₦airaland Forum

saphiere:
Are you aware that quit notice takes effect after 6 months? And during that period of 6 months you are not to collect any rent from the tenant?

indigene:
Verbally tell her that you want to renovate the house, which will include re roofing, structural support, and inform her the rehabilitation work will start in the next 14days.
One early morning bring your carpenter and other arranged artisans. No law will be against you mending your home,
Carpenter goes to the roof to start removing some roofing sheets, artisans start demolition of gate, burglary steel proof. Let her then call the police. If you don't mind some loss.

DaBogu:
Author Leezah

LAWYER
Get a lawyer.. Please don't take laws into your hands, because the law tilts more in favour of tenants. get a lawyer to Give him quit notice if his a yearly tenant If the tenant is on yearly payment, it is 6 months notice that u'll give him and it will start counting frm d day you served him d notice irrespective of how many months he has not paid.

Once the quit notice has been filed validly for 6 months, any day over that 6 months notice means the tenant is holding over that property illegally and he no longer becomes a tenant but a tenant at sufferance and from there onward you dont need to issue him a quit notice again but an OWNERS INTENTION TO RECOVER PREMISES in 7 DAYS And from there onwards the tenant practically has no defence legally when the matter will be filed at the rent tribunal nearest to you.

Tops with all the adjournment within 3 to 5 months the court balliffs will personally come to serve them to eject them of the premises compulsorily.

or

DO IT YOURSELF (DIY)
If you don't want to contact a lawyer.
Let me give you a summary of what you should do .Serve him the statutory notices ie 7 days and one month,then file a suit for recovery of premises at the nearest magistrate court.

Once the case comes up tell the court you are handling the case yourself,enter witness box and tell the court what the man did and the order you are seeking from them.The bailiff will then enter the box and tell the court that he served the man but he didn't come .The court will then grant you the order you are seeking.You will take the judgement copy and go to the bailiff and pay them for policemen.

The policemen and the bailiffs will go to the man's house one early morning, break his house and pack all his properties to the court premises. I hope you learnt something today from this. Goodluck

or

GOVERNMENT
If you based in Lagos If its Lagos, go through the human right activist section or Mediation center of the State Government. They have many outlets in each local government in the state. They'll charge a fee of #8,000 and would handled the cases

or

STREETS
I don't encourage this any longer but its inevitable where a tenant things you must suffer after the initial suffer to build a house. Go to court, pay the clerk and officials and get a notice, paste on his door in his absent and snap then take notice off. Make some other person appear in court in his stead as a proxy tenant he transferred tenant ship to without your consent and get a verdict and evict him immediately as the unpreparedness will rock his life for ever. He can continue the fight from outside your house. The person that appeared is the person you have been seeing around the house and you don't know him. Simply put, he alone can provide that person.

obi58:
You only got away with this because your landlord was ignorant. If I were the one, I would have given you 7days after the quit notice to pack out then I would have cut off power and water to your apartment and then taken the roof off your apartment. I would also have barricaded your apartment door in your absence by getting a welder to seal the doors until you pay all outstanding. Since you decided to behave like an irresponsible adult you will be treated as such

eagleeye2:
Do not try this method. If it backfire you will be spending some time in jail.
First if you want to quit your tenant, go to your lawyer pay and the lawyer will file the Notice to Quit and register it in the court. A bailiff will be the one that will issue the Notice to quit to your tenant. You have no basis handing the tenant to quit.
After six months, since she is a yearly tenant, go back to your lawyer to issue 7 days owners intention to Recover property. After the expiration of 7 days the lawyer will now file papers in court.
The process may take long before you recover your property, but bear it in mind that for any extra day the tenant stays on your property she will be liable to pay mesne profit. So don't fear that she will live there rent free. No. The court will help you recover your money if you are willing to follow the due process which might seem long.
As for those thinking that they can live rent free in another man's house pray that you don't jam a man who is determined enough to make you pay.

