By Jude Njoku

Apparently upset by the barrage of criticisms that have trailed the new tenancy law in Lagos State, the Ministry of Information and Strategy in conjunction with the Ministry of Justice, last week, organised a one-day forum to sensitise stakeholders on the provisions of the new act.

The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Adeola Rahman Ipaye warned that with the signing of the bill passed by the State House of Assembly into law by Governor Babatunde Fashola on 24th August, 2011, “it is no longer a bill but a law that is binding on all of us”.

Ipaye gave reasons why the State government decided to intervene in what should be a private contract between the landlord and his tenant.

According to him, the bargaining power of the landlord vis-a-vis the tenant is not balanced and when this is the case, there is every likelihood there would be abuse and hardship on one of the parties. He noted that the law was neither tilted in favour of the landlords nor the tenants.

A tenement building in Lagos

Continuing, Ipaye explained that government’s intervention became necessary because it had become a norm for landlords to ask their tenants to pay two -three years rent up-front.

Noting that over 90 percent of Lagosians cannot afford such obnoxious demands, because they receive their wages either daily or monthly and we are living in a society where you can hardly access housing loans from mortgage firms. “If you do, the interest rate will be too high; in other countries, you take loans because of the low interest rate,” he said.

The AG observed that many people, after paying the initial rent cannot afford to pay afterwards as landlords usually hiked such rents, ostensibly to eject the sitting tenant in order to bring in a new person who will pay another three years up-front. Tenants also took undue advantage of clauses in the quit notice to punish their landlords.

On why Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Apapa and Ikeja GRA were excluded from the new law, Ipaye who spoke mainly in Yoruba because of the audience, said properties in those areas were leased by companies and not individuals.