Trapped by Law: When tenant rights become weapon against landlords

Tenant protection law, originally designed to ensure fairness, dignity, and balance in landlord-tenant relationships, has today become a weapon of manipulation and frustration in the hands of problematic tenants, who now use it to frustrate property owners and stall eviction, writes CHIJIOKE IREMEKA

When Kingsley Agoro signed the lease and paid in full for a three-bedroom apartment in a quiet part of Festac, Lagos, he felt both excitement and relief.

“For the next three years, I won’t worry about rent in Lagos. I can finally organise my finances and focus on other things,” he thought confidently.

But things did not go as planned.

After months of searching, negotiating, and stretching his finances to secure the home, the 53-year-old father of four expected to settle in without delay. Instead, five months after making full payment, he still has not been able to take full possession of the apartment.

The problem lies with the current occupant.

According to Agoro, the sitting tenant, Joseph, had assured him that he would vacate the property by March 31, 2025, when his notice expired. But even after the deadline passed twice, Joseph refused to move out.

He went further to warn the landlord that any attempt to evict him without a court order would result in a lawsuit.

Sunday PUNCH findings show that in Nigeria, particularly in Lagos, a landlord can face fines or even imprisonment for attempting to evict a tenant by force or through any action meant to compel the tenant to leave.

Such actions include locking the tenant out, disconnecting power or water, or any other form of harassment.

Agoro’s experience is far from unique. Across major Nigerian cities, Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, more landlords are being trapped in similar situations, as tenant protection laws are increasingly exploited by difficult tenants.

What was originally enacted as a humane safeguard for vulnerable renters has, in some cases, become a tool for manipulation and impunity.

Laws such as the Lagos Rent Control and Recovery of Premises Law, which regulates rental disputes, clearly state that no tenant can be evicted without a court order and due process.

“But in practice, this law is now being used by a small but growing number of tenants to game the system,” said property lawyer Lawrence Ndukwe. “These tenants, often called ‘professional tenants’ in real estate circles, know the law well and sometimes consult lawyers who advise them on how to stall lawful eviction.”

He explained that years ago, landlords resorted to using touts or security operatives to throw out defaulting tenants, but those tactics now carry stiff penalties.

“Anyone who tries that today risks jail or heavy fines,” he warned.

Ndukwe noted that some of the lawyers working with such tenants are skilled at dragging out eviction cases. They file counterclaims, exploit technical loopholes, and threaten landlords with police involvement if any attempt is made to remove the tenant without a court order.

“As a result,” he said, “some tenants deliberately stay on after their rent expires. In extreme cases, landlords are left helpless, even when a new tenant has already paid and is waiting to move in.”

In Kingsley Agoro’s case, the sitting tenant received formal notice to vacate but refused to leave.

The landlord followed the legal process, served notice and waited the required period, but Joseph remained, insisting that he had the ‘right’ to stay until a court issued a formal eviction order.

According to Ndukwe, the legal protection intended for vulnerable renters most of the time ends up punishing those who have done everything by the book.

“Landlords, especially small-scale property owners who rely on rental income to survive, are the hardest hit. They are forced into prolonged legal battles, losing money each month the problematic tenant remains on their property.

“However, delays in Nigeria’s court system, exacerbated by understaffed housing tribunals, slow administrative processes, and procedural backlogs, only worsen the situation,” the property lawyer clarified.

 ‘I’m yet to take possession’

Recounting his ordeal, Agoro said, “After months of searching for a decent apartment, I found one and paid on March 12, 2025, but I’m yet to take possession of the house.

“Meanwhile, the apartment where I have been living for the past six years had been sold, and the new owner drove everybody out. I am the only person left, and I’m being humiliated daily. I had to appeal to my landlady for an extension to move out, hoping that Joseph would leave on the agreed date, but that didn’t happen.”

Agoro said he receives different contractors every day, inspecting his home, including his bedroom.

He continued, “If I go out, they call me back for an inspection, and I have to rush back to grant access. You can imagine how awful it is to experience such a thing daily.

“I appealed for an extra two weeks while waiting for Joseph to vacate the house I paid for. I was getting nasty messages from my landlady, who felt I had breached the contract she had with me.”

According to Agoro, when the two-week extension was almost over, he met with his landlord and told him to give him an alternative apartment or vacate his own house so that he (Agoro) could move in, if he (the landlord) didn’t want to take further action.

“At a point, the landlord wanted to forcibly evict him with the police, but the police weren’t forthcoming. The only option they gave him was a path he wouldn’t want to follow due to legal consequences. So, I am still locked out. The sitting tenant, Joseph, begged for extra time. He said he had been refunded the money he paid for another apartment.

“So one afternoon, out of frustration, I carried my fridges and gas cylinders and drove to the house. I wanted to move them in, but Joseph resisted me. At that point, I said to the landlord, ‘You know it is a crime for you to market this house to me when it wasn’t available? It’s fraud and a financial crime for you to collect money from me when the house was not available,’ and I left,” he said.

Agoro said when he got home, the landlord called and said he was coming to see him.

