2-Year Rent Banned In Lagos, Assembly Passes Tenancy Law

Any landlord in Lagos State who collects rent in excess of one year in advance from a new tenant would be prosecuted by the state government and upon conviction face three years in jail.


Gov. Raji Fashola

This is contained in the new tenancy bill that was passed into law by the State House of Assembly today. The law, which is expected to receive the assent of Governor Babatunde Fashola any moment from now, also stipulates that it is unlawful and criminal for a landlord or his agent to demand or receive from a sitting tenant, rent in excess of six months in respect of any premises without prejudice to the nature of tenancy.

This means that those who are already tenants are not expected to pay more than six months in advance to their landlord. Hitherto, tenants were compelled to pay for even more than two years in some cases.

The bill places a fine of N100,000 or three years imprisonment on any landlord or new tenant who pays in excess of one year and N100,000 or three months imprisonment for any landlord who fails to issue a receipt to a tenant for payment of rent.

Some of the lawmakers who commented on the law this morning explained that the receipt would enable the authorities to monitor compliance with the law by the landlords. They said they were aware of the dubious activities of some landlords, adding that the new law was amended to take care of those areas.

The bill captioned: “A bill for a law to regulate rights and obligations under tenancy agreement and the relationship between landlord and the tenant including the procedure for the recovery of premises and for other connected purposes in Lagos State,” states that “it shall be unlawful for a sitting tenant to offer or pay rent in excess of one year for a yearly tenant in respect of any premises and any person who receives or pays rent in excess of what is prescribed by the law shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine of N100,000.”

The bill consisting of 47 sections takes a critical look at the relationship between the landlord and tenant and allocates rights and privileges to both parties. It also spells out their obligations. Among such rights is tenant’s entitlement to quiet and peaceful enjoyment of the premises, which include privacy, freedom from unreasonable disturbance, noise pollution and nuisance, as well as exclusive possession of the premises, subject to the landlord’s restricted right of inspection.

The law also emphasises that a landlord must send a written letter to a tenant whenever he wants to visit the apartment for inspection. Such letter, the law states, must state the time the inspection is to be conducted in order to give the tenant ample time to prepare for the exercise.

The law also gives a tenant the privilege to furnish or install accessories within a property to fit his/her taste. The bill was earlier passed by the House and forwarded to Governor Fashola for assent, but the Governor returned it to the House last week with a recommendation that some grey areas in the bill be looked into.

The grey areas include a section of the bill to be explicit on who bears the professional fees incurred at the commencement of tenancy and some other sections that cover the internally generated revenue of the state.

These areas were deliberated upon by a six-man committee headed by Hon. Rotimi Olowo, representing Somolu Constituency 1.

Section 7 (subsection now mandates the landlord to be responsible for “professional fees or commission of the landlord’s agent, consultant, solicitor or any other person acting for and on behalf of the landlord, incurred at the commencement of the tenancy.”


source pm news.

Interesting. Now lets see how landlords react to this development.

nice one!! He is considering those who with 400k or less to pay for a house but landord wants 800k OR MORE

SAY NO TO ELITISM FASHOLA!! THANK YOU!!!!

@ topic,
Thank you fasola;
You are the man, in fact ACN is the best O jare. Let me call my brother to start coming down to Lagos, settling down is now easier!

PointB:

@ topic,
Thank you fasola;
You are the man, in fact ACN is the best O jare. Let me call my brother to start coming down to Lagos, settling down is now easier!

@OP

Please always add the source link to your stories. Thanks.





Source: http://pmnewsnigeria.com/2011/08/05/2-year-rent-banned-in-lagos-assembly-passes-tenancy-law/

Watch as landlords refuse to rent out their houses, and the attendant homelessness that will surely follow this stupid law.

You don't make this kind of law unless you have adequate public housing stock that can make people turn their noses up at private landlords. It is in the best interests of Lagosians for this law to fail in its implementation, because if it succeeds, there is going to be MASS HOMELESSNESS in Lagos.

A lot of people are going to start sleeping in their shops.

Fashola and Tinubu failed to invest in public housing, and they're now trying to regulate rents, in a capitalist economy, without any sort of concrete intervention in terms of investment in housing.

Combine this with Sanusi's withdrawal of three banking licences today, and it's been a really bad day for the economy of Lagos State.

why are Nigerians not investing on real-estate development and affordable homes?

^^^
Are you not a Nigerian, you should be able to answer that question. Left to me I will say - cost! Real estate development is and expensive venture!

PointB:

^^^
Are you not a Nigerian, you should be able to answer that question. Left to me I will say - cost! Real estate development is and expensive venture!

PointB:

^^^
Are you not a Nigerian, you should be able to answer that question. Left to me I will say - cost! Real estate development is and expensive venture!

The bolded is made even worse by Fashola's government, charging sky-high charges for C of O and Physical Planning Approval, which involves like about 10 different fees, which can sometimes even match the cost of the land plus C of O!

They are making home-building expensive and refusing to invest in cheap housing for the people, yet they have the temerity to enact a brainless law like this, just to score cheap popularity costs. I hope they are ready for the social upheaval and escalation in the crime rate that will surely follow enforcement of this law, as surely as night follows day.