BarristerAlarig:
Can someone quote the section of the law that covers this tenancy issue?

Alot of tenants feel they are entitled to 6months rent and that only after rent expires can one serve a quit notice.

udomonday:
you would have lived to regret it.that I assure you.

obi58:
Dey there dey hide behind your phone. No go build your house.

Professional Tenant.

udomonday:
I built my first house 10years ago.in my place. am currently building another in Lagos.just go jump down a well.and I believe if you call yourself a landlord.then you definitely inherited the house.because you sound like someone that has not bought a single bag of cement in your whole life.

obi58:
Story for the gods. If you built a house and are talking like this then something is seriously wrong somewhere. You cannot have built a house and then choose to constitute nuisance in another person's house unless something is seriously wrong with you.

Building a house..... I laugh again

dustydee:
I think you are missing the point. A notice can be issued to you 6 months to the end of your yearly tenancy. This notice will expire on the anniversary of your tenancy. That way you have exhausted your rent and also had ample time to find an alternate accommodation. If you refuse to leave (Say notice was given on June 30 for your rent that will expire on December 31st 2021), the landlord can commence eviction proceedings against you. If your eventually leave say June 30th 2022 you will be liable to pay 6 months rent (January 2022 after your rent expired till June 2022 when you finally left). The fact that your former landlady did not pursue you for the rent does not make it law. If you meet a principled and learned landlord, they will get that rent from you (and there are legal tools to do that) except you are bankrupt or untraceable. I hope this clarifies the point the other person was trying to make to you.

Solatium:
I will wait for such a landlord and we will trash it out,You guy's always think a tenant is always at the mercy of the landlord?
If you give me a notice when you are not suppose to i won't even take it from you,if you paste it on my wall thinking that you can use that to stamped me out,you have just shot yourself on the leg.
i will ask my lawyer to write you and the process of eviction will start when we are both done replying those letters.
No be everyone be mumu ooo.
if you want me out of your house,there is no wahala,do it when my contract expires with you,not when I have a running contract.

dustydee:
A landlord can give you notice (and indeed should) before your rent expires. The notice should ideally kick in on or after the expiry of your rent. I wonder where you got the idea that a landlord cannot issue you a quict notice until after your rent expires. That's illogical. If you contend that you will not leave until your rent expires, that's fair depending on the circumstance else he/she should compensate you for terminating the contract early. But 6 months into your 1 year tenancy, a landlord can issue you a 6-month notice. Learn this, you may need it in future either as a tenant or landlord.

Sterope:
You will think it is common sense

drealcivilceno:
Omo you are terrible!

cozy7:
This is very insightful. THANKS.

Solatium:
Still on it,no landlord can serve you a notice when you are still having a running contract.
As a matter of fact some landlords will allow you up to a year without paying a kobo as rent,all other bills for utilities and maintenance MUST BE PAID FOR BUT NOT RENT,at the expiration of that notice he/ she can act appropriately.

The essence of giving up to 6 months from the expiration of your rent is

(1) to get you prepared Psychologically and physically for eviction.

(2) To give you enough time to look for suitable accomodations

a lot of you don't know that it is practically possible for you to keep searching for a suitable accomodations up to 6 months,most especially in lagos where rate of decent accomodations always skyrocket,but bulk of you arguing here felt the aim of that 6 months is to live freely in another person House, though so many tenants always take advantage of the house owner hiding under that provision.

There is human face to every law and each law tends to protect the vulnerable People in every situation.

Solatium:
Some of you talk as if you have monopoly of knowledge,i just moved into a New flat after my landlady issued me quit notice at the expiration of my Rent in September,i spent extra 6months without paying a rent,the only payment i made is for utilities.
It you that need to come down from your high horse

dustydee:
Enjoy your ignorance.

Montaque:
Your experience is not the law. The law is the law, go and read the tenancy law of whatever state you live. So I am telling you what the law says. Your landlady pitied you, and didn't insist on the law.

