Good morning people,

I created this account to seek the best solution to the problem I encountered in my place of residence. Please this is a long read, but bear with me.

I moved in to a two-bedroom aparment in Aguda Surulere on 14th of June, 2020. When I moved in, there was a new electricity prepaid meter in the apartment. The landlady told me she paid 10k upfront for me (when she was obtaining the meter). She said I can top-up as I continue to use the meter). I thanked her. And moved in.

Yesterday, 31st August 2020, because of the rumor of tarrif increase, I went to top-up the electricity units. After several trials, the lady told me something seems to be wrong with my meter. She directed me to an office where the woman told me that I have a debt of N77,200 on the meter. I was shocked.

I have never head of pushing bills from post-paid meter into a prepaid meter. The breakdown is that there is an existing debt of N70,000 before I moved in. The remaining N7,200 is the one I have been using since I moved in. This means that the landlady did not pay any money as she claimed! But no problem, I was willing to pay for what I used, but NO, the lady said the system cannot accept part payment, that I have to pay the whole amount of N77,200

I called the landlady there and then, and she was sounding both surprised and rude too. She told me that she wants to speak with the office lady, I handed in my phone and the woman confirmed to her that there is a debt in the prepaid meter! When I took the phone, the landlady started saying something along the lines of “there was an analog meter before I changed to prepaid, the meter is new, ......” She said that when I come back to the house that she will explain further.

I called my agent (a very responible family man) and told him. He drove down to PHCN office where I was, confirmed the debt and we drove to my compound to see the landlady (she lives in the compound too). She explained that the analog meter have a huge amount of debt before, according to her up to 600k! She paid 75% to enable the PHCN people to give them her the meter (I cannot verify this information). She said she did not know that they still added the remaining 25% to the prepaid meter bill that is why she did not mention it to me because she thought she was fully cleared with PHCN.

After the explanation, the agent now asked her, “now that you know that the debt was not fully cleared, what is the solution?”. This woman looked at me and said “she will pay it nah”. I said, “me?” that was when I burst into tears. She and the agent got into a loud arguement, the agent told her she was wicked and blablabla..

The landlady was again very rude. She said we can talk to the property lawyer (who is of course under her payroll). She walked into her apartment and closed the door. I have called the property lawyer myself and he has not been picking my calls.

Right now, I do not know the best way to handle this situation. What should I do?

Note that I cannot recharge my units until the debt is cleared. So once the existing unit is exhausted, I will not have light in my apartment.

All through my moving process, neither she nor the lawyer mentioned this to me.

Last night, I talked a neighbour of mine who told me that the landlady is a retiree of PHCN! I was shocked. Maybe that explains why she was able to obtain a meter without clearing the debt from the analog meter.

Property lawyers please offer me advice. Going legal will cost me a lot of money, that I do not have. Please help me with free advice.

Mods, please help me push this to front page, I don't want to pay a debt I know nothing about.


Edit: Thank you to all those responding. Your comments are very soothing. For those saying that I should move out: please I cannot afford to move out now. I paid a one and half year rent in this place (N1.35M) + agency and agreement fee of N300,000 + caution deposit of N100,000. Plus all the repairs I did in this house before I moved in. Plus I moved in June at the heat of Corona, and my job was negetively affected.

How do I comment now when you steal my FTC?
You created a topic and still went ahead to comment before other's.

Anyway, after Police fear NEPA,,,,,,,, a retiree for that matter ahh

Some people can be wicked Sha. 72k debt will be paid by you...... Please don't accept it

Pay the PHCN money and deduct the amount you paid from her rent when it's due.
Tell her and her property lawyer to go to court.
Let the court decide.

She was not honest when you signed the tenancy agreement. Let's see what the judge thinks of that

I just discovered I have a similar issue. I have been trying to recharge from my mobile app since yesterday but all efforts has proven abortive. When i moved in 3 weeks back, i was able to recharge the prepaid meter. I tried this morning again only to notice i have a debt of 88k to clear before I could buy more units

phcnmeterdebt:
Good morning people,

I created this account to seek the best solution to the problem I encountered in my place of residence. Please this is a long read, but bear with me.

