i thank GOD o i have a wonderful landlady she collects her rent monthly from me. Initially she used to collect yearly but just last year december she called me and said i should be paying monthly and it should not exceed 1 to 3rd day of each month, which i always thank GOD that ve not disappoint her.

So annoying indeed. That is why I ve not being able to secure a good place for over two months now.
I wonder why this so called landlords are doing like this.

motunrayo2:

i thank GOD o i have a wonderful landlady she collects her rent monthly from me. Initially she used to collect yearly but just last year december she called me and said i should be paying monthly and it should not exceed 1 to 3rd day of each month, which i always thank GOD that ve not disappoint her.

keep praying for that your landlady.

The reason why landlords/ladies collect two years rent is because people are not trusworthy. you can imagine that a tenant is owing a widow (who relies on rent for upkeep) 3 months rent. yet this tenant can afford to fuel his generator all night long and even change his car. isn't that wicked? thats the reason most people collect rent in advance.

Well,is a nice comment u'v made but the tenant was wrng for maltreating a wisdow lyk dat, but smetimes we create problems 4 ourselves ,sme landlord r nice bt we tennat wil wnt to tak d advantage 4 granted, peace out!, *fiddytalk

Very upsetting, poster,

thats how i laboured and saved money to pay for a house worth350k / year. I rigourously saved money for 2 years rent with commission, security, cleaning and all included. Only to get there and i was told the landlord want 3 years.

Nonsense

God please crown our efforts in becoming a landlord ooo,

my ours is different in winners property .we have shops of six months payment.
017759224,07069492035,08051604757.

ashengun:

my ours is different in winners property .we have shops of six months payment.
017759224,07069492035,08051604757.

I'm sure you're not providing shops in place of houses for people to live in just because of the difficulties. Almost everyone here is talking about accommodation - where to live in.

I think the reason is so simple, the landlords alongside with the agents depend mostly on the rent. Probably one year rent will not be enough for their needs.

@Post

I understand what you're trying to say but try to see things from the landlord's perspective sometimes (i believe you aim at becoming one someday). . .

Some landlords build houses for commercial purposes.Let's assume you cough out a few million to buy a piece of land in lekki, you use about 30-35 million to put up a four 3-bedroom flats.You now collect one year's rent.At the expiration of the rent, you expect the tenants to either pay for another year or move out.In some cases, you might have one or two tenants that might want to play games with you forcing you to give them quick notice and at the end of the day, your tenant will feel more comfortable spending less than 10% of what he or she should be paying you as rent to a resourceful lawyer that's good in tying up cases in court.At the end of the day, the tenant will spend years living free in your house and you would have spent more than what the tenant paid as rentage on lawyers.I am telling you this coz i am going through that right now and i have a tenant who has lived in my house since 2007 without paying one naira! Put yourself in that position and see how it feels.

So when they ask you for two or more years, don't blame them.They built the house to make money and even that two years rent doesn't assure them of making back their money in the next 20 years.Mind you, they also pay tenement rate to a govt that doesn't care whether there is a tenant living there or not.

End of!

motunrayo2:

i thank GOD o i have a wonderful landlady she collects her rent monthly from me. Initially she used to collect yearly but just last year december she called me and said i should be paying monthly and it should not exceed 1 to 3rd day of each month, which i always thank GOD that ve not disappoint her.

I pray for your landlady oh even though i dont know her or a direct beneficiary. God bless her for at least making some people's lives easier.

harakiri:

@Post

I understand what you're trying to say but try to see things from the landlord's perspective sometimes (i believe you aim at becoming one someday). . .

Some landlords build houses for commercial purposes.Let's assume you cough out a few million to buy a piece of land in lekki, you use about 30-35 million to put up a four 3-bedroom flats.You now collect one year's rent.At the expiration of the rent, you expect the tenants to either pay for another year or move out.In some cases, you might have one or two tenants that might want to play games with you forcing you to give them quick notice and at the end of the day, your tenant will feel more comfortable spending less than 10% of what he or she should be paying you as rent to a resourceful lawyer that's good in tying up cases in court.At the end of the day, the tenant will spend years living free in your house and you would have spent more than what the tenant paid as rentage on lawyers.I am telling you this coz i am going through that right now and i have a tenant who has lived in my house since 2007 without paying one naira! Put yourself in that position and see how it feels.

So when they ask you for two or more years, don't blame them.They built the house to make money and even that two years rent doesn't assure them of making back their money in the next 20 years.Mind you, they also pay tenement rate to a govt that doesn't care whether there is a tenant living there or not.

End of!

I agree some tenants may be very difficult. From what u wrote it seems collecting 2 years rent is like postponing the evil day cos its no guarantee the tenant will pay on time on expiration of the initial payment. Maybe landlords should organize entrance interviews for prospective tenants and separate the good from the bad

The demand for housing especially in a place like Lagos is higher than supply and most houses are built by private investors as noted by some of the posters. As long as I use my money to build my house I can determine what I want especially if I took a loan to build it and I'm supposed to pay back the money and also make some profit.

The fact remains that government is not actively involved in providing housing and where they do, those houses are sold to civil servants and you find one director buying 10 houses and perpetuating the 2 years rent policy. When the bill for the prohibition of long rent was being debated in the Lagos House of Assembly I knew it would not see the light of day because who will enforce it? Is it the same people who are beneficiaries and who seriously do not have the interest of the common man at heart?

A Mini flat of one year is available at Asolo, Agric, Ikorodu. Fenced with gate @ 84,000 Naira onlý. One year only for a Nice R/P self contain.

Contact Olatunji @ 08062552955

liftedone:

The demand for housing especially in a place like Lagos is higher than supply and most houses are built by private investors as noted by some of the posters. As long as I use my money to build my house I can determine what I want especially if I took a loan to build it and I'm supposed to pay back the money and also make some profit.