Solatium:
Still on it,no landlord can serve you a notice when you are still having a running contract.
As a matter of fact some landlords will allow you up to a year without paying a kobo as rent,all other bills for utilities and maintenance MUST BE PAID FOR BUT NOT RENT,at the expiration of that notice he/ she can act appropriately.

The essence of giving up to 6 months from the expiration of your rent is

(1) to get you prepared Psychologically and physically for eviction.

(2) To give you enough time to look for suitable accomodations

a lot of you don't know that it is practically possible for you to keep searching for a suitable accomodations up to 6 months,most especially in lagos where rate of decent accomodations always skyrocket,but bulk of you arguing here felt the aim of that 6 months is to live freely in another person House, though so many tenants always take advantage of the house owner hiding under that provision.

There is human face to every law and each law tends to protect the vulnerable People in every situation.

gassbee:
so if u r given 6 months notice before your rent expires, u wil not be phschologically n physically able to start searching for a new accomodation

Solatium:
This why i quoted you,you can't serve someone who has a running rent a notice,it is never done anywhere,are you going to refund the 6 months rent remaining on his contract?
If you serve me a notice while i still have up to 6 months on my contract i no go listen to you.
Why do you think the lady refuses to accept the notice? because it's illegal and she knows her right and no lawyer will enforce such an order except it's a quack

Omonikea:
Hello, I hope you get this..
I took a store/shop from my landlord last year September thus my rent expires in August 2021. However the store is leaking into the shop. And my landlord has refused to fix it. I reported to the agent I got the shop through and was a major issue to the landlord.
Came to the shop to say he will never repair the shop and I should leave after my rent expires. He went ahead to give me notice.

My question is; when do I leave/ the store ? August or Jan 2022.. acceptable by lagos state tenancy law please �

Oracleforce:
Pls, advise me on what to do with this stubborn tenant.

I wish to recover my apartment from a female Tenant for personal use...I then approach a lawyer to draft a quit notice. I gave her the quit notice and she refuses to collect it,

lawyers in the house, pls can you advise me on what to do? Thanks.

ccollins:
look at this same clown looking for a female lawyer to give him quit of forfeiture yet in his faux retrogressive life. Stop being a deluded cantankerous nonentity. U met a lawyer n still ran online to cry like a baby .u don't even have money to go to court. Stop being poor. No sensible lawyer wants a poor client as you

fkj950ax:
Quit Notice: How Should a Tenant be Ejected in Lagos?
29th May 2018 | 10 min read37 Comments63186
Quit Notice - Eviction - Notice to Quit - Private Property Nigeria


As a landlord, how should you issue a ‘Quit Notice’ (also known as a ‘Notice to Quit’ or ‘Eviction Notice’) on your tenant when you want him/her to vacate the property? You can arrange 4-8 thugs to break into the property and forcefully eject the tenant but for doing this, you risk earning yourself a 3-year jail term for forcefully ejecting your tenant.

You cannot forcefully eject a tenant without severe repercussions regardless of how difficult the tenant might be. You must respect tenant rights. The legally correct thing to do when you want a tenant to vacate a property is to issue a quit notice. In this piece, we will guide you through the process of ejecting a tenant in Nigeria. Let us begin by establishing what a quit notice is.

What is a Quit Notice?
Quite notice is the notice, often referred to as ‘eviction,’ which is given to a tenant by a landlord mandating the former to vacate a property by a certain date. The duration stated on the quit notice rest largely on the duration of the tenancy. We will take a closer look at this but below is a breakdown of the legally approved duration for quit notice in Nigeria:

A one-year (or above) tenancy will require at least a notice of 6 months
A one-month tenancy will require a minimum notice of one month
A one-week tenancy will require a minimum notice of one week
Before you can recover your property from a tenant, you need to understand the tenancy law as well as whether it is relevant in the area where your property is situated. For example, did you know that the Tenancy Law in Lagos state does not apply to Apapa, Ikeja GRA, Victoria Island and Ikoyi?

