Effective Recovery of Property

WHY A LANDLORD OR HIS LAWYER MAY FAIL TO RECOVER A PROPERTY EVEN WHEN THE TENANT'S RENT HAS EXPIRED.



In some countries, Recovery of premises is very technical. It is easier to let out a premises than to recover it. The Law in these countries in relation to recovery of premises protects the tenant more than the landord. This work considers recovery of premises in Nigeria.

The use of force, De -roofing a building, locking the property or use of police to evict a tenant for instance is illegal in Nigeria, like in most common Law Countries. Before a tenant can be lawfully evicted from a Premises/Property, the following actions must be carried out by the Landlord or his Lawyer.




1. Service of the requisite notice to quit. The type of the tenancy determines the length of the notice. For instance, a yearly tenant ought to be served a 6 months notice to quit, a monthly tenant is to be given one month notice to quit. This Quit notice ends the tenancy, but were a tenancy for a fixed term has already expired and the tenant refuses to renew it or move out of the property, there will be no need to serve him with a Notice to quit.

Note that where the landlord and tenant signed a written tenancy agreement, they may agree on the length of the quit notice to be given in the agreement.



2. After the tenant has been served with this notice to quit and he refuses to pack out of the premises, the Landlord or his Lawyer can serve him a seven days owners intention to apply to recover premises which expires after seven days.



3. If after seven days, he still refuses to move out, the Landlord or his Lawyer can proceed to the Court or the Rent Tribunal to recover the premises by Order of Court. The above procedure was laid down by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in the case of Ihenacho Vs Uzochukwu (1997) 2 NWLR (pt 487) at Pp 259- 260 in application of the Statutory provisions.



4. It is better for the Landlord to engage a Lawyer to recover his property on his behalf because of the technical nature of Recovery of Premises Law.



5. You may note that where the Statutory notices are issued by a lawyer and not the Landlord himself, he must give the Lawyer a letter of authorization to issue the notices especially where the Lawyer has not been the person collecting the rent for the premises on behalf of the landlord. See Section 29(1) of the Recovery of Premises Law cap 109, Laws of Rivers State, Nigeria 1999 and the decision of the Court of Appeal of Nigeria in the case of A.S Coker Vs Adeyemi Adetayo & ors (1992) 6 NWLR (Pt 249)612 @ P.625, where it held as follows: “The Law is that a letter of instruction by a landlord instructing a solicitor to recover possession of premises on the landlord’s behalf must be issued before the notice to quit is issued by the Solicitor otherwise, the solicitor has no authority to act. Any notice to quit or notice of intention to apply to recover possession issued by any such solicitor before the letter of instruction is null and void and of no effect.”



As such a Landlord/ Lawyer seeking to lawfully recover the possession of a premises needs to exercise some care to effectively achieve his purpose.https://www.google.com.ng/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=qPFXVPnENMyZ1AWP34DADQ&gws_rd=ssl