The fact remains that government is not actively involved in providing housing and where they do, those houses are sold to civil servants and you find one director buying 10 houses and perpetuating the 2 years rent policy. When the bill for the prohibition of long rent was being debated in the Lagos House of Assembly I knew it would not see the light of day because who will enforce it? Is it the same people who are beneficiaries and who seriously do not have the interest of the common man at heart?

How do we get our government to be responsive to our plight? I believe there is still hope- at least for Lagos State (Fashola's government)

duno:

Off to check a potential one-year house. keep you posted!

House was no good as expected!

duno:

How do we get our government to be responsive to our plight?

@ duno, that is a very good question. Thankfully, the Lagos State government recognises the problem which is a good first step. Can this legislation be enforced if it's passed into law? I don't know the political will of the average person in our society fighting for something that doesn't direclty affect them. Even things that do, when you speak out you find that you are a minority and the people that are affected will not even stand by you, though you are fighting for the good of all. It all boils down to the Nigerian attitude of being unconcerned and continuing to suffer and smile.

Let me ask you, if you are in a position to build a house and let it out, would you be altruistic enough to give it out for only reasonable periods of time like the one year rent you are advocating?

I don't really mind paying the 2 years rent after all I paid 4 years straight where I live in Gbagada. the landlord needed money to complete the house. And I have time to plan and take my mind of rent for the next 4 years. But the most annoying part to me is the agent fee and commission. Those agent should be exiled to Maroko, They are wicked committee of vultures

4yrs bros i pray too be like you oh

I paid 2year rent for an apartment which i spent a lot to put in order e.g rewiring, painting, renovation of kitchen, toilet etc cos the landlord and his lawyer let it 'as it is' and i was desperately in need of accomodation. After 1 and half yrs the lawyer gave me a letter of 100% increment though i protested, pleaded and negotiated but my landlord and his lawyer arm twisted, threatened me to pay about 85% increment. You may wonder, why i paid such amount? The land thru his lawyer said my new rent is the present rate within dat surulere axis and asked the lawyer to give me a quit notice, so i had to do my permutations fast. (1) cos most lawyers are liars they can obtain a judgement against you without your presence at the court and use the bailif to eject you when u least expect e.g in the rain, while celebrating birthdays, naming etc. (2) the astronomical cost of getting another 2year apartment and the difficulties involved (3) the legal aspect of seeking court judgement which may be cumbersome and costly. So i reluctantly renew my rent to a greedy landlord and his lawyer who does not give a damn about the stress i went 2ru before i could raise the money for the renewal. However i prayed everyday to God in his infinite mercy that i become a landlord in lagos so dat that i'll be free from the shackles of greedy landlords. IRONICALLY I AM AN ESTATE CONSULTANT. So we agents are not excluded from accomodation problems!

@ Timehin, that was such a nasty experience.

People generally think that just because you're an estate agent, you're immune from the prevailing challenges in the housing sector and even blame agents for the hike in rent which is not the case at all. And since Surulere is central and there's a lot of demand for good properties there, the landlord or his lawyer who was advising him knew that it would not take too long to let out the house.

I meet so many young people who come to me everyday, practically begging to help them get accommodation with one year's rent. Every developer is looking towards the middle to high income market. And since demand still outstrips supply in the middle to low income market, the challenge of finding houses for them remains.

liftedone:

@ duno, that is a very good question. Thankfully, the Lagos State government recognises the problem which is a good first step. Can this legislation be enforced if it's passed into law? I don't know the political will of the average person in our society fighting for something that doesn't direclty affect them. Even things that do, when you speak out you find that you are a minority and the people that are affected will not even stand by you, though you are fighting for the good of all. It all boils down to the Nigerian attitude of being unconcerned and continuing to suffer and smile.

Let me ask you, if you are in a position to build a house and let it out, would you be altruistic enough to give it out for only reasonable periods of time like the one year rent you are advocating?

Sorry, just noticed this post now.

If i say i will or i wont, you may or may not believe me. i guess that has to wait until i have my own house but i do have my convictions which i intend to follow

liftedone:

@ Timehin, that was such a nasty experience.

People generally think that just because you're an estate agent, you're immune from the prevailing challenges in the housing sector and even blame agents for the hike in rent which is not the case at all. And since Surulere is central and there's a lot of demand for good properties there, the landlord or his lawyer who was advising him knew that it would not take too long to let out the house.

I meet so many young people who come to me everyday, practically begging to help them get accommodation with one year's rent. Every developer is looking towards the middle to high income market. And since demand still outstrips supply in the middle to low income market, the challenge of finding houses for them remains.

well people blame agents because majority of them -i stand to be corrected(there are very good ones no doubt) are greedy. for example even when a landlord agrees to one year payment, the agents still demand for 2 years agency fees!

I read through this thread thoroughly and see the lots of points made; from the landlord perspective, the agent and the final consumer ie the tenant.
Nigeria is such a country that "abnormality has become a normal thing" and a country where the rich never want the average/poor to change status. Nothing is exceptional from government to individuals

Government will never do anything because most of them are either landlord themself, friend of landlord etc and involve in the killing strategy by not wanting the average/poor to join their class.

Majority are greedy and self centered in Nigeria. The landlord will always justify his greedy action, the agent will like to create a seen to be sympathetic with them and the tenant will want attention he do not deserve to be focus on him after eating his cake.

Let us learn to do it right and stop given excuses for our greediness.

What go up will definitely come down. if the today landlord see only upward movement, their son and grandson will definitely see the downward side.

The situation is a disease and it's really killing!

Build your own house. Then, you'll probably understand.

Abeg, don't give me that! My folks sef na landlords!
It's most common amongst people who inherit houses!