If you own a residential property in Apapa, Ikeja GRA, Victoria Island and Ikoyi, the Rent Control and Recovery of Residential Premises can be used to recover your property. If, however, your property is non-residential, the Recovery of Premises Law will be applicable to those districts of Lagos. In essence, the law varies slightly.

Before we get into the process of eviction, let us take a quick look at the Nigerian tenancy agreement and how it works because this is what will guide you towards a legitimate ejection of your tenant.

Quit Notice - Eviction - How to Eject Your Tenant - Private Property 6

The Nigerian Tenancy Agreement
The law leaves room for the tenancy agreement to be either written or oral but the history of the Nigerian real estate space favours written tenancy agreement. Most tenant and landlords like you prefer having the agreement in black and white as it is believed that this puts them on the safe side. You do not want to find yourself dealing with a tenant who suddenly lays claim to paying rent covering 2 years whereas he/she actually paid for a one-year tenancy.

The tenancy agreement is expected to contain a number of things to be considered valid. Some of the things that must be expressly stated in the agreement are:

Your name as well as the name of the tenant
Details of the type of property that you are renting out
The location of the property you are renting out as well as the features that come with it
The period of time for which the rent will cover
The amount of money that is received as rent
The date payment was received
The modalities for an upward review of the rent
The duration of ‘quit notice’ to be served on the tenant
The party responsible for repair works within and around the property
Who is responsible for expenses like water, electricity and sanitation bills
A post office stamp must be affixed – This makes it acceptable in court as an evidence
Types of Tenancy Agreements
Before we proceed, we shall take a look at types of tenancy agreements as well as how they will affect your decision to evict a tenant.

Tenancy at Will: A tenancy at will refers to a scenario where you allow a tenant occupy your property without a defined tenancy duration. In this case, the tenant occupies your property but with no definite or specified time frame.
Periodic Tenancy: A periodic tenancy refers to a tenancy agreement where the tenancy continues until either the tenant or the landlord gives written notice to end it.
Fixed-Term Tenancy: A fixed-term tenancy, also known as fixed tenancy is one that spans a fixed period of time. It is the most popular type of tenancy in Nigeria because it only lasts for a space of 6 months depending on what your tenant wants. The time-span of this tenancy must be written on the tenancy agreement. If it is not written, then it isn’t valid.
Quit Notice - Eviction - How to Eject Your Tenant - Private Property 2

What Length of Quit Notice Should You Issue to Your Tenant?
The length of the quit notice that you issue on your tenant rests squarely on the type of agreement that you have with the said tenant. Tenancy is based on agreement and this agreement covers the length of the quit notice that you can issue.

In the absence of a written agreement stating the length of the quit notice, the following statute will apply:

Weekly tenancy – A 1-week notice
Monthly tenancy – A 1-month notice
Quarterly tenancy – A 3-month notice
Half-yearly tenancy (6 months) – A 3-month notice (applies to Lagos only)
Yearly tenancy – A 6-month notice
Above one year – A 6-month notice
Tenancy at will – A 1-week notice
Quit Notice
The quit notice (or notice to quit) usually applies to the tenancy at will and periodic tenancy. The notice is to be issued on the tenant by either you or your lawyer via a written document.

When you want to recover your property from a tenant, you are legally obliged to issue a quit notice except in a situation where the tenancy has expired by effluxion of time or by operation of law.

The quit notice, as we discussed earlier, should contain the specific period within which the tenant is expected to quit and deliver possession of the property.

