I will appreciate good advice from well meaning nairalander.

I have this 3 bed room bungalow which I rented to a tenant on 2010 . I rented it for 350k per year. From that time till date I have not increased the rent . Currently the cost ofvtent had gone up and I will like to increase the rent to reflect current realities . When I had the discussion with some if my friends , they were all angry with me cos according to them they believe the guy is using juju on me . My house is in a well develop area in lagos ...so they don't see reason why others are collecting 1.2m while mine remains 350k .

I am planning to get a lawyer to serve him.notice of increment ...However some of my friends are asking me to service him notice to quit cos he might not wanna pay the new increment

I need advice from experience people on best way to go about this .

send a letter of increment, increase the rent within the law, and if the old tenants doesnt want to pay the new rent, get rid of them. no big deal!

MrBrownJay1:
sent a letter of increment, increase the rent within the law, and if the old tenants doesnt want to pay the new rent, get rid of them. no big deal!

Thank you very much ...
When you say within the law ...do you mean in line with current rate of 3 bedroom in lagos ?

godlovesyou77:
Thank you very much ...
When you say within the law ...do you mean in line with current rate of 3 bedroom in lagos ?

nah, i mean that you cant raise the price from 350k to 1m, year in year out for no damn reason. i believe there is a guideline for that. like 10-15% (or less) per year. you cant just decide to raise the rent to 300% just because your friends are saying that this is the going rate in your area.

Serve him a letter of increment first. Let him understand that you want to increase the house rent .... please don't increase from 350k to 1.2m... thou that might be the worth of house rent in that area... so as to make it easy for the occupant . God bless you

MrBrownJay1:


nah, i mean that you cant raise the price from 350k to 1m, year in year out for no damn reason. i believe there is a guideline for that. like 10-15% (or less) per year. you cant just decide to raise the rent to 300% just because your friends are saying that this is the going rate in your area.

In your opinion how much exactly should I increase it to ? Cos even two bedroom now goes for 1m here ...I want to correct the number of years I have failed to increase .. by tomorrow I will be approaching a lawyer for further advice.

godlovesyou77:
In your opinion how much exactly should I increase it to ? Cos even two bedroom now goes for 1m here ...I want to correct the number of years I have failed to increase .. by tomorrow I will be approaching a lawyer for further advice.

if you really want to put the rent at above 1m, then there is only ONE WAY...get rid of that tenant, and then raise the rent to whatever you desire.... but you cant raise the rent to more than 15% with your current tenant. that would be illegal.

BTW dont you have a signed contract with that tenant, where all these rent raise issues are mentionned?!?

MrBrownJay1:


if you really want to put the rent at above 1m, then there is only ONE WAY...get rid of that tenant, and then raise the rent to whatever you desire.... but you cant raise the rent to more than 15% with your current tenant. that would be illegal.

BTW dont you have a signed contract with that tenant, where all these rent raise issues are mentionned?!?

By tomorrow I will study the agreement I had with him . But I doubt if there is a provision for increment in the agreement ...May be I didn't read to that extent ...I could remember seeing provisions that has to do with carrying out repairs ..By 15percent ...do you mean 15 percent of 350k added back to the rent for a period of 13 years he had lived without increment ?

godlovesyou77:
By tomorrow I will study the agreement I had with him . But I doubt if there is a provision for increment in the agreement ...May be I didn't read to that extent ...I could remember seeing provisions that has to do with carrying out repairs ..By 15percent ...do you mean 15 percent of 350k added back to the rent for a period of 13 years he had lived without increment ?

yes you need to put this kind of stuff in writing on the contract.... and NO; you cannot simply say that this person stayed for 13yrs so therefore you can increase the rent 13 times 15%.... today you can only raise the rent for 15%, whether they stayed for 1yr or 50 yrs. the fact that you decided/omitted to raise the rent all these yrs, its all on you.

you are better off talking directly to the tenants and maybe getting rid of them.

MrBrownJay1:
sent a letter of increment, increase the rent within the law, and if the old tenants doesnt want to pay the new rent, get rid of them. no big deal!

I have resolved to settle for 600k ...my lawyer will be contacting him shortly ...but if he negotiate I will accept 500k