you will never be scammed in your village in city you need CID to rent house evry body oya to the village

nice one but ...why wiil i pay for Uncompleted building am i the landlord?

or better yet, plan towards owing your house. You can achieve this in lieu of NHF and Primary Mortgage Institutions. Get that loan!!

Very Informative. A perfect guide, especially for tenants in Lagos.

Informative but desperation makes people forget all these rules.

Watzhup: Informative but desperation makes people forget all these rules.

Quite True

We need a better solution to this. Let me get back to you.

Good work Lawyer, based on experience on the job never pay for an uncompleted apartment and do not pay for an apartment that has a sitting tenant in it. Pay and park in immediately and take physical possession.

Watzhup: Informative but desperation makes people forget all these rules.

people will still brake the rule n be scammed

turawafett: Good work Lawyer, based on experience on the job never pay for an uncompleted apartment and do not pay for an apartment that has a sitting tenant in it. Pay and park in immediately and take physical possession.

Someone I know [my mom's junior cousin] is currently going through accommodation palava after failing to do the above
He's squatting with my mom while his wife and children are with her mom whilst his would-be-landlord has been telling him to hold on since early December
Pathetic

Cunning man die...cunning man burial am

Very good information but i beg to disagree with your paragraph 1 & 5 respectively. it is not compulsory you get a lawyer involved, because that is not an assurance that all will be well, we have seen cases where lawyers too are culpable. so getting a lawyer should be an optional thing but not compulsory. 2.you advise that a prospective tenant should not pay in full for an uncompleted building, i also disagree because it is this same money in question that will be use for the completion of the building, so if half or part is paid, the building might not be completed as planned. All the same thanks for the info.

momodub: you will never be scammed in your village in city you need CID to rent house evry body oya to the village

Meet the Landlord, the house was completed but gave the landlord a week to get the key and still got duped. Took me over 4 months to nab the landlord and still havent collected all my money ( even after involving SFU). Take all the neccesary steps which would reduce your being duped but still keep your eyes open.

r they a learner?

basadenet: Very good information but i beg to disagree with your paragraph 1 & 5 respectively. it is not compulsory you get a lawyer involved, because that is not an assurance that all will be well, we have seen cases where lawyers too are culpable. so getting a lawyer should be an optional thing but not compulsory. 2.you advise that a prospective tenant should not pay in full for an uncompleted building, i also disagree because it is this same money in question that will be use for the completion of the building, so if half or part is paid, the building might not be completed as planned. All the same thanks for the info.

I sincerely wonder if u tink u r wiser dan king solomon to ignore d importance of a lawyer. D OP has pointed out all d pitfalls (in ideal situations) and ua here pickin holes in his essay. Weda u use a lawyer or nt or weda u pay in full or nt, one tin is important...akonuche!!! So as to avoid ...had I known.

.

Na wah!!! Lawyer sef dey take style advertise him job. Good tip sha, I tell u, if u really need house, u'll forget those tips and count on luck/prayer.

jmichael:

I sincerely wonder if u tink u r wiser dan king solomon to ignore d importance of a lawyer. D OP has pointed out all d pitfalls (in ideal situations) and ua here pickin holes in his essay. Weda u use a lawyer or nt or weda u pay in full or nt, one tin is important...akonuche!!! So as to avoid ...had I known.

i am not picking any hole in his assertion here, but merely expressing my personal views which is not binding on anybody including you. But remember with all precautions in place, somebody can still be a victim, that's why most businesses or plans with foolproof feasibility study still fail.

Mba and Dudu Eko ile - Are you listening re: Lagos is a safe city...

“I stay in Mushin and at least three people have been killed in the area in the past one week. I decided to leave the area because it is not safe and my tenancy had already expired"

Point 8 is very valid. As a matter of fact,if possible,change the keys/locks immediately they are handed to you. Such keys can be duplicated and given to more than one person. I've seen a situation where an agent took someone to a house and tried to open the doors with his keys. Fortunately, the tenant knew he wasn't going to be available in the country for six months and changed all the locks as soon as he paid for the flat.

