₦airaland Forum

Here is mine:

Actually, this is a true story that happened to a family friend of mine.

A few years ago in Abeokuta, I visited one of my friend's house. It was just a normal friendly visit. The house was a 2 storey building 3-bedroom flat in the main town.

On my first visit, I noticed there was no light but wasn't surprised. I mean this is Nigeria it's is not as if there is always power but one thing that caught my attention was that there didn't seem to be any sign of power in that house which made me investigate.

At this moment, I stood up to take a look around the house and tracing their wires from the main pole outside. There was no wire coming into the house so I assumed they must either be doing something illegal or their line was disconnected by PHCN.

When he came back inside, we discussed at length and I asked my friend how often do they have light, He laughed! like I just cracked a silly joke before he explained the whole ordeal and the reason I am writing this thread.
They rented the house 2 years ago not knowing that the house had an outstanding power debt of over a million naira. 1,000,000 naira nepa bill debt! how did it happen? from when did they start owing?

He told me they had been owing for several years but instead of paying up, they bribed the Nepa officials when they came around till the debt go totally out of hand. Whenever they were disconnected, they would go ahead to pay an electrician to connect them illegally till they got caught and they were totally cut off from the grid before been slapped with a huge bill and several fines for cheating on the system

I Pitied my friend. He had rented an apartment without doing proper investigation and now he has to suffer the consequences of this mistake for as long as he lived in the house. If he had done his investigation, he would have asked for previous bills and asked neighbors around the house for information on the house. If he had known, he wouldn't have rented that house for sure.

My advice for people renting a new house is to do your investigation yourself. Do not rely on any agent to do it for you because he will not live in the house, it is you that will live in the house with your family.

1. Check around the house for power, for water, for security.

2. Go to where the power is connected and check. Ask for old bills before renting the house. Preferably, rent a house with a prepaid meter installed and get an electrician to install it for you. Visit https://nepa.ng to pay your bills if you don't know how to.

3. Ask, ask, ask. This is the best way to get information as far as I am concerned. Ask people living in the house nicely about things in the house after that, ask neighbors around the same questions to compare their answers to be sure your agent is no lying to you.

Well this is my advice for people renting a new apartment. Share yours below
P.S: That my Friend has now move to his own house now with his wife and 2 kids.

Once Rented a self contain with an accumulated bill of 170k and that worst part of it was that the area no dey even get light

I told nepa I wasn't going to clear the accumulated debt when dey were saying oga pay something inside the debt.

Please don't rent a house that the landlord or landlady fully depend on house rent for feeding oooo

Which kind wickedness be that and there is no even light

Omihanifa:
Once Rented a self contain with an accumulated bill of 170k and that worst part of it was that the area no dey even get light

I told nepa I wasn't going to clear the accumulated debt when dey were saying oga pay something inside the debt.