1. A landlord has no power to increase rent to the tenant without agreement by both of them.

2. A tenant can refuse to pay any increase in rent imposed by his landlord without discussion and agreement.

3. Where government prescribe standard rent for some particular areas, the landlord should not accept any rent from the tenant that is more than the amount of money prescribed by the government.

4. In those areas that have standard rent prescribed by the government, the landlord and the tenant cannot agree on any rent that is more than the prescribed rent.

5. But where there is no government prescribed standard rent, the landlord and tenant can agree on any amount as rent.

6. A tenant is empowered by law to recover unlawfully increased rent from the landlord.

7. Any rent paid to the landlord in advance is a mere loan to the landlord. And if the building is sold to a new landlord before the rent paid expires, the tenant should go to the former landlord to collect his balance.

8. In a situation where a tenant has paid rent in advance, the landlord cannot lawfully serve him with notices and eventually eject him before the expiration of the time he has paid. However, the landlord may succeed to eject him if he has breached the tenancy agreement or has converted the accommodation to brothel.

9. If a tenant has been paying rent to a landlord, he cannot later claim that he is not his landlord.

10. If a landlord wants to use thugs or police to force a tenant out of his lawful accommodation, the tenant should immediately brief a lawyer who should go to court to obtain an order to stop the landlord from implementing his plan, that is to use self-help or thugs to force the tenant out.

11. Usually an average court would grant such application to stop the landlord from using crude or unlawful system to eject a tenant from his lawful accommodation.




Source: http://onomerealtor..com.ng/2017/03/important-information-for-tenant.html