Home & Garden

Ultimate Search X – House hunting in Lagos will humble anybody

Ultimate Search X – House hunting in Lagos will humble anybody

If you’ve ever sought a house to rent in Lagos, you will know it’s not an easy feat. It’s time, money, and energy draining.

After paying the inspection fee to house agents, some will take you to apartments that don’t meet up to your taste.

Some landlords are also tribalistic and misogynist, with terms and conditions that only benefit them.

Skabash spoke to Nigerians who have house hunted in Lagos before to share how their search was.

Nigerians share heartbreaking experiences house hunting in Lagos

Nigerians share heartbreaking experiences house hunting in Lagos

Some Nigerians who shared their bad experiences while searching for a house in Lagos had these to say:

Nelson

There was a house I went to that was okay. It was spacious and within my budget. When it was time to pay, the lawyer said he cannot give me the house. At first it was about if I could afford the place, and I could understand because I went there on a weekend dressing simple in my shorts and t-shirt. When they looked at me, they believed I wouldn’t be able to afford the apartment.

So initially it was about money. The next time I went there, I dressed properly and wore a tie. When I got there, they looked at me differently, and the caretaker took a liking to me. I made them understand I could afford the house. The caretaker talked to the owner directly on my behalf. The house owner happened to be in the US and was after the money without caring about the kind of person who rents the house.

However, when it was time to make payment, they created an issue out of my tribe saying they can’t give the house to Omo Igbo. I revealed to them that I wasn’t Igbo, that I’m from Akwa Ibom and an Ibibio, but they insisted that I can’t get the house. At that time I had no document to prove that I wasn’t Igbo, so I didn’t get the place.

It was really a terrible experience for me. I never thought that I would be denied accommodation not because I couldn’t afford it but because they assumed I was Igbo.

Bolarinwa

My bad experience house hunting was with an agent. For any house hunting, he will charge transportation and feeding. The first house he took me to was a house a lady of my stature would bend down to enter; imagine how someone who is taller than me will cope, and the whole wall was nothing to write home about.

The next one he took me to, my search with him was for a self-contained room. He took me to a building where the passage was converted to a kitchen and a room and a parlour. He said I should take one room and they will get another person to live in the second room.

My question to him was, where will the bathroom of the second occupant be? He said the person will be coming to my room to use my toilet. At that point in time, I knew case done close.

Mildred

The landlord asked what I do for a living and about my husband. I had to lie to him that I am married before I could get the house. Not like I am taking the house for free; I paid with my money.

It’s more of a segregation of if you are not a man, you are not supposed to get a house in Lagos, and to think that I was even heavily pregnant at that time, about to put to bed, and wanted to get a place at first.

It’s worse for single moms, so one has to lie about being married when you are not. And these things don’t happen in my own state, Plateau. It’s in this Lagos that I know of this nonsense.

Hakeem

I had an experience where the apartment I actually paid for was let out to 10 other people. This was possible, and we were easily cajoled to fall for such because the house was under construction while they made the 11 of us pay.

This happened about 10 years ago. I was lucky to get the apartment but not on a platter of gold. On this particular day, I was there to check the construction process, and the place was crowded with already scammed people and their families.

The developer and agents were nowhere to be found. Everyone fighting and struggling to gain possession of different apartments. The building was developed into 11 blocks of flats in which each of the flats were given out to more than 10 people.

I had to go the extra mile, with the support of my soldier friend, to secure an apartment.

Adeoti

I paid a N30,000 inspection fee to a house agent. The agreement was that he would take me to a self-contained room in Surulere with a functional water system.

He took me to a face-me-I-face-you with a toilet outside and well. No pipe was even passed to the room. When I complained of the water structure, he said, “Water is water; I will have to manage it like that”. I just left him and went home.

Gbenga

My bad experience when I was trying to get an apartment in Surulere was terrible, from the agent to the landlord. The agent demanded an inspection fee of over N5,000 for them to be able to show me the apartment, and it was not their business whether I like it or not, as the money isn’t refundable.

He expected me to pay an inspection fee for each apartment he is showing me. The terms and conditions of the apartment only suit the owner of the property and not the tenant to be. Some will even demand two years rent in advance.

Agreement and commission is another way money was taken. It is just not a good thing when one is looking for an apartment in Lagos.

Sofiyyah

The experience I had was some agent requesting money before inspection, and after payment, they ended up not picking up calls. And some will send a video and tell me to come for inspection, but the house will be different from the video.

