By Lawrence Enyoghasu
Recently, a tenant, Mary Oniyan’s right was allegedly violated by her landlord. She said trouble started after the Ekweozors asked her family to vacate an apartment barely a month after they moved in without a plan to refund the rent paid for the apartment.
She recalled that the landlord and his wife physically assaulted her upon her family’s refusal to prematurely quit an apartment belonging to them at Ikotun-Egbe, a Lagos suburb. She stated that the refusal of her family to move out of the house attracted the landlord’s anger, which led to an attack on Mary, leaving her face scarred for life.
According to Mary, the landlord and his wife never opened up on the reason for the notice to quit just a month after she and her family moved in.
To avoid such and related issues, a lawyer, Mr Titus Onuora Odo, Principal Partner of Odo Nwodo Chambers and the CEO of Perfect Homes Limited, a real estate company, has highlighted ways tenants and prospective tenants could avoid such embarrassment. He also highlighted how such issues could be tackled if and when they unavoidably happen.
Mr Onuora Odo warned that most tenants rent houses without the guidance of a lawyer and are helpless when matters arise.
The relationship between a landlord and a tenant is basically a contractual relationship. There is a binding contract between the landlord and the tenant. That is why it is important for a tenant to insist on a tenancy agreement at the inception. That is the document where the rights and obligations of both parties are stipulated. If either of the parties violates the terms of the agreement, the party who is in breach can approach the court for redress.
For instance, if a landlord takes the law into his hands and unlawfully ejects the tenant, the tenant has the option of pursuing the matter from two ends- the criminal leg and the civil leg. He or she can do that simultaneously or one after the other. If the tenant wants to explore the criminal leg, he or she is not going to recover any damages from the court. The whole essence is to punish the defaulting party and to also serve as a deterrent to others who may wish to toe the same line of criminality and infamy. It is only when the tenant files a civil suit for the enforcement of his right that the court can award compensatory damages. Aside the tenancy agreement that binds the landlord and the tenant, each state of the federation has tenancy laws.
Take for instance, if a tenant is a yearly tenant and the landlord wants to eject him or her, the tenancy laws provide that the tenant is entitled to a six-month notice. Anything short of this is defective and invalid.
The only area where the landlord is at liberty to go against the provision of the tenancy laws in terms of duration of notice is where both parties, I mean, the landlord and the tenant mutually agree to do so.
But there is a question that has always bothered the minds of many tenants in different parts of Nigeria: Is it legally right for a landlord to force his tenant out of his rented apartment for non- payment of rent?
Mr Odo asserted that the answer is an emphatic no. He explained: “It is unlawful for a landlord to forcibly eject his tenant for whatever reason. The moment a tenant pays for an apartment and moves in, he is protected in the sense that it is reasonably expected that he is to enjoy quite a peaceable possession of the apartment which he/she paid for. This is understandable because in tenancy relationships, it’s more of a super-ordinate/ sub-ordinate relationship. In most cases, the landlord appears to be more financially buoyant and disposed to throwing his weight and flexing his financial muscle when issues arise. This is not always the case because one can be a landlord and a tenant at the same time. You may own the building where you reside but a tenant in your office. The truth of the matter is that a landlord who engages in forcible eviction stands the risk of going to jail. It is a criminal offence as well as a civil wrong. The tenant can complain to the police over criminal trespass and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace. He can also approach the court for redress under a civil suit.
Has Mr Odo ever handled matters of this nature in the course of his legal practice? He answered in the affirmative.
“Very well. I have personally handled cases of this nature in the past. During my early years in legal practice, precisely in 2009 when I was still doing my tutelage, I was assigned to handle a matter that bordered on forcible eviction. The landlord was a high-ranking political office holder at the material time and the tenant was a bank manager in one of the new generation banks. What happened was that the landlord increased the rent and the increment didn’t sit well with the tenant.
The unfortunate thing was that the landlord felt he could do anything and get away with it because of his position. Before one could say Jack Robinson, he flew in from Abuja and instructed his boys to do the needful. Unfortunately for him, those hoodlums were rounded up in the course of the execution of the assignment and were later charged to court. I appeared as a watching brief counsel for the tenant and pursued the matter to its logical conclusion. I didn’t stop there. I equally filed a civil suit at the Lagos State High Court where my client was awarded compensatory damages after five years of legal tussle.”
Odo also gave further insights into the procedure for eviction as provided by the law. His words: “The procedure is very simple. The position of the law is that the landlord is under obligation to effect service of the requisite statutory notices on the tenant before he can successfully eject his tenant. The type of notice to be served is dependent on the type of tenancy and mode of payment. Take for instance, if the tenant is a yearly tenant, the landlord is expected to serve the tenant with a six-month notice. Anything short of this will automatically invalidate the notice and make it defective. And after the expiration of the six-month notice, the landlord is also under strict obligation to serve another seven days owner’s intention to recover possession, after which he will head to court to get eviction order. So, there is nowhere in our jurisprudence where the landlord is empowered to resort to self help. The procedure has to be strictly followed.”