By Maria Famakinwa

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Landlords and tenants problems are one of the contentious issues across the country. Most times, they never agree because of their divergent interests. One tends to wonder why this is often so and what can be done.
Investigations by The Hope with some tenants in Akure, Ondo State, revealed that undue interference, unfriendly rules and regulations and archaic beliefs by some landlords are the major causes of rifts between landlords and tenants. Some of the rules according to those who spoke with this writer include: not fetching well water from 7pm-7am, locking the gate when it is 9pm and not opening it until 6.30am, children cannot run across the passage, visitors including family members cannot stay with you more than a week, you cannot pound yam in your apartment except you go to a spot meant for whistle or sell a particular item as a tenant among others.
While narrating his bitter experience with his former landlord, a farmer and father of four, Mr Oludimu Ako, explained that he rented a room and a parlour in Agbogbo area of Akure with his family but regretted ever living in such a compound. He said, “I moved newly into the apartment after paying for two years. The landlord only asked what I was doing for a living and I told him that I am into farming. My stay in the new house was barely four months when I started noticing some funny behaviours from between my landlord. He started by warning my wife against fetching well water 7pm and 7am so as not to annoy the gods of the water. A day that I mistakenly fetched the well water by 6.45am so that I could get prepared to leave early for work was a day I would never forget as all hell was let loose. Since then, I knew the house was not meant for me and I made up my mind to pack out of the house before my tenancy lapsed. I left the house six months to the expiration of my money with three other tenants who could not abide by the rules.”
Also sharing her experience, a trader who simply gave her name as Akintoye, said that she packed out of her rented apartment at Ijoka when her landlady told her that it was forbidden in her house for children to run across the passage. “I was coping initially until when I became fed up of locking my children up in the room to prevent them from flouting the landlady’s rule. Another thing that pissed my husband off about the apartment was that tenants cannot pound yam in their kitchens unless you go to a spot designated by the landlady.
” When l asked the reason for this, she said that it was to guide against the noise of pounding yam from disturbing others. To my husband, the reason was not convincing enough. Despite the fact that my husband loves pounded yam, we stopped it while in the house. Thank God we are out of the house now. We never knew all these laws until after we were issued the payment receipt. Three other remaining tenants left after us, so, those in the compound now are new tenants.”
Narrating her experience, a banker who gave her name as Toke, also revealed that she packed out of her two-bed-room apartment along Isinkan market when she could no longer cope with the law of the house owner. Her words,” I moved into the apartment with my family in year 2017 and I never envisaged there was going to be any problem until seven months of my stay in the house when my husband’s sister came for a visit. I was surprised when the landlord called my husband and asked when his sister will be going back to her place.
“The question angered my husband and he asked the landlord how his sister’s visitation was his business, only for the landlord to open-up saying that he hated it when his tenants invited visitors who stayed more than two days because it will make the soak away to fill up earlier than expected, which will make him to spend more money for evacuation. The man was also fond of preventing anyone to go out until it is 6.30am when he would open the gate. This really affected me as a banker who live in Akure but worked in Ondo. My explanation for the landlord to reason fell on deaf ears. He was the only one who kept the gate key and would not open it until 6.30am. He also locked the gate once it is 9pm. So if you are out by then, you are on your on.
“The first time I quarreled with him was when my husband was coming back from Lagos and his car broke down at a village called Kajola along Ore -Lagos expressway around 8pm. When he called me and told me, I quickly ran to the landlord and explain the situation to him. What he said was that I hope your husband would be back before 9pm because when it was time, I would lock my gate. His statement really annoyed me and I decided to be at the gate to prevent him from locking my husband outside when it was time. Thank God that when it was around 9pm, my husband called me that he would soon get home in about 10 minutes time. I wanted to go and tell the landlord when I saw him coming to lock the gate. I pleaded with him to exercise patience but he refused. That was what we were dragging when my husband met us at the gate. Since then, we started looking for another appointment. Leaving in his apartment was a terrible mistake we made. We left seven months to the end of the money paid. Thank God we are able to get better place now. ”
A trader, Mr Biggy Chidera, also recounted a funny experience with his former landlord. He said that no matter how careful you were, the man was always finding faults. “No matter how much you try to avoid him, there will be issues. The landlord has turned himself to BEDC official, who collected electricity bills without remitting it to BEDC office. We only got to know when the compound electricity was disconnected, when we asked the landlord why was the compound electricity disconnected when we were not owing, he started quarrelling with us to cover up his atrocity. When we were tired of exorbitant billing, three of us (tenants) decided to go to the BEDC office without the landlord’s knowledge and discovered that erroneous estimated bills monthly given to the compound was because the landlord was adding his own charges to tenants bills. The man served as a watch dog to all his tenants, monitoring their movements, what they buy, wear and eat. This determine how he would increase the house rent. It was a funny and painful experience but I now know better.
“There are different challenges facing tenants across the country. There are some houses that you cannot sell a particular item as a tenant, there are some that tenants must not whistle, there are some that you cannot practice your religion. Most landowners make funny laws that are baseless. For instance, a man was given quit notice because his wife made the same hairstyle with landlord’s wife. The landlord’s wife confronted the woman that she was competing with her to entice her husband. Likewise, there are some landlords who disallow tenants from using washing machine because they claimed the plumbing work to connect the washing machine might damage the house. If you pack out of one house, you do not know what you will meet in the next house. The best thing is for you to be your own landlord.”