NIGERIA-HABITAT: Greedy Landlords Beware!

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Apr 4 1997 (IPS) - A new edict by the government of Lagos state seeks to shield tenants from unscrupulous landlords, some of whom demand up to six years rent up front, but some here wonder whether it will make a difference.

Lagos Administrator Col. Mohammed Marwa explained Wednesday that he decided to issue the order because of complaints he had received, including arbitrary pricing. “It therefore became imperative that some form of compromise should be introduced for the benefit of both house-owners and the tenants,” he said.

Landlords here charge as much as 5,000 naira a month for a two- bedroom flat. By Western standards that amount is small since it’s equivalent to 62.5 U.S. dollars, but it is a sizeable sum in a country where the average middle-level public servant takes home roughly 6,000 naira (75 U.S. dollars) a month.

And that’s not all. Landlords usually demand two to three years’ rent in advance for residential accommodation and up to six years rental up front for office space or business premises.

Curbing such excesses is the aim of the ‘Rent Control and Recovery of Residential Premises Edict 1997’, issued Wednesday by the Lagos State government. It bans landlords from demanding more than 12 months advance rent.

The edict — which applies only to residential accommodation whose yearly rental value up to the end of 1996 was no more than 250,000 naira (3,125 dollars) — also fixes monthly rents.

These vary according to the size and location of the residence. For example, the rent for a single-bedroom flat in some middle- income areas is set at the equivalent of 22 dollars whereas the current rates range from 31.25 to 43.75 dollars.

Under the new measure — which allows for a rent increase of no more than 20 percent every three years — people who have hitherto been charged more than the official maximum shall now pay only the fixed rate.

Penalties set by the edict include a fine equivalent to 625 dollars or a six-month prison term for anyone who receives or pays rent higher than the sums it prescribes.

It also targets other abuses sometimes perpetrated here: landlords who present fake tenants in court so as to get magistrates to sanction their bids to evict the real ones now risk a mandatory two-year prison term, while the penalty for those who tear down parts of their buildings to force their tenants out is a 250-dollar fine or three months in jail.

Lagos lawyer Femi Akande believes the edict is a bold step to curb a deplorable situation. “If well implemented, it will go a long way towards alleviating the problems associated with accommodation in this over-populated city,” he told IPS.

On the other hand, Chris Abiodun, an economist, does not believe it will work. “It cannot be effective until government has alternative for tenants,” he told IPS. “If not, the desperate tenants will just be prey for landlords. Since they have nowhere to go if ejected, they will collude with landlords to circumvent the law.”

Abiodun, who attributed the inflated rents to overpopulation, explained that tenants were afraid to take action against landlords even after similar edicts were promulgated in the past, which made such legislation ineffective.

The state government seems to mean business this time around. It has set up 29 special tribunals to enforce the new law. “In preparing the edict, experts in the fields of law, estate management and valuation were put together to examine previous legislations made by the state government (and) those of other countries,” Marwa said Wednesday as he inaugurated the courts.

“This was to ensure that we came up with a more citizen- friendly package that would cater for the interest of all parties concerned,” he said.

Naturally, landlords are against the new measure. “The edict cannot work,” says Alli Anibaba, a landlord here. “It was enacted before and it did not work. The government is deceiving itself by fixing rents for houses they did not build. Let them build their own houses and give them out at that rate.”

“We have seen government housing schemes. How much is a one- room apartment going for?” he adds “How can that government wake up and fix rents when even cement supposed to be controlled by government is beyond the reach of a middle-class Nigerian?”

A 50-kg bag of cement sells for 450 naira even though the government promised to bring the price down to 350 naira.

Abiodun charges that the state government should shoulder some of the blame for the housing shortage since it charges as much as 20,000 naira (250 dollars) for a land acquisition certificate, while annual property tax ranges from 1,000 naira to 5,000 naira. Land prices, too, are relatively high.

Efforts by past administrations to provide housing in Lagos have had limited success, partly because the population has increased rapidly. Marwa expects it to keep on growing. “Lagos, as the commercial nerve-centre of the country, will continue to attract migrants from the rural areas and other urban centres of the country,” he said.

The population of Lagos state was estimated at more than six million in the 1991 census.