- Achievement of the Law
The highpoint of the Tenancy Law 2011 was to make it mandatory and even a criminal offence, for landlords to collect more than one year rent from tenants. Today, this is the general practice in the housing market and it is one good example of how legislative intervention can regulate human conduct. As good as the Law may be there are still major areas of the Tenancy Law that need to be revisited and this piece focuses on two of them.
- Inadequate period of notice for monthly tenants
The first is the period of notice required to eject monthly tenants. A period of one month notice is in my opinion insufficient and in many cases this works grave injustice against monthly tenants, many of whom spent several months in search of a place and eventually paid one year deposit before taking possession of the premises. There is no way anyone in a place like Lagos can be expected to secure alternative accommodation and vacate premises within one month. The one month quit notice can therefore become a tool of oppression in the hands of shylock landlords. The law ought to be amended to increase the period of notice to quit for monthly tenants to at least three months.
- Need for regulation of agency commission
The second is the commission charged by property agents to secure premises for tenants and the burden of paying the commission. Many quack property agents at the lower end of the housing market have been known to fleece tenants by as much as 50% of the rent for agency charges. This places an additional burden on tenants seeking accommodation in an already exorbitant market. The repealed tenancy law made it mandatory and even a criminal offence to charge more than 5% as agency fees and most reputable property agents still charge only 5% for agency fees. However, that provision was inexplicably absent from the Tenancy Law 2011 and should be restored by an amendment of the legislation.
- Recovery of possession from tenants in arrears of rent
A Bill for a new Tenancy Law has been before the House of Assembly for some years but has not been passed. One of the new provisions sought to be introduced by that Bill aims to make it easier for landlords to recover possession from tenants in arrears of rent for more than the duration of their tenancy. For example, where an annual tenant is in arrears of rent for one year, the tenancy shall automatically be determined and there will be no further need for a six month notice to quit. The landlord can proceed to issue the seven (7) days written notice of intention to recover possession and the court can make an order for possession and arrears of rent. The same applies monthly tenants in arrears of rent for more than one month. Again we must caution against the oppressive nature of a provision which allows a landlord to eject a tenant for being in arrears of rent for one month only.
