On Nigeria’s endless landlord-tenant rift

The landlord is an owner of land i.e. an estate, a house, undeveloped land, and anyone with anything that is a chattel can be called a landlord. Conversely, a tenant is that person who uses or leases an asset from a landlord in exchange for monetary payment. When you look at the factor inputs, you’ll […]

The landlord is an owner of land i.e. an estate, a house, undeveloped land, and anyone with anything that is a chattel can be called a landlord. Conversely, a tenant is that person who uses or leases an asset from a landlord in exchange for monetary payment.

When you look at the factor inputs, you’ll know that the landlord, his benefit is called rent and the benefit of capital is profit, and the benefit of labour is wages; these are the factors of production.

Therefore, there is a relationship between a landlord and a tenant. The landlord gives up possession of his property to a tenant who possesses and occupies in return for rent to the landlord. So there must be parties and consideration. Once there are these three in any contract for a tenancy or lease, a legal relationship is established.

Based on these, there are obligations on both parties. Primarily, the obligation on the part of the landlord is to provide the accommodation free of any encumbrances, to grant peaceful enjoyment to the tenant for a period of time.

The tenant is also under obligation to pay his rent at the due time, to yield up possession of the property when the tenancy is determined.

So when you see parties going to court, it means there is a breach; somebody somewhere is not acting properly according to the agreement. Mostly, it is the tenant that refuses to pay his rent or breaches part of the agreement. The landlord, therefore, attempts to address the breach. It is when the tenant refuses that the landlord goes to court to ensure that the tenant complies with the terms of the agreement.

Today, the number of cases between landlords and tenants in Nigerian courts is overwhelming because many tenants are not paying their rent, perhaps due to the economic conditions.

But we have the Tenancy and Recovery of Premises Act in the FCT. It provides for monthly as well as annual tenancies but then the agreement between parties is personal; what the government does is only to regulate what happens in the rental market.

Monthly tenancies are mostly not feasible because they create a lot of management issues. Just imagine it; you’re collecting rent just once in a year and yet it doesn’t come at the due time. What happens when it is monthly rent?

Secondly, rents are a function of demand and supply. They are not determined by the salaries of individuals, so it is dicey. When parties recognise that rental income is the right of the landlord, and the provision of housing is also the right of the tenant then there will be respect between the two.

In advanced economies we look at the rental market as an investment option, meaning that the capital being deployed by the landlord to build or develop a particular property has opportunity cost. He could keep that money in the bond market and surely get his returns at the end of the year.

In other climes, the moment a tenancy agreement is drafted by a qualified solicitor, it is registered in court as a consent judgment so you don’t even need to litigate, and if there is a breach, it is the tenant that should rush to court for protection from ejection; not the landlord asking for his money.

But unfortunately in Nigeria, it is the landlord that goes to court seeking to collect his money. That is why we have capital flight; Nigerians go to advanced economies to invest because they are sure their rent will come when it is due.

So until we make the law in such a way that the tenant goes to court to seek protection, we won’t get it right, and the moment that is done, the housing supply will increase then prices will go down.

 

Esv. Adamu Kasimu is an Abuja-based estate surveyor and valuer.