Building Lines Regulations Law

BUILDING LINES REGULATIONS LAW

1. Citation This Law may be cited as the Building Lines Regulation Law.

2. Interpretation. (1) In this Law- "Appropriate Authority" means the member of the Government of the State for the time being charged with responsibility for public work; "Create an Obstruction" includes to erect any building, or to plant any tree, or to plant any permanent crop, or to erect any structure of a permanent nature; "Permanent Crops" includes any tree valuable as food and trees having a trade value for their natural products but does not include any crop which requires to be sown and reaped within a period of twelve months; "Road" means any thoroughfare used by the public and includes any thoroughfare under construction; "State" means Delta State of Nigeria; "Structure of a permanent nature" means any structure whatsoever which once having been erected is of such a nature that it cannot be removed within twelve months after notice without damage thereto. (2) For the purposes of this Law the re-erecting of any building taken or fallen down to or below the top of the ground floor, or of any frame building of which only the framework is left down to the top of the ground floor or the conversion into a dwelling house of any building not originally constructed for human habitation, and any structural addition to a building shall be considered the erection of a building.

3. Roads to which Law applies. The appropriate authority may by order direct that this Law shall apply to any road mentioned in such order.

4. No obstruction to be created within 100 ft road. No person shall, otherwise than as may be allowed by an order under section 5, create an obstruction within one hundred feet of the centre line of any road to which this Law applies or plant any crop which requires to be sown and reaped within a period of twelve months upon any ground occupied by any such road or the drains adjacent thereto.

5. Power to reduce distance. (1) The appropriate authority may by the same order applying the provisions of this Law to any road or by any other order substitute for the distance of one hundred feet in section 4 such lesser distance not being less than fifty feet as he may after inquiry consider most satisfactory. (2) An order under this section may be made to apply to any specified portion of any named road and may vary in respect of different portions of the same road.

6. Penalty. Any person who shall create or cause to be created an obstruction in contravention of section 4 or of any order under section 5 shall be liable to a fine of five thousand naira.

7. Power to remove obstruction. (1) The Senior Engineer in charge of the Division may cause any building or part thereof which has been or is being created or any other obstruction which has been created or is being created in contravention of section 4 or of an order under section 5, or any natural obstruction within one hundred feet of the centre of any road to which this Law applies, to be pulled down or removed. (2) When any expense has been incurred in the pulling down or removing of any building or any part thereof or of any other obstruction as aforesaid, such expense may be recovered in a summary manner from the person who created the obstruction pulled down or removed or from the person who caused the same to be created.

8. Jurisdiction of customary courts. A customary court shall have jurisdiction to the extent of its jurisdiction to impose the penalties prescribed by section 6 on any person subject to the jurisdiction of such court who shall be guilty of a contravention of the provisions of this Law or of any order made hereunder and in the case of a contravention of the Law or of any order the court may order any such person to pay any expense incurred in pulling down or removing the obstruction or part thereof created or being created in contravention of this Law or of any order.

9. Right to take material to maintain roads and construct drainage works. The authorities responsible for the up-keep of any road to which this Law may take from within one hundred feet of the centre line of such road or such lesser distance as may be substituted by order under section 5 such materials as may be necessary for the maintenance of the road and may construct and maintain within the area as aforesaid all drainage works necessary for the maintenance of the said road.

10. Exemptions. The provisions of section 4, 6 and 7 shall not apply to any structure of a permanent nature erected or to any permanent crops planted on any land before the provisions of this Law have been applied to that land.