LANDLORDS VS TENANTS. A NEVER ENDING WAR: A SETBACK TO THE NIGERIAN PROPERTY INDUSTRY

All over the world, mostly in the developed economies and countries of the west, rental income has proven to be a dependable income. It is regulated by government, the people know what is expected of them, there are rules to be obeyed, there are laws you don't ignore and as a last resort, there is insurance in place to protect the income of both landlords and tenants.

In most developing and underdeveloped countries, Nigeria as a reference and in particular, rental income is very unreliable. As a matter of fact, building a house for rent is tantamount to taking a gamble. Why is this so? It is because, the industry is not properly regulated by government, most tenants and landlord either do not know what is expected of them or pretend not to know what is expected of them. Also, there is no proper and adequate insurance in place to guarantee rent should tenants default or repair the house should tenants damage the property and run away, a very common occurrence that often happen.

Talking from experience as one of the directors in a construction and facilities management company in Lagos, Nigeria. It got to a critical point that we had to review our operations and unanimously agreed to delete managing properties for rent from the services we rendered to the public.

Most tenants that practically begged and swore with heaven and earth including their ancestors to be of good behaviour and to promptly pay their rents as at when due before being accepted to move in, suddenly become monsters and dare devils once they are in. Most especially those from a particular section of the country that I would not mention for fear of being labelled bias, partial or tribal. Truth is, you all know what I am talking about and you may agree with me that I am stating the obvious.

These days, you see some TO LET adverts explicitly asking people from that region not to make contact. This is stereotyping, but would you blame these agents for doing such? When 10 out of 10 cases of tenants on your table that refused to pay their rents but have the effrontery to pay lawyers to take their landlords to court in defence of not paying their rents are from this particular region of the country. Quite unfortunate, it is what it is and I am making no bones about it. How do you explain that? Mind you, people from other tribes do same but the percentage in comparison is almost negligible.

Some landlords can be inconsiderate when it comes to the issue of repairs and maintenance. There should be a particular amount set aside from rental income to maintain a house. When a tenant calls for repair, it is the duty of the landlord to heed such call and make the house comfortable for the tenant. These often times is not done because some landlords already spent the 1 year or 2 years rent collected and have no money to do maintenance and repairs. If the tenants goes ahead to do the repair due to emergency etc, to get a refund from the landlord becomes difficult in the presence of a pre-agreement to refund or not.

Greed, selfishness, sheer wickedness, inconsideration, improper financial planning, indiscipline, living above your income, and being irresponsible are major factors that are bedeviling landlords and tenants in Nigeria,  especially tenants as I emphasised in this writing.

You paid a rent for 2 years or 1, you know that your rent is due in another 2 years or one, it is your duty and responsibility as a tenant to put some money aside on a monthly basis towards paying your next rent. There is no excuse at all for non-payment.  Whether you are sick, lost your job, bereaved, etc. It is not enough reason to not pay your rent. The primary and most important bill to pay on time is your rent or mortgage. You don't joke with it! People get away with not paying rent in Nigeria because the government protected the rights of the tenants much more than it protected the rights of the landlords. The tenant is human and so is the landlord. They deserve to be equally protected.

You take your landlord to court because you were told to move out of a property you owe rent for years? What do you expect? You even had the guts to lock your landlord out of his/her property? You refused to pay your rent but you are building your own house. You bought a car to tell people you have arrived at the expense of your rent. You took your family abroad on holiday but refused to pay your rent. You keep bribing the court clerk and poor magistrate to keep postponing the case until you are ready to move out of your rented apartment. You go to church and pay Tithe, you go to mosque and pray 5 times every day, you worship Ifa, offer sacrifices to the gods but curse your landlord by not paying your rent. He offered you a place to live for your protection and that of your family. You should do better than that. Do you know how he built that house? He must have denied himself some comfort and must have worked hard to build the house. Now, you think you have more rights over the house than your landlord?

I wish Nigeria is like some countries in Europe and Asia that I will not mention. Tenants are thrown out of the houses they rented if they default. The police will be on standby and watch without interfering. That sends a message to others to keep up payment. If the house was built with loan and is repaid with rent, how does the landlord payback when you refuse to pay rent? So, you want the bank to repossess the house while you pack your bags and move to another house to repeat same thing? That is the height of evil. What should those living overseas do if you want to find an excuse? They pay a refundable bond, equivalent to their monthly rent, this is held by landlords for repairs in case tenants damage anything in the house or apartment when they want to leave, then pay their full month rent by direct debit and it continues that way till the end of the contract signed.

