House owners must pay tenement rate – AMAC official
What is the justification for going ahead with the enforcement of tenement rate? Tenement rate is statutory revenue that is provided under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as part of the revenue collectable by the local government councils. In the case of AMAC, the forth schedule section 7 of the Nigerian […]
What is the justification for going ahead with the enforcement of tenement rate?
Tenement rate is statutory revenue that is provided under the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as part of the revenue collectable by the local government councils. In the case of AMAC, the forth schedule section 7 of the Nigerian constitution provides that the local governments access, demand and collect tenement rates from owners of properties that are existing in the area council and basically, that is what we are doing in accordance with that formations of the law. Also, to give the provisions further backing, our own legislative arm, that is the council also created bye laws that guide the operations of the collections of this particular revenue item.
Where is the fund being generated to?
It is being generated to the council’s coffers and it is not supposed to be for a particular person, it is for the council and the council is the third arm of government, and so the revenue is for government.
What are the criteria AMAC usually use in billing house owners?
There is a procedure in accessing the properties under the Abuja Area Council, what we do is that we normally appoint estate agents who go to these properties and value them and give us the current value of such property. And how we arrive at the rate which we charge occupants of the properties is simply through calculating 4 naira per every 100 naira. For instance, if a property is valued at 100 naira, for every one naira, we charge 4.00kobo and that is how we arrive at the rate that each occupier pays.
How often are the occupants meant to pay these charges?
It is an annual charge that should be paid to the council by occupants or owners of properties within the FCT.
What happens to those that fail to pay the charges?
We take legal action against them and there are processes before we even arrive at the legal actions. First of all, any occupant of property that refuses to pay the charges will be given a demand notice and this notice will contain devalue of his property, how much is the rate chargeable and how much is your total bill, if at all you have outstanding liabilities, we will sum it up into the current bill and also, if you have arrears, you would be fined on that arrears and you will get a penalty. After that, the first thing we do is to serve you demand notice which will give you a specification of all the charges you are supposed to pay, how much you are supposed to pay and then we give you an interval of 21 days notice and after the 21 days, if the person doesn’t pay, we give that person another 14 days reminder notice to enable you pay and then, if he doesn’t respond, we give him another seven days final reminder and if he doesn’t pay before the final reminder period, then we serve him intention to prosecute , we take him before a court of law and once a court order is obtained, we seal his property because he has refused to pay, but we don’t go to seal properties without having order from the court.
In a situation where the owner of the property have rented out the property to a tenant, and he is not making any effort to pay this charges, what would happen to that property?
It is an issue of tenancy and for us in the council; we are not familiar with the actual owner of the property so when we come to a property to inspect and charge, the person occupying that property is the first person liable for the payment of this bill. If the occupant has a landlord, it is the duty of that occupant to go to his landlord and tender his complains to him and some landlords will tell the tenants to go and pay if they have the money, they will remove it from their next bill, and sometimes, the landlord pays the bill without the intervention of the occupants, so we as a council, we don’t want to know who is the landlord, we will face whomever is occupying the property because we assume you are the owner because even if we decide to seal the property, it is the occupant that will suffer the consequences so we always advice tenants to discuss with their landlords and see how they settle issues amicably.
Residence most times complain about the high rate of the tenement rates and they are not getting value for what they must have paid for, how true is that?
Getting value is a relative term because what may be value to me may not be value to you, but I can assure you that there is no person in this municipal that would say he is not using one government facility or the other. The tarred roads they are plying on are they the ones that built them? Is it not government money, the public schools that they send their children to and also the public hospitals they visit whenever they are sick, the infrastructures, is it not government money? So what is the value they are talking about? They are all government money.
Which account does the tenement rate goes into?
The money goes into the council’s account and the constitution has made it so and the local government council is responsible for collecting tenement rate. The 1999 constitution has amended it that it is the local government that has the responsibility of accessing, demanding and collecting tenement rates, therefore, it is not federal government revenue, it is local government revenue and it remains in the local government for the purpose of the development of the grassroots.