'A tenant's nightmare' - JCB reader shares her story

Read her story below

My name is Uche. I am a hardworking 32 year old female entrepreneur and I consider myself quite successful at what I do. I live in a 2 bedroom house in Surulere, rented, renovated and furnished by me without the help of any one. In fact when I moved into my house, it was in a terrible state and so I used my hard earned money to fix the house because the landlord refused to do it.

It was not a problem for me because I felt I would be able to fix to my own specifications. The premises also houses 4 more flats, although I was lucky to get the detached mini - duplex in the back and nobody's rent is below N1m.

Fast forward 6 months after moving into my home,I got bladder infection which I treated and after that I wanted to buy a water-pumping machine and a water tank for my personal use, because the central tank used has lots of dirt in it and brings out brownish water. 

When I went to get consent from my landlord (who also conveniently lives in the same compound), he told me to give him the money so he can use in drilling a borehole because what we presently use is government water. When he kept insisting, I refused. He told me it was selfish of me to think only about myself and he would make me suffer and forbade me from buying a tank or pumping machine. Being that I am only a tenant who didn’t want to make or cause trouble, I let the matter go and continued to use the water provided by the landlord, which is pumped and circulated only at his convenience. I continued to be a good and peaceful tenant, even gifting my landlord a phone for Christmas and giving his wife and kids some clothes as well. 

A short time after that, the fuel crisis began. I was lucky enough to have made friends with the manager of one of the gas stations nearby and because of this; I was able to help the other tenants buy petrol…in fact it got to a point where I was collecting everyone’s jerrycans, including that of my landlord to buy fuel for them. However, it was here that things began to take a sour turn.

The other tenants and I began to notice that our petrol would mysteriously always go missing. It was very strange and we naturally assumed it was the security guard stealing from us. When we took the matter to our landlord, he neither said nor did anything, which is quite unusual because he normally would take action on such a matter. At this point, we decided to take matters into our own hands by writing our names on our respective jerrycans and buying a padlock and key for the storage space for the petrol and gave it to the security man. We told him to always lock the storage and not give access to anyone. Nobody would be able to get fuel without him unlocking the place. Yet the fuel still kept getting missing. I realised that my landlord always bought not more than ₦1,000 (One Thousand Naira Only) worth of petrol at a time, and the last time I helped him buy fuel was 3weeks ago, but he would run his generator every single day. I thought nothing of it until the thing that happened next.

As fate would have it, I had bought a jerrycan of petrol for one of the tenants, who is a director in one of the federal government agencies the day before  The following afternoon, I was on my way out of the house when I perceived the smell of fuel. Further investigation revealed that the storage room was open and my neighbour’s jerry can was open. By the time I got outside, lo and behold, I caught the security man pouring petrol into my landlord’s car. To say I was shocked was an understatement, but I didn’t say a word, instead I got into my car and drove off. From there I called my neighbour and told him what I saw and asked him to check his fuel when he got home.

When my neighbour got home, the security guard opened the storage room for him and an inspection revealed that more than half of the petrol in the jerrycan had been stolen. The security guard claimed it leaked but there was no trace of leakage. Next thing the landlord appeared, ready for a fight, and asked him why he chose that day to check his fuel and not the day before. The next thing the poor man knew was that the landlord gave him two slaps and started to hurl insults at him and said he is giving him 7days to pack out of his house. PS: his tenancy expires May 2017. He also called the man’s wife on the spot (who coincidentally is my friend) and told her that I am sleeping with her husband. The man tried to walk away and my landlord followed him even into his flat insulting him. 

I got back home some few minutes after 9pm, met another of my neighbour who happens to be a manager in a new generation bank(PS: she has also been physically assaulted by my landlord in the past) while exchanging pleasantries she began to tell me about the fight. My landlord appeared, pulled my shirt, slapped me and started beating me. My neighbour ran outside the gate and started calling for help. It took the intervention of people to save me from his grip. 

I still have an existing tenancy and i'm here wondering if I should give up my rent and go look for another house. 

When I moved in my landlord collected 2yr rent plus service charge and till date hasn't given me or any of my neighbours receipt or agreement to sign. He usually gets feisty anytime we ask for it. My neighbours and I are living in bondage. He has done a lot of intimidating things to me, ranging from asking the security man to knock on my door and walk my guest out. Not once or twice has he done this. He says he wont have anyone he has fallen out with in the past enter his compound and doesn't care who the person is. Sometime back, he locked the control that supplies water to my flat simply because I complained the water was dirty, had a foul odour and suggested to him to make arrangements for us to wash the tank. 

Linda I am sad,depressed and confused and would appreciate advice on how to handle these issues. Are there no laws governing landlords? Aren't tenants entitled to some rights? Please and please I'll greatly appreciate if anyone out there has information on the relevant authorities that can help me sort out these issues. Please find attached pictures of my apartment. I spent money to make it comfortable and the thought of abandoning it is heartbreaking especially with the current economic situation.