Akeem

My own experience was with the agent inflating the agency fee when the landlord informed him that he won’t be collecting the caution fee. The guy literally added 100k; meanwhile, he’s not the direct agent to the house’s owner and prevented me from meeting the direct agent alone.

I had been suspecting him all along because most of the time his stories don’t always add up, so I kept playing along because I needed his energy for the house hunting. But the mistake he made was taking me to the main agent’s office when I went for the first inspection.

So luckily for me, the man had his contact details pasted on the office entrance, so I picked the guy’s contact just in case. After the whole drama, the guy became angry and started threatening me on the phone. His issue came up after paying several inspection fees to different agents with no results.

What agents have to say

Skabash asked two house agents to confirm our respondents’ claims. We asked why some agents collect money for inspections only to show apartments that are not worth it to house hunters.

The Managing Director of Ruthfolsam Properties Limited, Mr. Segun Sunday, said the accusations are not far from the truth. According to him, there are a lot of agents on the streets of Lagos, and when clients are desperately scouting for apartments, they fall prey to the so-called agents.

He advised house hunters to register with registered realtors, be patient, and avoid switching agents to secure their desired apartment.

“The proper way to go about it is to go for a registered realtor and obtain their forms. Once you’re registered with them, ensure you’re patient enough for them to get you your desired apartment instead of jumping from one agent to another, so by doing that you’ll be safe from inspection fee mongers,” he said.

The CEO of Henry Property Limited, Mr. Henry, on his own part, stated that not all agents collect inspection fees. He claimed that most of the house hunters use many agents to search for apartments.

He said some agents spend their time and resources to show client accommodations but won’t know if they will show interest or not.

“The agent won’t know, but before you know it, the same client will tell you they have seen the house elsewhere without giving the agent anything,” Mr. Henry lamented.

He stated that he collects an inspection fee, but if he notices a client doesn’t have much he won’t collect, as he will consider that the person is managing meagre resources.

He labelled any agent not picking up client calls as a criminal.

He said he doesn’t lie to house hunters to show or take them to a place he never sent to them. According to him, it is hungry or desperate agents that do that.

Henry went on to share his experience of how a client used him. He showed the client a house, and he liked it, but to his surprise, he went behind to get the owner’s number and lied to the owner that no agent brought him.

He said he later showed the evidence of the inspection money he sent to him, after which he went to the police station to report him.

Landlords share their side of the story

Some landlords shed light on why the terms and conditions of a house are stringent and why they are unwilling to rent houses to ladies. They also commented on claims that agreement and commission are ways of extorting tenants.

One of the landlords, Mr. Ibrahim Balogun, disagreed with the view that terms and conditions favour house owners only. Explaining the reason for his disagreement, he said the copy of the agreement is shown to the prospective tenants before renting the apartment.

He claimed he usually shows any prospective tenant a copy of the agreement he or she will sign to become a tenant; in that case, if he or she disagrees with the contents, it can be amended beforehand.

On not wanting to give house to ladies, he stated that he supported the move for two reasons.

“First reason is that most ladies that rent houses have more than one man friend, and this will teach an immoral attitude to the little girls within the compound, and secondly, Islamic-wise, it is wrong for a mature female to live alone; she needs a companion in case of any unprecedented event,” Mr. Balogun shared.

He, however, said if a lady assured him that she has one fiancé, he will give her an apartment to rent.

Speaking on agreement and commission, he stated that it is normal to him because it is a payment for a group of professionals – “the agent or caretaker and the lawyer that drafted and signed the agreement between the landlord and tenant. Don’t they deserve to be paid?” he asked.

Another landlord, Mr. Adenle, said he will agree that the terms and conditions of an apartment only suit the landlord if the landlord would be living in the same house with the tenants.

According to him, most landlords try to come up with terms and conditions that would protect their property against different I don’t care attitudes of tenants.

On the unwillingness to rent out apartments to single ladies, he stated that it is common with elderly landlords who are of the opinion that a single female occupant could be having more visitors of the other sex and thereby making the building look like a hotel.

Takeaway

Indeed, house hunting in Lagos will humble anybody. To secure a desirable apartment, without a doubt, one needs patience, and also the better the house and the location, the higher the rent, agreement, and commission.

Both house hunters and agents have their faults. It’s high time house hunters stop going behind their agents to meet landlords to avoid settling agents. Inhumane agents who dupe their clients also need to put a stop to it.

ALSO READ: Why we keep side chicks – Men answer age-long question about ‘polygamous nature’

Previous ArticleNext Article
Send this to a friend