RURAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE IN COLLABORATION WITH SPACES FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL CHANGE 

TALK SHOP ON LANDLORDS/TENANTS RIGHTS

18/3/2016

Lagos state being the smallest state in Nigeria has a steaming population of over 20, 000, 000 people living in it which makes the number of houses to be less than the number of people. This has pose has a major challenge for the people as it is so difficult to get an accommodation.

Due to the high demand for accommodation, majority of the landlords charge exorbitant rents from their tenants and also inconvenience their tenant simply because they owned the houses and leaving the tenant to abide by their strict rules as the tenant will not find it easy getting an accommodation elsewhere. Also some people that are desperately seeking for an accommodation often times fall victims in the hands of fraudsters who gives false claims on the ownership of a particular property. In the other hand some tenants fail to abide by some rules laid down by their landlords such as keeping the compound clean or refuses to pay their rents or refused to pay for damages of things destroyed in their apartments.

All these centers on the lack of information on the information on Land use act lay down by the government for people to follow. Series of cases has been addressed over this issue and more of the same problems keep surfacing; which is why Spaces for change and Rural and Urban Development Initiative engage landlords and tenants in Ebute-Metta (west) Lagos Mainland on a talk shop to discuss the rights of landlords and their tenants.

The discussion was based on knowing the facts before paying like asking questions in oral or writing such as:

      How much is the rent?

      Terms (number of months, years, weeks, etc as agreed)

      Does the landlord own the property?

      Has the landlord given possession and control of the premises to the tenant?

      Is there an agreement to rent between the parties?

Also, the duties of the landlords and tenants are specified

Landlord

Landlord has rights to receive the rent fixed when due; to be informed when repairs are to be made; to inspect the premises after a written notice has been given to that effect notifying the tenant about the proposed inspection; to insist that the tenant maintain the premises in a tenantable (fit for human living) state throughout the tenancy; and to insist that the tenant pays all existing and future rates and charges not payable by the landlord by law.

Tenant

Tenant has right to privacy; access to property has agreed; use of own property alone; and to insist that landlord pays taxes imposed by law and insures the property.

Room was given to the audience for question and answers and a landlord asked that he told his tenants to put of their generators when its 12:00 mid-night and turn it on 5:00am for security reasons but the tenants didn’t accept it.

Answer: there should a sort of collective agreement among the community members since it’s for the common good of the people and also place public notice of the hour generators should be used.

Another question came from a landlord as per leakages an the house and repairs

Answer: major repairs should be done by the landlords while minor repairs should be done by the tenants according to the law.

Additional information was made on the agreements and agency charges of nowadays are too high it should be 10% and not the Shylock charges of this day e.g house rent-age agreement per annum is 36% which is N36,000, for two years will be N72, 000 an for agent which is 10% per annum and for two years is N7,200 which is the proper agreement and agent fee not the N50, 000  and N60, 000

  collected for agreement and agent fees this days.