed at ₦1,000,000 or this 50 by 100 plot at Koka by Jeff, Asaba, listed at ₦18,000,000.

Identify the person. A serious seller or lawful attorney can tell you their name, how it connects to the name on the papers, and which account would later receive the purchase money. If you are asked to pay an inspection fee to a “partner,” “manager” or “cousin” because the main account “has an issue,” stop.

Be slow about fees paid to people you have not met, for offices you cannot find, for a property you have not seen. If the meeting point keeps moving, or the person will only show you “another plot like it,” you are not in a normal inspection.

Do not let hurry set the price of the fee. Sellers will tell you the plot will be gone by Friday. Sometimes that is true. More often, speed is the tool.

# What we will and will not ask you for

Browsing and enquiring on Xavorian is free. If someone claiming to be us asks you, as a buyer, to pay a “verification fee” in order to see or to be approved for a listing, that is not us. Write to support@xavorian.com before you pay anyone in our name.

A lister on the platform is supposed to pass a government ID and liveness check, a bank-account name match and a document check before a listing goes live. That is a filter against anonymous sellers. It does not inspect the land for you, and it does not mean you should pay a third party to “facilitate” a viewing. If you proceed, pay the purchase money only to a bank account whose name matches the person who has actually been identified.

# A short order of operations

1. Get the address, the size and the declared papers in writing, with a page or a file you can keep.
2. Align the name on those papers with the person you are speaking to.
3. Book an inspection at the property, with a surveyor if it is land, without paying a stranger to turn up.
4. Instruct a lawyer to search the title before a deposit.
5. Only then discuss purchase money, to the matching account, against a written agreement.

If a seller cannot wait for those steps, the hurry is the message.

There is a longer note on this red flag, Why the inspection fee is real estate’s loudest red flag, a list of seven questions to ask before any inspection fee or deposit, and a wider guide on how to avoid property scams in Nigeria. If money has already gone, read what to do if you have been scammed and speak to the police and to a lawyer.

Browse current listings, without paying to look, at marketplace.xavorian.com, or write to hello@xavorian.com, or call or WhatsApp +234 805 637 3583.

Ezeani Chukwuebuka Damien is the founder of Xavorian. Listing details cited here were taken from the marketplace on 10 November 2026 and may change. This is not legal advice.