VACANT POSSESSION ‘HOW TO EVICT TENANTS


You would rarely find houses for sale that are vacant. In reality,a lot of home buyers expect this and area often disappointed to find most properties for sale are tenanted.

Therefore, no sooner is the sale concluded,that the buyer is already telling the tenant to move out within a month or two!
Now such moves if they are not made with proper education from the legal point of view could end up in disaster. It is often said that “the law is on the side of the tenant.” Whether this is true or not, certain technicalities and points have to be observed before giving notice to a tenant to vacate an apartment.
The position of the law is that you inherit the tenants with the house. What this means is that all the tenants’ rights and obligations to the landlord remain the same wheather there is a new landlord or not.
You need to act like an informed person so you can get the tenant to move in the shortest possible time.
Find out their tenancy anniversary or terminal date. This presumes a tenancy period e.g 1st January,1996 -31st December, 1996 (Yearly tenant). The terminal date is 31st December, 1996.
Study a copy of the tenancy agreed period, of notice to terminal or quit, 3 months? 6 months?
Generally, tenancies require the following notice, depending on location (could vary from state to state) and mode of payment.
1. Monthly payments – 1 months notice
2. 3-monthly payments – 3 months notice
3. 6- monthly payment – 3 months notice
4. One year payment – 6 months notice. ( sometimes 3 months by mutual agreement)
Invite all the tenants to a meeting and inform them that you need the house for your personal use and agree on time to move within reasonable limit. This is a gentleman’s agreement and should be in writing. You may, however, not have the cooperation of all the tenants like you envisaged, and you may need to resort to legal steps to get a tenant to leave.
Steps to Take.
Quit Notice
Instruct your solicitor/realtor to issue a quit notice, giving the required period of notice which must be observed to give validity to the notice. If the notice is shorter than the required period, it could be set aside and that could mean your waiting until next year’s tenancy anniversary.
Some tenants are, however, ignorant and may be frightened off once the notice is given.
Seven Days Notice
After issuing a proper notice, the tenant may remain until the notice lapses for several reasons. If this is so, your lawyer should proceed to give a seven- day notice of an intention to commence an action in court. Usually, by this time, most tenants would have moved out to avoid court appearances except for stubborn ones.
Next, a court summons is served on the tenant accordingly. The amount of rent the tenants pay influence which court is able to hear the case.
Customary Court and above Magistrate.
These sums vary from location to location within the 36 states of the federation and would be higher in commercial cities like Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja. To avoid this bracket, some people do not sue for money. They just insist on vacant possession. The lower courts dispense of these cases a bit faster and more decisively and so people prefer to remain within the customary and magistrate courts. The High Court processes lead to several adjournments, thus wasting valuable time. Once judgement has been delivered usually giving the tenant one more month within which to move.
– prepare a writ of possession (FIFA)
-what follows is vacant possession as court baliffs, policemen and other law enforcers cooperate to forcefully eject such tenants.
Lastly, some other people resort to unorthodox (and therefore, illegal) methods to eject the tenant. The aim being to make life uncomfortable for the tenant, of which may include some of the following:
-disconnecting electricity
-using heaps of sand or gravel to block off the entrance gate.
-removing windows and doors and even part of the roof .
-begin repairs while tenants are still in place.
Even though these method may prove effective in the short term, they could boomerang if the tenant successfully proves its illegality and deliberately prolong settlement of the matter.
These methods are not recommended and could lead to disastrous law suits against the landlord.
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