By Samuel Ajayi
ABUJA (Sundiata Post) Once again, I am ‘forced’ to write on this. And it is the fact that it seems landlords and property owners in Lagos don’t want young people trying to settle down and even those who have settled down to aspire to anything meaningful in life apart from being “able to pay house rent” every year.
It is simply inhuman. I still don’t understand this Nigerian practice of ANNUALLY increasing rent on a property you built 25 years ago. May be because I don’t rent out my property is the reason I am reasoning “stupidly” like this, but I feel bad seeing how people struggle everyday to pay rent and I always wonder how they will be able to pursue other good things of life.
IN LAGOS, HARDLY DO YOU PAY SAME AMOUNT IN RENT IN THREE CONSECUTIVE YEARS. THERE IS ALWAYS AN INCREMENT!
I don’t want anyone to preach about any “prevailing economic situation”. What is the effect of economy on a property you don’t spend N20,000 on in a year yet you increase rent from N250k to N400k?
Yet, in many cases, if your borehole has problem and you wait for the landlord, you are on your own. Or the roof is leaking OR any other general maintenance. Waiting for the landlord or caretaker is like waiting for Godot.
Yet, same landlord will increase rent at the end of the year.
There is a two-bedroom flat vacant in the house next to my property. Rent itself is 250k. Fair you would say bearing in mind that there is another of 450k on same street. But wait for this. Agreement and Commission (I still don’t understand these charges) were put at a flat rate of 180k! So for two years the guy who wants the place (who happens to be known to me) will cough out 730k (including caution fee put at 50k)!
If he is earning 300k a month, he needs TWO AND HALF MONTHS SALARY to be able to pay.
We are our own worst enemy. ‘Aswear’!
Source: Facebook