It is obvious they don't think things through properly, and they only make laws for the purpose of winning votes, in this case, in the next LCDA elections. The ignorant masses will hail them, and say Fashola and ACN are working for the masses, but will be sufficiently bamboozled by the media hype that this will attract not to remember to ask where they will get homes from if the rich landlords start refusing to rent out their empty houses, preferring instead to dash them temporarily to their children and their family as second, third or even fourth homes, while millions are rendered homeless because of government insensitivity to their plight.

O ma se o!!

Shouldn't they tackle rental discrimination on the basis of ethnic groups first? 

djustice:

The bolded is made even worse by Fashola's government, charging sky-high charges for C of O and Physical Planning Approval, which involves like about 10 different fees, which can sometimes even match the cost of the land plus C of O!


They are making home-building expensive and refusing to invest in cheap housing for the people, yet they have the temerity to enact a brainless law like this, just to score cheap popularity costs. I hope they are ready for the social upheaval and escalation in the crime rate that will surely follow enforcement of this law, as surely as night follows day.

It is obvious they don't think things through properly, and they only make laws for the purpose of winning votes, in this case, in the next LCDA elections. The ignorant masses will hail them, and say Fashola and ACN are working for the masses, but will be sufficiently bamboozled by the media hype that this will attract not to remember to ask where they will get homes from if the rich landlords start refusing to rent out their empty houses, preferring instead to dash them temporarily to their children and their family as second, third or even fourth homes, while millions are rendered homeless because of government insensitivity to their plight.

O ma se o!!

Haba you people just make useless claims for nothing.
How much does a land cost in Ajah and how will it cost you to get a C of O for such land ?

Since you know, mr blueteeth, you can tell us now, instead of blustering emptily with no facts and aksing useless kweshions!!

hmmm

so, the landlords can increase their rent by 100% and then collect advance fee of one year. that way he wont risk jail term & his profit just increased.

I don't care or mind collecting rent even on monthly basis but any month wey I hear oga landlord abeg, I go throw you go fashola own house! if I can't collect rent for over 6months or a year, none of my tenants should owe me rent for over 6months or a year not even a day over.

Anyone against this bill, should have his head examined. Anyhow it is, lets start somewhere! It is better than the N85o,ooo per annum, that is being collected today, and they barge into peoples' homes, under the guise that, they want to inspect fake and inferior gadgets installed by their useless land-developers. Once again, whoever is against this bill, is one of those shylock landlords, or is related to one.

the bill is for sitting/existing tenant not for new/incoming tenant, so it has no effect,

if u are not ready to pay for 2yrs in advance u can go and sleep in side BRT at ojota bridge, cos i will make u to sign agreement with my agent that u vulantary decided to pay for 2yr since u dont want to spend the money and it has already be budgeted for the rent,

PointB:

@ topic,
Thank you fasola;
You are the man, in fact ACN is the best O jare. Let me call my brother to start coming down to Lagos, settling down is now easier!

NLANDERS no go kill me o lol
chai una dey vex, how many ppl ur brothers go bring? four or five?

making sense

tayoTFC:

the bill is for sitting/existing tenant not for new/incoming tenant, so it has no effect,

tayoTFC:

if u are not ready to pay for 2yrs in advance u can go and sleep in side BRT at ojota bridge, cos i will make u  to sign agreement with my agent that u vulantary decided to pay for 2yr since u dont want to spend the money and it has already be budgeted for the rent,

, Landlord don de vex. Na three years imprisonment you wan take play o!

making sense

When hunters learn to shoot without missing birds learn to fly without perching.Going by this law, Landlord will definitely increase their rents at least by 35 - 40 %.I think the most important thing is to set regulatory laws to check these prices.the law is good but incomplete without a thorough check on how much these greedy Landlords are collecting.

I'm not a fan of rent control stuff like this. Why should you ban a landlord from demanding 2 years rent?

Fashola for the sake of being read and quoted ,pays attention to less important things .he haso't invested in real estate,

Well done Fashola. This is a good development.

One can see the good intentions behind the law, but as has often been the case in recent times, in their haste/zeal to impress, certain clauses in the bill are unnecessarily despotic. For instance, why would you criminalize a situation whereby a sitting tenant offers to pay more than 1 year's rent? I might experience a windfall and (not wanting to lavish the money on frivolities) decide to pay 3 years upfront so that I would take my mind off that and have peace of mind for the next three years. I don't see the sense in compelling me as a sitting tenant to pay for only six months or at most one year - even when I am willing to pay and the landord is consenting to accept payments for three years! This MUST be corrected.

However, I can understand why that shouldn't apply in the case of new tenants: if it does, landlords would 'hoard' their houses and discriminate against prospective tenants that are 'unwilling' to offer payment for more than one one.

It's the tenants that will beg the landlord to collect two years rent at the end of the day as long as demand continues to exceed supply.

This is of no effect. Landlords will always try to make up by increasing their house rent.

Iyen naa 9ice!