The Rent Control and Recovery of Residential Premises Law, as adapted by the various States of the Federation fully protects the tenant as well as the landlord of premises. The law recognizes that the landlord and the tenant are not meant to be enemies, but partners of sorts. A tenant is not allowed by law to wrong his landlord by damaging or defacing his property. Upon vacating the demised apartment, he must leave it in a ‘tenantable condition’.
Now, does the law support acts of oppression from the landlord against his tenant? The answer is ‘NO’. The law demands that the landlord should allow his tenant to enjoy peaceable tenancy in his premises. He cannot forcefully eject the tenant from his property but MUST give him the Statutory Notices as provided for under the Rent Control and Recovery of Residential Premises Law.
That the law is clear on what should be the relationship between the landlord and the tenant is not at all in doubt. However, in practice we see a lot of ways in which persons circumvent this law and thwart justice. In all such cases, the lawyer always finds himself hedged in the middle, between the tenant’s right and the landlord’s perceived wrong.
Mr. June was the owner of a block of four flats of three-bedrooms each in Fortune Avenue.
He lived with his family in one of the flats upstairs. Mr. Zee was a tenant of Mr. June’s, occupying one of the ground-floor flats with his own family. Mr. Zee was a government contractor who, unknown to Mr. June, had performed a contract for which the government had for years owed him a huge sum of money. Some five months after Mr. Zee had moved into Mr. June’s house, fortune smiled on him and the government paid him what he was owed. Of course, by nature money does not know how to hide itself. As soon as Mr. June noticed that Mr. Zee had come into money, he sought audience with him, and the following were the words from landlord to his tenant: ‘Mr. Zee, na now I come believe wetin my wife dey always talk, say good luck dey for dis flat wey una hire. Mr. OK, my first tenant for the flat, pack comot after only one year go become im own landlord. Mr. UV wey move in after am no even stay reach one year sef before imself pack enter im own house. See you, too, wey pack come which day so; no be you I don dey hear say you don buy land, too, come begin develop am sharp-sharp? Na wa-o! Abeg, I don decide say we and una go exchange flat. You hear me so? Me and my family wan comot pack enter ya flat, make you and ya family come pack enter we own flat. Yes o. I wan make that good luck wey dey shine for this ya particular flat, make e touch me and my family too.’
It all sounded preposterous, but Mr. June really meant business. However, Mr. Zee told his Illiterate landlord point-blank that he was not ready to swap flats with him over his absurd Superstitious belief…
‘Eh-eh! Na who get this house? Na you, Mr. Zee, abi na me build am with my money?’ the Landlord demanded. ‘I say you go pack come my flat, make I pack come ya own, you dey tell me nonsense, say you no go do am!’
‘Ha! Landlord, sir!’ a confused Mr. Zee tried to reason with the man. ‘The particular flat that I paid rent on and have been staying in, with my family, for these past five months is the one I want to continue to stay in, and no other. It is unreasonable that I should be forced to exchange flats with you for the kind of reason you gave, especially considering the fact that I spent a good chunk of my own money to repaint my flat and put in fixtures to my own taste before moving into it.’
‘Na grammar you dey speak so!’ his landlord told him with a wave of the hand. ‘If you say You no go exchange flat with me, then you must pack out pata-pata! In fact, na seven days I dey give you to pack comot. Pack, make I refund ya rent wey remain give you. Seven days na’im I dey give you. If by the next seven days you no pack leave my house, anything wey ya eyes see make you manage am…’ That same evening, Mr. June got his young son to pen what he tagged a ‘Seven Days Quit Notice’ and served it on Mr. Zee.
When Mr. Zee showed the ‘Notice’ to his lawyer, the learned gentleman asked him to go to sleep and forget the ‘nonsense’, as it was not worth the paper on which it was written. The lawyer assured Mr. Zee that since he was a yearly tenant, he was entitled to the statutory six months’ Notice to Quit.
But when the seven days elapsed and Mr. Zee appeared unconcerned about the Notice, Mr. June came in the full glare of daylight and deposited a live tortoise tied with red and black strips of cloth at the corridor of the tenant’s flat.
‘He has no right to threaten you with juju! We’re going to have him arrested!’ Mr. Zee’s Lawyer raved when his client reported this development.
When the landlord saw the Police, he told the officers – right in the presence of the learned gentleman and his client – that as landlord he reserved the right to bring any animal that caught his fancy into any part of his property. Although in the end he was persuaded by the Police to remove the offending animal from his tenant’s passage, the landlord did not appear in the least repentant.
‘My wife and children have started packing our things, Barrister sir,’ Mr. Zee told his lawyer the following morning. ‘The structure I’m putting up is still uncompleted, but at least it has been roofed. We’re moving there.’ ‘But that’s rubbish!’ fumed the learned gentleman. ‘The law is solidly on your side, Mr. Zee. You cannot allow that uncultured landlord to trample upon your rights. Look, don’t tell me you’re afraid of juju!’
At the lawyer’s last statement, the tenant burst into laughter.
‘Who’s not afraid of juju, Barrister, sir?’ he asked. ‘As far as I’m concerned, it’s only a foolish person that will carry a fight to a man in his own house, because the house-owner alone knows where the weapons in his house are hidden. So, my Barrister, I have decided that I’m not going to make any case with this landlord of a man. I’ll just pack into my uncompleted house with my family and begin to manage life there.’
‘But it is wrong of the landlord to treat you so. You’ve got your rights, Mr. Zee,’ the lawyer insisted.
‘I know, sir! You may think I’m being foolish and cowardly, but that’s me for you. When you are an upwardly mobile young man like myself, you should not allow any disgruntled landlord to mess up your life for you – right or no right. I have learnt not to joke with the black man. Until such a time when the courts and you lawyers begin to prosecute cases of juju, any tenant pursuing Shis rights against his landlord must apply wisdom in doing so. That’s my take!’
‘Really!’ exclaimed the lawyer, amused.
