LSP074: Unilateral Increment of Rents in Nigeria

Aside from Master’s students supervising an Undergrad exam, people who act as if they have made it in life are landlords. Well, maybe they have, building a house in this country “no be beans.” But then, even though nonetheless, that doesn’t mean they should act arbitrarily toward tenants.

One of such unilateral arbitrary actions is the increment of house rent. The act is so rife in a typical Nigerian landlord and tenant relationship. Unfortunately, in most of these instances, tenants are ignorantly at the mercy of the landlords.

Today, we will pierce that veil of ignorance. The question is can a landlord, on his own, increase a tenant’s fee? Well, he can. At least, he is the owner of his house. Lol. However, whether such an increment would be effective is a legal question. 

Rent is a matter of agreement between the landlord and the tenant which agreement may be expressed or implied. Being a contractual agreement, the law is that a landlord’s unilateral decision to increase the amount of rent payable under the tenancy agreement will be ineffective unless there is an agreement to that effect between the landlord and the tenant.

In Udih vs. Izedonmwen (1990) 2 NWLR (Pt. 132) 357, the landlord increased the rent from ₦50 to N500 per month. Rebuking this unlawful act, the court held that a unilateral increase of rent can, at best, be an offer or proposal, and where, as in this case, the tenant refuses to pay the landlord’s proposed rent, it is for the landlord who stands to gain where the new rent is accepted by the tenant, to take necessary steps as required by law to terminate the tenancy. This principle of law was further reiterated in Jovinco Nigeria Ltd & Anor v Ibeozimako (2014) LPELR-23599(CA).

An increment of rent is at best an offer or proposal that the tenant has a right to either accept or reject. If rejected, the landlord would then commence an action for recovery of possession. That has been treated in two of our articles. Click Here

In conclusion, unless agreed, no landlord has the legal right to increase a tenancy fee. Now that you have the law, tell others. 

Thank you for reading. See you next week.