Tenancy is a contractual agreement in relationship
between the Landlord and the Tenant for a fixed period. Now, if you have a
tenant in your house and it appeals he has not been paying for sometimes now
and you want to eject him, there are procedures clearly lined out by 1999
constitution of Nigeria legal system that should be followed. In the common
law, tenancy agreement can be terminated in many ways but for now, we shall
concentrate on QUIT NOTICE.
QUIT NOTICE is
the one of the ways to eject a tenant. It happens when the tenant refused to
complied with the agreement laid down. The lease will come to an end by
services of a notice to quit by either the landlord or the tenant.
Now, the length of notice is as follows:
1.
The tenant at
will and weekly tenant shall be given one week notice.
2.
If it is a Monthly tenant, one month notice
will be given.
3.
If it is quarterly
tenant, 3 months notice shall be given.
4.
If it is a yearly
tenant, 6 months notice shall be given.
After giving the notice based on one of the above
situations, when the tenant is still not vacated the premises, the landlord will
serve another 7 days notice of ownership intention to recover the premises.
Then, if still the tenant did not leave the premises,
the landlord has right to finally send the matter to court in order to take
possession. At this point, there is no more landlord and tenant agreement.
After the judgment of the court, the tenant is to pay
to the Landlord the arrears of rent and what is called messy profit.
Thereafter, the tenant is to hand over the keys of the flat or rooms to the
Landlord before his/her vacation from the premises/house.