“He eventually came with Joseph, and they apologised for the situation and appealed for an extra three weeks, promising to leave within that time. It was then he confessed that he didn’t have enough money to complete his rent, and that was why he had put up a stubborn front,” he added.

Poor and resistant renters

In a similar development, 39-year-old Vincent Ekpo remained unperturbed for 13 months after the expiration of a notice given to him, not out of defiance, but because he does not have the financial capacity to rent another home.

The tech repairman, who fixes and sells phones and laptops at Lawanson, Surulere, Lagos, was caught between high rents and financial instability when the quit notice served on him expired.

Out of desperation, he filed a counterclaim when his landlord took him to court to recover the property, after the landlord had exhausted every peaceful means of settlement known to him.

Ekpo said he had spent a significant amount renovating the house, and just when he was about to start enjoying his investment, his landlord first increased the rent and then issued him a quit notice when he resisted the new rate.

He said, “I had spent a lot of money renovating the house. Just when I was beginning to recover from the expenses I incurred, my landlord increased my rent from N800,000 to N1.5m per annum. When I resisted the increment, he gave me a quit notice.

“I wasn’t ready to go. I don’t have the money to look for another house now, after all I spent on his property. Rent is crazy now, and to make it worse, agents who have no stake in the house want to collect N600,000 or N800,000 as agency and agreement fees. I’m not ready to pay anybody that amount of money. I will take my time, and nobody should stress me.”

Ekpo had been paying N800,000 annually for his two-bedroom apartment, a rent he could manage within the limits of his small business.

“The cheapest decent place I could find was between N1.5m and N2m. That’s more than double what I was paying,” he said.

Faced with limited options, Ekpo made the difficult decision to stay put. “I know it’s not ideal, but I decided I wouldn’t leave until I had saved enough. It’s not as if I was doing nothing. I registered with agents, but everything they showed me was beyond my reach,” he said.

While some might view this as being problematic, Ekpo insisted his decision was more about survival than stubbornness.

However, the tension between him and his landlord has escalated over the past few months.

“He came several times, threatening to throw my things out. It was at that point that my lawyer advised me to file a counterclaim for an extension and a refund.

“The idea is not to live here forever or avoid paying rent; it’s about buying time and not being under pressure. I want to leave with dignity, not be thrown out like a criminal,” he added.

A growing menace

As the city grows and prices soar, situations like these reflect an urban reality where dignity and housing are increasingly becoming privileges rather than rights.

Today, a growing number of landlords are facing a frustrating and costly challenge from tenants, who exploit tenant-rights laws to delay eviction and deprive property owners of much-needed income.

“The pattern now is that when you serve tenants with a valid notice to quit, they refuse to vacate, and when the landlord pushes for enforcement, they run to court,” said Najeem Abbass, a landlord of a commercial three-storey building in Abule-Ado, Lagos.

He noted that with notoriously slow legal proceedings, landlords are left in limbo, unable to access their property, unable to collect rent, and often forced to spend heavily on legal representation.

“I gave my tenant six months’ notice, and after the expiration of the notice and a one-day intention to recover my property, he still didn’t leave. When I reacted and threatened action, he dragged me to court, claiming unlawful eviction attempts, yet he hasn’t paid a kobo in rent for 11 months,” he said.

Sunday PUNCH observed that for landlords in this situation, especially those who rely on rent for survival, it is more than an inconvenience; it is a direct financial assault on their livelihood.

“Most landlords rely on rental income to cover their own bills, mortgages, family expenses, or even retirement. When tenants stop paying and still occupy the property, it creates a double loss for us, no income and no ability to rent the space to someone else,” Abbass added.

Consequently, a property agent, Mr Uzo Azodo, said legal costs can spiral, lamenting that filing a case, hiring a lawyer, and attending court sessions are taxing, especially in a justice system where resolution can take months or even years.

He described the emotional toll as heavy, emphasising that many landlords feel powerless and exploited, watching as their investments are tied up by tenants who refuse to respect contractual agreements.

“Yet, it’s important to make a distinction that not all tenants who go to court are acting in bad faith; some genuinely face hardship or are scared of illegal eviction.

The system becomes a menace when it is intentionally manipulated by those who have no intention of paying or leaving.

“The danger remains that some property owners who cannot tolerate the delay resort to self-help and become victims of the system; they are either fined or jailed, as the case may be, for wrongful eviction,” he lamented. 

Landlords bag jail

Meanwhile, a number of landlords have faced legal consequences after taking the law into their own hands.

For forcefully evicting or attempting to evict his tenant, Felix Uche, without a court order, a 68-year-old Lagos landlord, Dauda, was recently arraigned before a Lagos Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Badagry.

Sunday PUNCH learnt that the tenant approached the court to seek redress after his property was allegedly thrown out of his apartment while he was at work.

In his defence, it was gathered that the landlord claimed he no longer wanted the complainant as his tenant over an issue yet to be ascertained.

The incident occurred on April 19, 2024, at approximately 7 a.m., at Eweh Close, Pako-Ketu, in the Ijanikin area of Lagos.

The matter was later reported to the police at the Ijanikin Division, leading to the arrest of the landlord.

