Tyrant Shylock Lagos Landlords and Their Agents!

Shelter is one of the cardinal needs of man. The scarcity or unavailability of same in our country is a thing of legends. It is estimated that Nigeria has a shortfall of over 20 million houses and the statistics are still on the upward swing. Some experts say that to meet this shortfall, government will need to provide between 5-7 million houses yearly. A city like Lagos whose wonderful Governor is working very hard to turn into a mega city will need a sizeable portion of this to meet her needs. However, does it look likely that government can or has the capacity to provide for this? The answer is obviously a resounding NO! It is not in their character to be that progressive and proactive. This is one of those issues that even the private-public partnership will not tickle my fancy. We know how much the houses built by government cost not to talk of those driven by private sector investments. Mortgage facility sounds as foreign as the word mortgage itself. Where it is available in very few banks, it is for the exclusive preserve of those who do not need it. That is the irony of banking in Nigeria. How many young workers can afford to buy these houses or access these mortgage facilities without selling their souls to the devil?



Another angle to this housing issue that I do not even want to bother about is how prospective tenants are supposed to pay 2 years house rent upfront with all the extra charges of registration and agents fees they go with, as if any employer pays its workers 2 years salary upfront. I really would like to know where this culture came from. Like everything Nigerian, it will remain that – a mystery.



Just before you wonder how all this has become my headache or why this is bothering me now; sincerely, until this morning, I have never given this issue a thought. At least the last time I ever talked about housing and rent was sometime in 2002 when I rented an off campus self-contain accommodation for N80,000 in Port Harcourt. I have since graduated and returned home.



So what happened this morning that set me thinking again about this issue? I woke up this morning and a friend asked me to go with him to meet an agent to inspect a self-contain accommodation he was trying to rent for his single self having recently moved to Lagos. Meeting the agent is what has got me riled up right here.



In the very early days of NextonSunday newspaper [234next.com], I had gone to a shop to buy some electrical consumables. While the attendant was getting the things I wanted, I saw a copy of the foreign looking NextonSunday that had a headline that screamed something about Lagos Landlords and their discrimination against the Igbos. I read the story of how they will not rent their houses to the Igbos for reasons ranging from their stubbornness to troublesomeness to lack of respect to some very flimsy things I did not bother to commit to memory. When I finished the story, I cast my mind to the past and could not remember ever hearing of such stories. I dismissed it as one of those bad stories that the foreign press like to put out there to make Nigerians look bad. At least until then I did not know that it was a Nigerian newspaper.



Okay back to my friend, the agent and I. When we met the agent at his office, he told my friend that they would need to have a chat since they were meeting for the first time in person but that it will have to be after inspecting the apartment. As he stood up, he asked me to wait behind; my friend quickly told him that we were together. The agent then said he knew but the problem was that I was Igbo and he does not want the property owner to know that my friend was not from his own tribe. I did not introduce myself to him as Igbo, didn’t tell him my Igbo name which I don’t brandish about to save it from mispronunciation and neither do I have an accent that could readily give me away. It was just that I was fair in complexion and that was all. I was irritated. At this point, my friend told the agent that he was not from his tribe oh! That he was from the Igbo speaking part of Delta state. The agent said it was okay, that he would tell the Landlord that he was one of them from ‘Bendel’ side.



As they left with this uncomfortable smirk on my friends face, I sat there wondering about what just transpired with my thoughts taking me on a whirlwind tour. When they returned, I heard more things that almost popped my ears. The rules for the apartment were worse than those applicable to notorious places like the US Army’s Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. There were conditions on how many visitors he can receive at a time, who can sleep over in the house and for how long his junior brother can stay when he visits. Three days he said. How he cannot receive more than two visitors at a time. So I thought to myself; if three people were visiting him at a time, two will go in and the other person will have to wait outside. When they come out, then the third person goes in. Absurd right?