Quit Notice - Eviction - How to Eject Your Tenant - Private Property 1

Situations Where is Not Necessary
There are some situations where the serving of a quit notice is no longer necessary. In such cases, all you are expected to do as the landlord is to serve a 7-day notice of your intention to recover your property from the said tenant. Under the law, this is known as the compulsory ‘7 Days Notice to Recover Premises.’ FInd the situations where the quit notice is no longer necessary below:

Expiration of Fixed Tenancy: In a case where the tenancy is a fixed-term tenancy and it expires, there is no need to serve a notice to quit. You can, however, serve the tenant with a notice of your intention to apply to a court to recover possession of your property.
When in Arrears of 6 Months of Rent: If your tenant, under a monthly tenancy, ever gets to the point of being in arrears of unpaid rent for 6 months, a notice to quit is no longer necessary. What you can serve instead is a notice of your intention to apply to a court to recover possession of your property.
When in Arrears of One Year of Rent: If you have a tenant, who is under a quarterly or half-yearly tenancy and is in arrears of rent for one year, you don’t need to put yourself through the rigours of issuing a notice to quit. A notice of your intention to apply to a court to recover possession will suffice.
Quit Notice - Eviction - How to Eject Your Tenant - Private Property 3

7 Days Notice to Recover Premises
Under the Tenancy Law, the moment the quit notice expires and your tenant refuses to vacate the property, you are to serve the tenant with the ‘7 Days Notice to Recover Premises.’

The 7 Days Notice to Recover Premises is to be served on the tenant by you or your agent. The notice will communicate your intention to recover the property not less than 7 days after the notice is served.

We should add here that the 7 Days Notice to Recover Premises can also be served when the said tenant is on a fixed-term tenancy, which has expired. The purpose of this notice is to give your tenant sufficient time to quit the property.

The 7 days notice is to be calculated from the day after the service of the notice on the tenant and not from the day when it was served. If it is served before a ‘Quit Notice’ or during the lifespan of a ‘Quit Notice,’ it is rendered invalid.

The Writ
The writ, also known as plaint or summons, is a form of written command in the name of a court or other legal authority to act or abstain from acting, in a particular way.

According to Section 24 of the Tenancy Law, once the ‘7 Days Notice to Recover Premises’ expires and your neglects, refuses or fails to deliver your property to you, you or your caretaker are legally empowered to institute an action against the tenant for the recovery of your property at the Magisterial Court District or High Court Division where the property is situated. To do this, however, you need a lawyer.

Quit Notice - Eviction - How to Eject Your Tenant - Private Property

Final Thoughts on Quit Notice
In a situation where there is a breach in the grounds of eviction, which we have shared in this article, the court of proper jurisdiction will hear the matter and follow with an order for evicting the tenant. The success of this is, however, tied to your ability to prove your case beyond doubt. In some cases, you can be awarded damages and mesne profit (rent accruing during the period of your exclusion from your property) by the court.

It is in the best interest of your tenant to adhere to the terms and conditions contained in the tenancy agreement. Your tenant should renew rent when due or vacate the property after a reasonable notice has been given to avoid legal action.

Your tenant has the right to challenge your move to evict him/her in a case where you seek to eject him/her in a clear contravention of the tenancy law.

It is not uncommon to find Nigerian lawyers inadvertently issuing a notice to quit even after the tenancy has been determined by effluxion of time. This is not in line with the tenancy law. Let us end this with an example:

Dotun is a yearly tenant. His last payment of rent for a one-year tenancy was made on January 10, 2017. His annual rent expired on January 9, 2018. The problem now is that Dotun still occupies the rented space and has refused to vacate the property because his landlord has not served him with a Notice to Quit. Dotun continues to claim to know his rights and vehemently maintains that he cannot be evicted from the apartment without being served a 6-month Quit Notice from his landlord. From all we have explained, is Dotun on the right side or wrong side of the tenancy law?



Samod Biobaku
A Nigeria-based writer and blogger who has written and edited for top brands including The SUN, Punch, Newswatch, Pulse.ng, Bigsam Media, Nigerian Bulletin, Swish Interativ, Hello Nigeria, National LIFE, iCampus, Jobberman and Cheki.

https://www.privateproperty.com.ng/news/quit-notice/#:~:text=Depending%20on%20Rivers%20State%20Tenancy,will%20be%207%20days%20notice.