I think this system should be practiced in Nigeria by some landlords. Draw up a contract, stipulate therein that the tenant must pay the equivalent of 1 year rent as refundable deposit/bond, to be used for repairs if tenant leaves the house worse than he met it. Then rent should be paid monthly by dividing one year rent by 12 months. It makes life easy for both parties, makes a steady income for landlords and makes tenants more responsible. My opinion...

Anthony Ihidero
July 2018

MAY YOUR ROAD BE ROUGH - By Tai Solarin 01/01/1964

I am not cursing you; I am wishing you what I wish myself every year. I therefore repeat, may you have a hard time this year, may there be plenty of troubles for you this year! If you are not so sure what you should say back, why not just say, ‘Same to you’? I ask for no more.

Our successes are conditioned by the amount of risk we are ready to take. Earlier on today I visited a local farmer about three miles from where I live. He could not have been more than fifty-five, but he said he was already too old to farm vigorously. He still suffered, he said, from the physical energy he displayed as a farmer in his younger days. Around his hut were two pepper bushes. There were kokoyams growing round him. There were snail shells which had given him meat. There must have been more around the banana trees I saw. He hardly ever went to town to buy things. He was self-sufficient. The car or the bus, the television or the telephone, the newspaper, Vietnam or Red China were nothing to him. He had no ambitions whatsoever, he told me. I am not sure if you are already envious of him, but were we all to revert to such a life, we would be practically driven back to cave dwelling. 

On the other hand, try to put yourself into the position of the Russian or the America astronaut. Any moment now the count, 3, 2, 1, is going to go, and you are going to be shot into the atmosphere and soon you will be whirling round our earth at the speed of six miles per second. If you get so fired into the atmosphere and you forget what to do to ensure return to earth, one of the things that might happen to you is that you could become forever satellite, going round the earth until you die of starvation and even then your body would continue the gyration! When, therefore, you are being dressed up and padded to be shot into the sky, you know only too well that you are going on the roughest road man had ever trodden. The Americans and Russians who have gone were armed with the great belief that they would come back. But I cannot believe that they did not have some slight foreboding on the contingency of their non-return. It is their courage for going in spite of these apprehensions that makes the world hail them so loudly today.

The big fish is never caught in shallow waters. You have to go into the open sea for it. The biggest businessmen make decisions with lighting speed and carry them out with equal celerity. They do not dare delay or dally. Time would pass them by if they did. The biggest successes are preceded by the greatest of heart-burnings. You should read the stories of the bomber pilots of World War II. The Russian pilot, the German pilot, the American or the British pilot suffered exactly the same physical and mental tension the night before a raid on enemy territory. There were no alternative routes for those who most genuinely believed in victory for their side.

You cannot make omelettes without breaking eggs, throughout the world, there is no paean without pain. Jawaharlal Nehru has put it so well. I am paraphrasing him. He wants to meet his troubles in a frontal attack. He wants to see himself tossed into the aperture between the two horns of the bull. Being there, he determines he is going to win and, therefore, such a fight requires all his faculties. 

When my sisters and I were young and we slept on our small mats round our mother, she always woke up at 6a.m. for morning prayers. She always said prayers on our behalf but always ended with something like this: ‘May we not enter into any dangers or get into any difficulties this day.’ It took me almost thirty years to dislodge the canker-worm in our mother’s sentiments. I found, by hard experience, that all that is noble and laudable was to be achieved only through difficulties and trials and tears and dangers. There are no other roads.

If I was born into a royal family and should one day become a constitutional king, I am inclined to think I should go crazy. How could I, from day to day, go on smiling and nodding approval at somebody else’s successes for an entire lifetime? When Edward the Eighth (now Duke of Windsor) was a young, sprightly Prince of Wales, he went to Canada and shook so many hands that his right arm nearly got pulled out of its socket. It went into a sling and he shook hands thenceforth with his left hand. It would appear he was trying his utmost to make a serious job out of downright sinecurism. Life, if it is going to be abundant, must have plenty of hills and vales. It must have plenty of sunshine and rough weather. It must be rich in obfuscation and perspicacity. It must be packed with days of danger and of apprehension.

When I walk into the dry but certainly cool morning air of every January 1st, I wish myself plenty of tears and of laughter, plenty of happiness and unhappiness, plenty of failures and successes. Plenty of abuse and praise. It is impossible to win ultimately without a rich measure of intermixture in such a menu. Life would be worthless without the lot. We do not achieve much in this country because we are all so scared of taking risks. We all want the smooth and well-paved roads. While the reason the Americans and others succeeded so well is that they took such great risks.

If, therefore, you are out in this New Year 1964, to win any target you have set for yourself, please accept my prayers and your elixir. May your road be rough! 

Dr Tai Solarin.