That is not all of it. How he cannot say anything - especially complaints - directly to the Landlord without passing through him [the agent]. It was like a gag order. As I joked with my friend after we left, that the Landlord was like the holy of holies in the Bible and for him to take his problem as it relates to the apartment to him, he will need to go talk to the agent to come and talk to the Landlord on his behalf. At this point, I thanked Jesus for removing the bottleneck of having to pass my problem to God through some chief priest who if he does not like my face, color or the tribe I come from as witnessed in this morning’s situation, will mean that God will never hear of my problems.



There is still more. The agent told him he would have to comply with every levy imposed on tenants by the Landlord. All he has to do is pay to whomever the Landlord sends to collect it without asking questions. He will also have to pay electricity and water bills. At this point, I was done keeping quiet. I asked if there was anyone who lives in a house, consumes electricity and water and refuses to pay. It was nothing for the Landlord to worry about because the electricity authority will quickly disconnect the person. He was also to take part in environmental cleaning which was not a big issue.



My friend, being a very gentle and easy going guy accepted the conditions set out since we both knew that he will not fall short of them except on the visitor issue.Hyperlink to However, I was a little worried about the levy part. With a sense of hilarious sarcasm, I asked my friend; what if the Landlord imposes a levy for the marriage of his daughter or insists that he buys the uniform [aso-ebi] for the wedding? However, I could not help but wonder what kind of levy the property owner could impose on tenants.

I had my reservations, which I told my friend because the agreement they were going to sign included forfeiture of the apartment and his rent whenever he breaks any of the rules. Moreover, the agreement was to be drawn up by the Lawyer son of the Landlord. I always get a second opinion on agreements drawn up by Lawyers for hidden clauses they will gleefully use against you one day.

We eventually got to negotiating about the rent, registration and agents fee. When we agreed on this, my friend told them he would be making payment in 3days time. This was followed by the usual marketing and threat gimmicks that there was someone ready to pay higher with a handsome tip for the agent. My friend stood his ground for his date of payment. Guess he was bidding time to think things over. Besides, if there was someone else with a higher offer the agent would not have wasted his phone credit calling my friend.

We left and as expected, it was our topic of discussion. However, he liked the apartment, but his freedom as a young working person and his peace of mind could be at risk. What happens if he has a problem with the Landlord? Then when he closes from work, instead of happily going home to a quiet rest, his mind will first skip a beat on remembering that he will have to face the Landlord again. We also talked about how timid his current tenants might be.

Without trying to insult anyone, I would rather be an Igboman than anything else that will entail that I owe my life to someone just because I work hard to earn money to pay rent to have someone regulate my life.Hyperlink to Just before I even start kidding myself, the irony of it all is that if I was the one that was looking to rent the place, I would not have gone near the apartment not to talk of rent it just because I’m Igbo. In today’s Nigeria? That is unbelievable!

The problem for me is not about the Igbos. It is about knowing how to differentiate between respect and your right. People have come to equate age with wisdom. And if I may add, they have now equated age with the ability to do no wrong. That the Landlord accepts a tenant is not a reason to mortgage his freedom to him, swallow completely whatever he says or suddenly become timid. The truth is that property owners always have their way considering the acute shortage of accommodation in our climes.

However, by midday as we sat in my friend’s office, he looked up to me and said “I will rather pay higher elsewhere than accept those conditions.” With that, he started to work the phone again for a new place.

Truth be told, the issue of landlords and tenants is a very thorny one that transcends tribe or culture. It is an issue that government will have to step into and reign into everyone. In many ways, this should constitute a significant aspect of the “Good people, Great nation” rebranding campaign. We should critically ask ourselves, are we really ‘good people’ when we lack the basic character traits to treat our fellow country citizens with the least required sense of civility, respect or dignity? But even beyond that, how does the government which has failed in its responsibility then regulate these shylock landlords? It’s all a difficult case. But this is Nigeria. We will survive!

On a final note, I read in a news magazine that Gov. Fashola has sent a bill to the state house of assembly to bring together all laws that relate to tenancy and more important outlaw the practice of advance payment for rents. I had wanted to doubt the practicability of implementing the law when passed, but since its Fashola, I can for now say that it’s do-able. The guy has a way of making the mountain go to Mohammed.