Guide
Renting in Lagos: a plain guide
How renting a home in Lagos usually works, from searching and inspecting to fees, agreements and paying, with the questions worth asking at each step.
This guide is in English for now.
How it usually works
Most homes in Lagos are let through agents, though some landlords let their own property. The usual order is: you find a place, you inspect it, you agree the terms, you pay the move-in total, and you sign a tenancy agreement before you get the keys.
Rent is usually quoted per year, and many landlords ask for one or two years at the start. Fees for the agent and the lawyer, a caution deposit and a service charge are commonly added on top. Ask for the move-in total, not just the rent.
Ask for the move-in total, not just the rent.
Choosing an area
Lagos is large and the journey often matters as much as the house. Before you inspect, try the trip to work or school at the hour you would really make it. Ask neighbours about water, power, flooding in the rainy season and the road to the house.
Prices differ a great deal from one area to the next and from one street to the next, so compare several places in the same area before you decide.
Inspecting
Inspect every place before you pay anything. Test the taps, the switches and the sockets, look at the ceilings for water marks, and check whether the meter is prepaid and whose name it is in. Ask who you will call when something breaks.
On Vallo
Vallo charges no inspection fee. Viewing a property through Vallo is free. The inspection report is eight items with photographs, and it becomes the record of what the place was like when you moved in.
Fees and the published rule
The published rule in Lagos
Vallo prints one published rule beside Lagos listings: an agency fee of at most 10% of a year's rent and a legal fee of at most 10%, from the Lagos State Tenancy Law 2011. Vallo does not cap anybody's fee; it prints the listing's own fees beside the rule so you can compare. Laws are amended, so ask a lawyer before you rely on any figure in a dispute.
The agreement
Read the tenancy agreement before you pay. It should name the landlord, the tenant, the property, the rent, the period, what each fee was for, how the caution deposit is returned, who repairs what, and how either side can end the tenancy. If something you were promised is not in it, ask for it to be added.
On Vallo
The agreement is drawn up from the listing's own figures and the inspection report. Payment opens only after the inspection report is submitted, both of you confirm the agreement, and Vallo approves it.
Paying
Pay in a way that leaves a record with the property and the other person's name on it, and get a receipt for every payment. Before you pay anybody you met online, check who they are: see the guide on avoiding rental scams.
Sources
- Lagos State Tenancy Law 2011, as cited in Vallo's published fee rules. Confirm with a lawyer.
Next step
Read: how to avoid rental scams