The Nation Newspaper

Tag: rent

  • How I was robbed by a man who asked to rent my flat —CBN director

    The Project Director of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Entrepreneurship Development Centre, North Central Zone, Prof. Tyoor Terhemba, has narrated how he was robbed of N8 million.

    Terhemen told newsmen in Makurdi that two weeks ago, he received a call from a man who identified himself as Chief Adelaja, indicating interest in renting one of his properties at Welfare Quarters, Makurdi.

    He said on Monday, at about 6 pm, he picked the said Chief Adefala at Welfare Quarters junction and drove with him in his vehicle to the two-bedroom flat to have a view of same.

    According to the victim, when they arrived the building, he opened the flat for Adelaja to inspect and left to ease himself. But by the time he returned, the door to the flat was locked and Adelaja was nowhere to be found.

    “I became confused and curious and immediately went to the boot of my car only to discover that the N8 million I kept there had gone,” he said.

    He said he put a call to the phone number Adelaja had given him but it had been switched off since then.

    He said he had written a petition to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 4 Head quarters in Makurdi after he discovered that the suspect had lived in Apir with another landlord.

  • Emergency rule: Senate yet to receive Reps’ amendments – Ita Enang

    Emergency rule: Senate yet to receive Reps’ amendments – Ita Enang

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, on Monday said the resolutions adopted by both chambers of the National Assembly concerning the proclamation of state of emergency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States are intact.

    He said the Senate would give priority consideration to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (Alterations) Bill 2013, the 2013 Appropriation Act (amendment) Bill, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) and the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill 2013, among others.

    Enang spoke in Abuja while briefing journalists on the activities of the Senate during the 2nd session of the 7th Senate which began on June 6th, 2012 and ended on June 6th, 2013.

    He stated that until the Senate receives and considers the recent amendments by the House of Representatives, the harmonized version of the proclamation sent to the President remains sacrosanct.

    The House of Representatives had last week reversed its earlier position when it adopted the Senate’s version to allow the President have the power to give directive on the utilization of funds belonging to the states and local governments under emergency rule.

    During the consideration of the details of the emergency rule proclamation, the House of Representatives actually deleted that section, but the Senate retained it.

    At the harmonization stage, the conference committees adopted the position of the Senate on the matter.

    Enang said: “The Senate and the House passed resolutions on the state of emergency and approved the request of Mr. President as contained on the proclamation of state of emergency.

    “There were differences between what the House passed and what the Senate passed.

    “Both Houses set up committees and the conference committee arrived at a harmonized position.”

     

  • Rent regulatory agency for FCT

    The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has concluded plans to introduce a rents regulatory agency (RERA) to control what many have termed the prohibitive rents in the Territory.

    It was gathered that the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed has concluded plans to establish the agency, which will be backed with necessary laws that will require property owners to collect rents on monthly or quarterly basis instead of the current annual or bi-annual arrangement.

    Recall that Mohammed had hinted on this move while responding to questions from FCT residents recently.

    “Together with property tax, Senator Smart Adeyemi said the FCTA intends to sanitise the system in the real estate sector, kill the black market in that sector, make housing affordable and rents sustainable and more importantly; it will boost the economy,” a source said.

    One of the stakeholders in the real estate sector who spoke to Abuja Review in confidence noted that the move will curb corruption and will be in the best interest of the majority of the FCT residents, especially the middle and low income earners.

    The source said: “It is good for middle and low income earners as it protects them against shylock landlords. Lagos is implementing it and you can see Lagos has the highest internally-generated revenue (IGR).

    “On its economic effect; it will improve welfare, consumption and disposable income because majority of the populace earn monthly salary with little upfront payments. So, it is inconceivable how they survive by paying two, three, or one year rent in advance to landlords.”

    Another source also warned FCTA to brace up for stiff resistance; especially from the property owners who are mostly the powerful elite should the proposed property tax and rents regulatory agency be introduced. This is in spite the fact that it will boost the economy.

  • How to rent part of your house for income

    Renting part of your house to a tenant may generate the extra cash that you need but it may also attract some untoward consequences, though not in all cases.

    The first rule is to be prepared to tolerate the excesses of some tenants, if you are unlucky to get an unruly and boisterous tenant.

    Many landlords vow that they will never live in the same compound with their tenants, but I have come to find out that this line of thinking is mutual as some tenants will also swear that nothing will make them live in the same environment with their landlords.

    The relationship is more challenging if you have common areas with your tenant and have need to either contribute money to maintain it or do it yourselves.

    This challenge is more pronounced on Saturdays when families do their laundry and have limited space for airing or hanging their clothes, and where the compound generally needs to be cleaned either jointly or paid for. If you don’t deal with the issues squarely it may escalate and bring a lot of bad blood in the same environment.
    The way to go is to start on an official note.

    A landlord-tenant relationship is not personal; it’s business. The important thing to remember when you are thinking about bringing in a tenant is that it’s a business deal, not a friendship. You need to do everything and anything a landlord would do, including charging a security deposit and establishing all the rules and regulations upfront.