This is highly useful.

I have a friend that fell for all this agent scam wahala..

they have been in court ever since

I was once a victim in 2009,I rented a room,and parlour self-contain to the tune of 180000,never knew the man has rented it to 7 other prospective tenants. it was hell,I didn't recover a dime from the agent,cos he absconded.thank God I'm not married,it would have been worst.. I had to pay for another place,after squatting witha friend for like 3 months. Thank God,Rest is History now. I live in a bigger,and tushed place now.

alfredo4u: r they A learner?

English

Nice post

lawyer:

Oga I hail ooo! Unfortunately i dont do Tenancy or Agency work so am not advertising anything here. Am just giving free advice on how to prevent people like yourself from being scammed in future based on my own personal experience and what i have read or heard from people over the years concerning this scourge.

Also people saying stuffs like when desperation arises they will forget these rules are very wrong. If you read these rules and study them at heart, even if am talking Nonsense, you will remember 1 or 2 things i have said before parting away with your money. No matter the desperation you experience after reading this rules, i dont think you will want to shell out money to a landlord without knowing who he is or what he looks like. If such a person does that after reading this rules, he or she should expect no sympathy from anyone after that. Whats the essence of reading this rules?

People cannot continue to come on Nairaland everyday to joke and talk rubbish about romance or politics without learning 1 or 2 serious things from articles like this that can save your life and or protect your money. We are all victims of past experiences like this and the only thing we can do to make the world a better place is by helping each other to prevent such pitfalls in future.

Finally to my good friend that said Lawyers are not necessary when doing a search for a tenancy issue, please read properly what i wrote. I said a Lawyer is necessary to help you review past contracts, agreements, leases, power of attorney etc so as to help you confirm the genuineness of the owner. Lawyers too fall victim of shady landlords like this but when it comes to reviewing documents that relate with the Landlord or Agents, nobody is more equipped to do so other than Lawyers and i also wrote if you choose not to use the services of a Lawyer, there are 8 Do it Yourself tips to avoid being scammed.

Cheers

Nice one @OP....i learnt a lot from ds!

Wow, nice post. Wt renting accomodation in Lagos, one needs all the advice & tips available.

I can't even imagine getting duped after using almost a year to save for a decent accomodation tht I can raise a family inside

People wicked for this life oh.

My Mum Fell victim of this kind of scam somtim in 2003 in ikorodu. We were tenants in TOS benson estate (aka marwa estate) owutu, ikorodu. Our LandLord sold d house to aonther person who den gave my mum quit notice becos he desperately needed the house. According to him (the now 'new Landlord'), something or sombody was going to kill him if he does not move out fast from where he was to where we are (the appartment he jst bought). Since our rent had expired abt dt tym and we could nt renew it, my mum statd lookin for another apartment. My mum wx pregnant wt our last born xo we were desperate to move out b4 her due date of delivery. She paid for a new house (2 bedroom flat) arond benson bustop and she was even given d keys to d apartment. The day we went ther wt buckets and mop and brooms to wash the house (wt the sweet mind of moving-in the folowin day or next),the locks had been changed and the keys we were having couldn't open d doors both front nd back. It was like a film. Me, my mum, my yonger sis and bro were jst confused. My kid bro who was abt 5 years den was asking my mum why we were standing outside insteand of going in 2 waash d apartment. We went back home. My mum was jst confused but she styl had a feeln she got the wrong keys becos she and d agent came to d house and he opend d doors wt d keys and dat wx wen she assesd d palce b4 paying d rent for 2-years. The following day, she went to the agents office and there she met 3-men who had also been scamed wt the same apartment. The agent had collected rent frm about four tenants on d same apartment. My mum was the lastt person dat paid from them all. The soldier was d one who changed the keys wen he and 2 others were draging abt who the real tenant is. In all of these, the agents Phantom ofice wx locked and the agent wx no where to be found. To cut the long story short, that was haw my mum was duped of #175,000 back in 2003. That was wht made us relocate to ondo state till 2day.