It is not unusual to find tenants claiming they are being illegally evicted by their landlords, so the question is what constitutes illegal eviction? The process of carrying out eviction largely determines if a tenant is being illegally evicted or not. Here is a guide to determine if you are being or have been illegally evicted.

1. LENGTH OF QUIT NOTICE: According to S.13 of Lagos Tenancy Law, 2011 and similar legislation in other states of the federation of Nigeria, If the tenant and the landlord fails to agree to a specific quit notice period, the following notices automatically applies;
Tenant at will - a week’s notice
Monthly tenant - one month’s notice
Quarterly tenant - three months notice
Half-yearly tenant - three months notice
Yearly tenant - six months notice
Where a yearly tenant who is entitled to six months notice is given a 3 months’ notice contrary to the provisions of the law, then such a tenant is being illegally evicted and therefore has a right before a court of law to challenge such notice. More so because inadequate notice is fundamental to the validity of the quit notice in the eyes of the law and cannot be overlooked by any judge. An inadequate notice is a very good reason by any judge to dismiss an eviction case against a tenant and order service of a fresh notice in compliance with the statutory provision.

2. DATE OF QUIT NOTICE: While some landlords ignorantly serve inadequate quit notices, some in a bid to outsmart the tenant with the impression of serving adequate notice, backdate the notice to appear in line with the provisions of the law. For instance, a yearly tenant who pays rent to cover January to December 2017 is required to be given a 6 months quit notice, which can either be from July to December 2017 or from January to December 2018 (whichever is applicable) but the landlord instead serves the quit notice in October 2017 and dates it July 2017 with an expiration date of December 2017. In practical terms, what this means is that the tenant has just been served a 3 months’ notice from October to December 2017 and not a 6 months’ notice .A tenant who fails to check the date on such backdated quit notice before receiving or acknowledging it is in the process of being illegally evicted. It is not uncommon to find tenants who ignorantly fail to check the date on the quit notice later cry foul at the landlord’s act. If you are a tenant out there ensure that you check the date of a quit notice before receiving or acknowledging it.

3. EVICTION BY UNAUTHORISED POLICE OFFICERS
It is not unusual especially in Lagos to see police officers throwing out tenant’s properties on the directive of the landlord. The question therefore is, do the police officers have the legal right to do so? It is so prevalent to see them carry out such act that it now appears even normal and legal but the truth is that the police has no right whatsoever to throw out a tenant’s property except such act is backed by an authorized court order. The ideal and proper way for police officers to carry out an eviction is to appear at the premises with a copy of the court judgment authorizing eviction before actually carrying it out. As a tenant, if police officers appear at your doorstep with no court order to evict you, such eviction is illegal.

So if you find yourself a victim of any of the above cases, you are definitely being illegally evicted and you can get legal representation to challenge such illegal eviction.