It was a great ‘lookathon’ (long stare) between my Principal and I as we read through the court papers Mr. Okafor hastily dropped earlier that day with our Secretary while we were counselling some of our witnesses for a matter we had coming up the next day. Going by the originating processes he dropped, Mr. Okafor aka oga landlord wanted our law firm to defend him on a new case that was filed against him by one of his tenants. Our lookathon was because my principal and I already knew from the face of his originating processes that we were gallantly seating at the door of ‘a good lawyer must be able to defend a client regardless of the side of the law they were standing’… lol!
Mr. Okafor owns a four-story building at a place known as Omagba Phase 2 Onitsha, Anambra State. Each flat was a three bedroom with a living room, kitchen, bathroom and toilet. All four flats were up for rent. One Mr. Okezie who was also a tenant in the said building was the Plaintiff suing Mr. Okafor in the said case he earlier dropped the originating processes with us. Mr. Okezie has been a tenant of Mr. Okafor for about three years now and has been very diligent with the payment of his rents. When he (Mr. Okezie) came to renew his rent on the year this issue emanated, he was informed by Mr. Okafor that his rent has been increased by 30%. Mr. Okafor cited his reasons to be the new borehole he recently drilled in the compound from his own pockets for better supply of water to the tenants and general outward repainting of the property he did recently.
Mr. Okezie objected to the outrageous rent increase on the grounds that Oga Landlord did work on his property and he never informed the Tenants that they were the ones that will offset the said bill later; because of that, he will only pay the old rent, Oga Landlord should come for the said increase the next year. This angered Oga Landlord who believed he was so kind to think it wise enough to create comfort he was not enjoying with the said tenants for them and he blatantly refused to collect the old charges. Oga Landlord told Mr. Okezie to pack out of his property in two weeks’ time. Mr. Okezie did not pack out of the said property as was told. Rather, he lived rent free for about three more months on the said property. Oga Landlord broke into Mr. Okezie’s home one day with thugs very late at night, beat him up and threw him and his entire family out of the property. Mr. Okezie filed a law suit against Oga landlord for such inhumane treatment seeking for twenty-million-naira (N20,000,000) in damages.
The law suit that was filed by Mr. Okezie against Mr. Okafor was a huge comic relief to Mr. Okafor aka Oga landlord that he even sought for Mr. Okezie’s new address to issue further stern warning to him that the next time he sees him anywhere near his property he will deal with him mercilessly. The Law, ina afukwa udi igho ala nke a bikonu? Uno mu ji ego mu welu lu? (the Law, can you believe such madness? A house I built with my own money?); was his constant in between line breaks while he narrated his story. It was inevitable not to feel Mr. Okafor’s pains from his narration because from a reasonable man’s point of view, that house is his own. Neither Mr. Okezie nor the other tenants contributed a dime to the purchase of that land, nor the construction of the building. Every human being has absolute right over what is theirs. He was also a very kind man to use his money to drill borehole for the tenants to ease their stress of going to the street across to get water when water board fails to supply water and even changing the face of the compound with some fresh paintings. Not all Landlords are that thoughtful.
That however, does not erase the fact that there are laws that guide a society. If everyone should start asserting their rights how they wish, they may be right from the look of everything; but will still end up creating great mayhem in the society by whatever method they choose to use and assert their rights in accordance with their own understanding.
Please, may I see the ‘tenancy agreement’ you signed with this Mr. Okezie before he moved into your property Mr. Okafor, requested my Principal and Mr. Okafor stared on in great confusion. Mr. Okafor’s building as at the time of this problem was about six (6) years old. Tenants have been coming in and going out and he has never heard of ‘tenancy agreement’, neither has he ever issued one to any tenant before. And here he was venting and threatening to cause more violence on the person of Mr. Okezie for daring him on a property he built with his hard-earned money.
There goes our legal counselling again! Mr. Okafor, you are very lucky you came to our law firm where we are very focused with delivering the position of the law more than grabbing money off our clients. Your anger is justified, but you came to us late and have sadly gone and acted ahead of the law. You clearly brought matchets to a pillow fight and if we do not step in to help you explore the possibilities of an Alternative Dispute Resolution over this matter; you may end up in jail when this is all over.
Mr. Okafor was very confused and even angry with us for such suggestion. Not until we started our lectures:
- Oga Landlord, your tenant has rights as much as you do on a property, they rented from you.
- They have a right to enjoy the said property peacefully and not get harassed late at night by you and your thugs.
- The first thing you do before you even take rent from any potential tenant is to get a lawyer to create a ‘tenancy agreement’ for you and your tenants.
- It is in that agreement you state your detailed rules over your property whichever way you wish.
- This is also where you state who takes care of maintenances and repairs like you did.
- Any tenant that finds it offensive, should go rent somewhere else.
- If you wish to increase rent, inform your tenants in accordance with the notice period stipulated for their type of tenancy. For the case at hand; they needed a 6 months’ notice before the expiration of their old rents.
- If you do not wish for a tenant to continue to stay on your property, you ensure you issue them a quit notice in accordance with the time period stipulated for the rent they paid.
- If they fail to move out after the notice period, your lawyer will further issue them notice of owners’ intention to recover premises.
- If after the expiration of that, they still don’t leave, you take them to court.
- You have no right to throw out a tenant of your own will without an order of court; worse off is threatening or manhandling them while doing so. The case will flip against you when the tenant goes to court.
The Law, mana ife court na ete aka (But, court wastes time, The Law), what happens to my rent while we wait for the court verdict? Asked Mr. Okafor. The law is neither stupid nor wicked Mr. Okafor, said my Principal. Whatever accrues from the time the rent expired till you get your court order is called mesne profit in law. The said tenant will pay that in full, plus other damages when the court is done.
Besides, tenancy cases don’t waste that time in court. Mr. Okafor was weak after listening to us, albeit a bit deflated on hearing that he was no longer approaching equity with clean hands. We had no option than to write the opposing counsel handling Mr. Okezie’s case to seek for ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution). It took time to pacify Mr. Okezie but they obliged after apologies were issued by oga landlord over how he treated Mr. Okezie and family. Mr. Okafor waved off the three months mesne profit for Mr. Okezie who was now living somewhere else with his family, and everybody went home happy and more enlightened.
Oh well, we took over the management of Mr. Okafor’s property and issued fresh notice of rent increase in accordance with the law to the other tenants as well as got all of them to sign a ‘tenancy agreement’ individually with our client. And there has since been no more issues on the said property between any tenant and oga landlord.
The use of a lawyer in transactions like this is extremely important. The hunger for shortcuts and boycotting paying lawyers their fees has landed many people in problems that are million times bigger than what they would have paid a lawyer for proper legal advice from the onset. Do NOT be like this oga landlord oooo! A stich in time they say saves nine. He was lucky he approached our law firm. You may not be lucky! If he had pushed his luck in the law court over this issue, it would have flipped on him and probably landed him in jail when the law is done with him over HIS OWN HOUSE! Cheers…