By Olakunle Olafioye
Amid the hard biting economy in the country, the misery of many tenants in Lagos State are about to grow further as they have been notified by their respective landlords of impending hikes in their rents.
Most tenants said that the upward review of their rents came as a rude shock, claiming that the increments were reportedly fixed without human face.
Ms. Toyin Egunjobi, a single mother of two, is one of many Lagosians who have been issued with this depressing news. Egunjobi said she moved into her modest apartment consisting of a room and parlour almost four years ago in Alagbado area of the state on a rent of N120, 000 per annum.
Her rent was, however, increased to N150, 000 shortly after making the second annual payment. But about eight months after paying the new rent and with about four months to the expiration of her current tenancy, she received another notification, informing her of an additional increase of almost 70 per cent as she is subsequently required to pay N250, 000. “That is just quite outrageous,” Egunjobi exclaimed, saying that “I wasn’t expecting any increment even in the next two years since my rent was only increased by 25 per cent a little over a year ago. Increasing my rent by almost 70 per cent now is quite unfortunate.”
Egunjobi said that her landlord cited the economy situation in the country as the main reason for the latest rent hike.
Like Ms. Egunjobi, Mr Abdulganiu Morufu is equally at the mercy of his landlord who has just decided to jack up his rent up by almost 100 per cent. Mr Abdulganiu, a resident of Aboru in Iyana-Ipaja area of the state, was recently informed by the new caretaker commissioned by his landlord that his three-bedroom apartment which hitherto went for N400, 000 per annum would now go for N700, 000 beginning from the expiration of his last annual payment.
“Be informed that your annual rent has been reviewed upward with effect from February, 2023 when your current rent will be deemed to have expired. Your annual rent is now N700, 000,” a terse notification sent to his phone read in part.
Mr Abdulganiu said that when he put a call through to his landlord in an ostensible effort to prevail on him to bring down the amount, the landlord, he claimed, did not only refuse his plea, but also “he gave me the option of quitting the apartment if I considered the new rent too outrageous as maintained during our conversation. He kept harping on the fact that the current economic reality in the country was responsible for his decision.”
The story is not different in other parts of the state where tenants shared the same tale of lamentation over outrageous increment in their rents. Mr Abiodun Olatigbe a resident of Omikunle in Ifako-Ijaye said his landlady did not come straight with the news of increment in his rent at first.
“We (the tenants) just woke up one Saturday in the month of October to receive notices to quit our various apartments from one of the sons of the landlady. There are seven flats in the compound and six of us were served with the notice to quit except only one occupant, who moved into the compound a couple of months ago. The reason given was that she wanted to carry out some renovations on the building, but we all knew that was just a dummy because there was no any significant damage that could warrant a wholesale renovation in the building,” Mr Olatigbe observed.
According to Olatigbe, some of the tenants later visited the landlady who resides in another part of the state and were later given another option.
“She told us that we could stay if we were ready to pay new rents. There are different apartments in the compound and the rent ranged from N250, 000 to N400, 000 per year. I live in a two-bedroom flat where I paid N300, 000 per year. I was told that my rent is now N550, 000 while my neighbour that uses three-bedroom is to pay N650, 000 annually. Those who live in a room and parlour self-contain are now to pay N450, 000 from N250, 000, they paid before now.” Olatigbe said.
Olatigbe said that some of the occupants of the building had envisaged the increment the moment they learned that the newest tenant who moved into the compound few months earlier paid N400, 000 for a room and parlour self-contain, the same rent the current occupant of the only three-bedroom apartment, paid in the outgoing tenancy year.
While the landlords justify their decisions to hike their rents on the poor state of the economy in the country, the tenants who bear the brunt argue that the hardship in the country is like evil rain that spares no one.
A resident of the state, Mr Stephen Agbetu, who recently had a similar bitter dose of the unreasonable hike in rent, described the outrageous increments in rents as imposed by landlords on helpless tenants as wickedness and lack of consideration on the part of such house owners. “Economic hardship should never be used to justify unreasonable increment in rents by landlords because the tenants are not immune against the hardship in the country. So why would you transfer your own burden to the helpless man whom you know you have economic advantage over because you have your own house and you are not paying rent? If you decide to increase your rent by 100 per cent you should be humane enough to ask yourself whether the tenant receives an equivalent salary increase at his place of work. I am not saying landlords should not increase rents, but it should be done with human face. Any increment that exceeds 20 per cent at the most, is wickedness and exploitative and should be condemned. Unfortunately there is nothing the tenants can do because the law that regulates the relationship between tenants and landlords in the state favours the landlords more than tenants as far as increment in rents is concerned,” he said.
Despite the prevalence of outrageous increment in rents across the state, findings by Sunday Sun indicated that there are tenants who claim that their landlords have been so magnanimous with them considering what they charge as rents.
One of them is Mr Ayoola Ewuosho, who moved into his two bedroom apartment in October, 2016.
According to him, “Since I moved into my flat in 2016 until this year, I have paid the same rent, N180, 000 every year. My landlord just notified me that my next rent which would be due for renewal in 2023 would be N200, 000. That is an increment of N20, 000, which is still reasonable,” he said.
Reacting to what options available to tenants who consider the hike in their rents outrageous, a legal practitioner, Mr Idowu Adeogun said that the tenancy law in Lagos State makes provision for sitting tenants to seek redress in court whenever they feel their landlords increase their rent unreasonably.
According to Adeogun, “the position of Lagos Tenancy Law on unreasonable rents is very clear. Any tenant who considers the increment on his rent outrageous can seek redress. There are three things the court will consider in determining the outrageousness or otherwise of the increment. First, the law will consider the general level of rents for comparable premises in the locality. It may also consider the evidence of witnesses of the parties as well as any special circumstances relating to the premises in question or any other relevant matter in determining whether the increase in the rent is reasonable or not.”