The document discusses the role of courts under the Mortgage and Property Law of Lagos State, 2010. It notes that courts have become indispensable in resolving disputes that inevitably arise from differing interpretations of agreements and statutes. It outlines that mortgages involve the transfer of property interests between a borrower and lender, and disputes often emerge when parties seek to enforce their property rights. The Mortgage and Property Law of 2010 directs courts on their powers, such as ordering the sale of secured property, granting injunctions, expediting hearings related to mortgages, allowing alternative dispute resolution, and remedies for non-compliance with the law.

1. ROLE OF COURTS UNDER THE
MORTGAGE AND PROPERTY LAW OF
LAGOS STATE, 2010
OLUBUNMI AFINOWI
Department of Private and Property
Law, Faculty of Law,
University of Lagos.

2. INTRODUCTION
• Adjudication and by extension Courts have become
indispensable in our societies due to the fact that
perceptions and interpretation of issues differ as do
the minds of people and this in turn makes disputes
unavoidable. Thus even in the case of contractual
terms agreed upon by parties, or even statutory terms
stipulated by Law - which suggest a consensus ad idem
- parties still arrive at different interpretations of the
consensus, seek to vary the terms of the consensus, or
out rightly disregard it. In a nutshell, disputes have
become inevitable in social interactions, especially in
view of increasing local and global transactions A
meeting of minds.

3. • Mortgages are transactions that have become inevitable for the
economic and social balance of any society, as it relates to issues
such as the growth of businesses and the provision of housing. And
as with other human transactions, disputes are bound to arise and
actually do arise. Mortgages and mortgage transactions were
formerly regulated by the Conveyancing Act of 1881 which while
recognising the need for Courts in enforcing the rights and
obligations under a mortgage, did not explicitly state the roles of
the Court. The Mortgage and Property Law, 2010 (MPL) on the
other hand, not only recognises the roles of the Courts, but actually
lays down certain guidelines for the Courts necessary to direct the
hand and the mind of the Courts in seeing that justice is done and
that it is speedily done.

5. THE MORTGAGE AS A CONSENSUAL
TRANSACTION BETWEEN PARTIES
• A mortgage in the simplest of terms, is a
secured loan contract in which the proprietary
interest in the secured property is enforceable
by the lender (the mortgagee) against the
borrower (the mortgagor) where the terms of
the loan contract either fixed by the parties or
imposed by law are breached, or where the
mortgagor is unable to make good his
covenant to repay the mortgage money
secured by the property.

6. • It is a consensual arrangement between
parties;
• It involves the transfer of proprietary interest
to the mortgagee;
• The mortgagor retains a reversionary interest;
• Disputes will usually arise when a party seeks
to enforce his own proprietary right in the
mortgage property

7. POWER OF THE COURT TO ORDER A
SALE ( SECTION 25 OF THE MPL, 2010)

8. TO GRANT OR NOT TO GRANT –
POWER OF COURTS TO GRANT
INJUNCTIONS (SECTION 26, MPL,
2010)

9. EXPEDITED HEARING OF ACTIONS ON
BASED MORTGAGE TRANSACTIONS

10. ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION IN
MORTGAGE TRANSACTIONS

11. REMEDY WHERE THERE IS A NON-
COMPLIANCE WITH THE LAW

12. CONCLUSION