I moved in to a two-bedroom aparment in Aguda Surulere on 14th of June, 2020. When I moved in, there was a new electricity prepaid meter in the apartment. The landlady told me she paid 10k upfront for me (when she was obtaining the meter). She said I can top-up as I continue to use the meter). I thanked her. And moved in.

Yesterday, 31st August 2020, because of the rumor of tarrif increase, I went to top-up the electricity units. After several trials, the lady told me something seems to be wrong with my meter. She directed me to an office where the woman told me that I have a debt of N77,200 on the meter. I was shocked.

I have never head of pushing bills from post-paid meter into a prepaid meter. The breakdown is that there is an existing debt of N70,000 before I moved in. The remaining N7,200 is the one I have been using since I moved in. This means that the landlady did not pay any money as she claimed! But no problem, I was willing to pay for what I used, but NO, the lady said the system cannot accept part payment, that I have to pay the whole amount of N77,200

I called the landlady there and then, and she was sounding both surprised and rude too. She told me that she wants to speak with the office lady, I handed in my phone and the woman confirmed to her that there is a debt in the prepaid meter! When I took the phone, the landlady started saying something along the lines of “there was an analog meter before I changed to prepaid, the meter is new, ......” She said that when I come back to the house that she will explain further.

I called my agent (a very responible family man) and told him. He drove down to PHCN office where I was, confirmed the debt and we drove to my compound to see the landlady (she lives in the compound too). She explained that the analog meter have a huge amount of debt before, according to her up to 600k! She paid 75% to enable the PHCN people to give them her the meter (I cannot verify this information). She said she did not know that they still added the remaining 25% to the prepaid meter bill that is why she did not mention it to me because she thought she was fully cleared with PHCN.

After the explanation, the agent now asked her, “now that you know that the debt was not fully cleared, what is the solution?”. This evil woman looked at me and said “she will pay it nah”. I said, “me?” that was when I burst into tears. She and the agent got into a loud arguement, the agent told her she was wicked and blablabla..

The landlady was again very rude. She said we can talk to the property lawyer (who is of course under her payroll). She walked into her apartment and closed the door. I have called the property lawyer myself and he has not been picking my calls.

Right now, I do not know the best way to handle this situation. What should I do?

Note that I cannot recharge my units until the debt is cleared. So once the existing unit is exhausted, I will not have light in my apartment.

All through my moving process, neither she nor the lawyer mentioned this to me.

Such a pity. That debt is most likely from estimated billing of the previous resident. You should verify your landlady claims (I believe she's lying to you) and find out what was going on before you rented the apartment (with the previous tenant) so you can make a proper/genuine complaint to nerc.

A better option to the above which may take time is to move out and try compelling the agent to go get you the the money you paid as rent citing falsehood.

I personally don't see an easy or a quick way out of this. Let's see what others will advise.

bkool7:
Pay the PHCN money and deduct the amount you paid from her rent when it's due.
Tell her and her property lawyer to go to court.
Let the court decide.

She was not honest when you signed the tenancy agreement. Let's see what the judge thinks of that

OP this is another option you can explore in addition to what I suggested above.

Another angle is if you want to avoid lawyer expenses.
You can go to court first. Make sure you go to Landlord and Tenant Mediation Court. It's after the National Stadium when going to Ojuelegba

Do not pay a single dime.

Go to Mediation centre if you cannot afford to go to court.

Op move out of the house.. E no worth the talk.

I'll suggest 2 options;
1) Go to mediation centre and you'll be glad you did, if you can be patient.
2) pay the 77k and move on, if you don't want necessary headaches. It's less than 5% of what you've paid.
Pls Dont move out, and taking her to court might be costly for you.