The prosecutor, Clement Okuoimose, told the court that the landlord unlawfully and forcefully entered Uche’s apartment and threw out all his belongings, which contravened Section 168 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.

The defendant, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge, and the Chief Magistrate, Fadahunsi Adefioye, granted him bail in the sum of N100,000 and two sureties in like sum and adjourned the case for further mention.

In a similar case, another landlord (name withheld) was arrested in the Keteren-Gwari area of Minna, Niger State, for illegally evicting his tenant around 3.30 a.m.

According to the police, the arrest would serve as a warning to other landlords who resort to self-help rather than follow due process.

“Until the day landlords and tenants understand they are business partners who must respect mutual agreements, such issues will continue to arise,” the police authority stated.

Before this new order, Sunday PUNCH learnt that many property owners resorted to using touts and even local or formal security operatives to evict problematic tenants.

I choose my tenants – Landlord

For Jide Owoseni, the fear of being arraigned or jailed for forceful eviction has made him retrace his steps and re-strategise on how to avoid problematic tenants without any form of confrontation.

The 57-year-old real estate manager said he has had his fair share of experiences with problematic tenants, but has now reworked his approach to avoid wasting time and resources.

“As a result, I’ve decided not to rent my property to certain categories of people, particularly those who seem overly combative or who are quick to challenge the landlord, even before any issues arise.”

“Also, I no longer rely solely on agents. Most of them are only concerned about their commission. As long as someone is ready to pay their agency fee, they don’t care whether the person is suitable or even employed. Some agents will bring anyone, regardless of whether they’ll be a good fit.

“Now, I personally vet all potential tenants. I have them fill out a form, and then I verify the information myself. If I’m not able to do so, I pay someone to visit the addresses where they claim to live, and I also contact their previous landlords to understand what kind of tenant they are before accepting such a person,” he said.

According to him, he also confirms their places of employment. “It’s time-consuming, yes, but it saves a lot of trouble in the long run. I’ve also learned to document every transaction and agreement I have with my tenants.

“Furthermore, if I notice any early warning signs of trouble, I issue a notice immediately, while the rent is still running. That way, I protect myself and my property. Since most rents are paid annually, I at least have a year’s rent secured before any major issues arise,” he added. 

Handling problematic tenants

Proffering solutions to the landlord-tenant conflicts, legal practitioners said evicting a tenant in Nigeria involves several legal steps, from serving the proper notices to obtaining a court order for eviction. They said it is, therefore, critical that landlords follow these steps meticulously to avoid legal repercussions.

According to them, tenants have the right to be properly notified before eviction, the right to peaceful enjoyment of the rented property, and the right to challenge unfair eviction in court.

They also have the right to proper maintenance of the property by the landlord.

According to the Trusted Advisor Law’s advisory, “A tenant can sue a landlord for wrongful eviction if the landlord violates the legal eviction process, such as evicting without notice or a court order. The tenant may be entitled to damages for illegal eviction.”

However, by understanding the legal framework and common mistakes, landlords can ensure a smooth eviction process, it noted.

 The advisory stated that the first step in the eviction process is to serve the tenant with a ‘Notice to Quit,’ noting that the length of this notice period depends on the tenant’s type of tenancy.

For instance, it explained that a weekly tenancy attracts seven days’ notice, a monthly tenancy attracts a month’s notice, and a yearly tenancy requires a six-month notice.

 “For the notice to be valid, the notice must be properly drafted and delivered to the tenant. It is advisable to have evidence of service, such as a witness or proof of postage, if the notice is mailed.

“Moreover, improper service of notices may render them invalid. Notices to quit and seven-day notices must follow specific legal formats and be properly served. A notice sent via WhatsApp or verbally communicated may not hold up in court.

“Proper documentation, including the tenancy agreement, evidence of rent default, and copies of notices served, is essential. Lack of documentation can weaken the landlord’s case in court,” it read.

 The practitioners emphasised that the eviction process can take anywhere from a few months to over a year, depending on the complexity of the case, the efficiency of the court system, and the tenant’s willingness to vacate the property.

Stressing that proper legal procedures must be followed to avoid delays, the advisory added, “However, as mentioned earlier, forcibly removing a tenant without a court order is illegal. This includes changing locks, removing tenant property, or cutting off utilities. Landlords who attempt self-help can face criminal penalties, including fines and imprisonment.” 

Solutions found in reforms

Stakeholders said there is a need for reforms in Nigeria’s real estate and judiciary systems, stressing that there must be a balance.

They argued that while tenants deserve protection, landlords also deserve justice.

A Lagos-based property lawyer, Favour Ifeoma, said that until Nigeria reforms its systems, landlords will continue to suffer these assaults.

She, however, advised landlords to vet tenants more thoroughly before accepting them, use written and properly documented tenancy agreements, and act early once rent defaults begin.

“The right to housing is a human right, but so is the right to earn a living from one’s lawful property. Abuse of the court system does more than stall evictions; it corrodes trust and worsens Nigeria’s already fragile housing crisis,” she added.

She proposed fast-tracked housing courts, stricter penalties for tenants who file frivolous lawsuits, and mediation systems that prioritise landlord-tenant resolution before going to court. (Punch)