    A potential landlord’s first order of business is to decide whether the income is worth the loss of privacy and stress associated with it if, for instance, he is unlucky to have a noisy and uncontrollable tenant.

    One needs to think carefully about whether they want to live with someone else; it does not matter how big or small the compound is.

    If the house is in flats it becomes a lot easier, but if it is tenement rooms, the challenges become more pronounced because as a landlord you have to decide if you are willing to share a bathroom, toilet and a kitchen or look for money to build these convenience for your personal use.

    “It’s important to know what you want and how you want to live, even in terms of the hours you and your tenants can keep and types of friends you can bring in.”

    The rules cannot be changed mid-way, so it’s always better to draw the line at the start of business.
    Things as how many cars that can be parked inside and how to share security, electricity and water rate bills if there is no provision for separate metres must be sorted out at the onset of the business transaction.

    A landlord will do himself a world of good by providing all that he needs to provide in the house for the comfort of the tenant and refrain from looking only at what will come in as rentals while neglecting the comfort of the tenant. It’s also important for him to get legal advice as to his right and that of the tenant.

    In Lagos for instance, the new Tenancy Law makes it illegal for any landlord to receive more than a year rent from a new tenant otherwise he will be liable to pay a fine of N100, 000 or be sentenced to three years imprisonment. As a landlord you don’t want to run foul of the law, ignorance they say is not an excuse in law! On the other hand, it will also be unlawful for a tenant to offer to pay more than a year rent even though it gives room for the two parties to sign a tenancy agreement. The law, the state government said was put in place to protect the landlord and tenant, so if as a tenant or landlord you carelessly enter into an agreement to beat the law by clandestinely paying or accepting above what the law stipulates and the business goes sour none of the parties will be able to get any relief from the court.

    The caution here is that in your hurry to collect rentals please educate yourself on the responsibilities of each party to the agreement and the government angle to it. I have seen a situation where a tenant exploited the loophole in an agreement to stay for over five years in a property without paying rentals. The watchword here is while trying to earn income from your hard earned property don’t allow yourself to be taken advantage of. Take all precautions and stay on the side of the law. Goodluck!

  • Residents groan under high rent

    ALMOST everything is expensive in Abuja, from foodstuff to accommodation. Despite this, people still flock to the city in search of greener pastures and the easy life, not deterred by the problems of accommodation, transportation and security risks.

    In 2006, the population of Abuja was about 800,000, but the 2012 consensus shows that the number of people living in Abuja is about 3 million.

    The huge influx of people into the city has led to the emergence of satellite towns such as Karu Urban Area, Suleja Urban Area, Gwagwalada, Kuje and others. These suburban areas which are mostly on the outskirts of town with their high population. But be it in the satellite towns or what the residents refer to as ‘Town,’ they are daily confronted with rising cost of accommodation .

    The costs of houses in these suburban areas, though cheaper than what you can get in the town, are still very high. For example, a self-contained apartment, which is just a room with an adjoining toilet and bathroom and maybe a kitchen, goes for N 200,000 in Lungu in Gwarimpa. The same type of accommodation at 69 Road, also in Gwarimpa, costs N500,000 with five occupants sharing one kitchen. In Maraba, such apartment goes for N200,000.

    Abuja residents have complained severally about how expensive these houses are especially those in the suburban region which are some distance from their offices or work places. A resident, Isaiah Bantu said: “When I think about the two hours journey I have to make from Kubwa everyday to Utako because of these narrow roads and hold-up, I almost give up. I really wish I could afford to stay in town, but I don’t have the millions needed. Even in Kubwa, I pay too much just for one-room apartment.”

    Another challenge faced by Abuja residents is the two years’ rent that landlords collect at a time. Ncheta Ilechukwu, an Abuja resident had this to say: “I pay N650,000 for a room and parlour apartment in Karu. Water doesn’t run in the taps; I have to buy that separately. Imagine that!  And to make matters worse, the landlord insists on collecting two years’ rent up front!”

    Clement Orji, a taxi driver who says he pays N250,000 yearly for a one-bedroom apartment in Nyanya suburb, complained bitterly about the area. According to him, the roads are bad and basic facilities such as light and water are hard to come by.

    One would wonder why, when the practice of collecting two years’s rent up front has been abolished in some cities, such still thrive in the area. Another challenge faced by the residents is that, after struggling to pay the rent what becomes the fate of a typical resident if the building is pulled down by the authorities of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) like the mass demolitions going on in Mpape, Abuja

    Apartments in places like Garki, Wuse, Maitama and Asokoro are far more expensive. A room and parlor in Garki for example goes for about N1.5million and the landlords usually insist on collecting two years’ rent. That automatically means you would need N3million naira to rent a room and parlour in Garki.

    Some would say that living in “Town” is not for everybody. It seems that we can comfortably conclude that ‘Town’ in this case is not just the urban areas of Abuja, but Abuja itself. The overall cost of living in Abuja is approximately three times the cost of living in most cities in Nigeria.