Firstly, what is 7 days’ notice? Simply it is the notice of Owner’s Intention to apply to Court to recover possession of the property (it follows after a notice to quit). Take note that must follow after a notice to quit has been served to the tenant.
As a Landlord in Nigeria, you need to stay on your toes in order to not be taken for granted by your tenants of your demised property this is because most tenants having known a few of the tenancy law may want to take advantage of it to undue the landlord.
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Often times, tenants renege/default on the agreed tenancy agreement. Therefore, in order to recover premises, there are certain steps prescribed by law that one must take as a landlord to legally recover premises. One of those steps is the service of 7 days’ notice. This excerpt shall describe the intricacies and common misconceptions on serving 7 days’ notice.
Who Can Serve The 7 days’ Notice?
It is a common misconception that a court bailiff must serve the 7 days’ notice! This is probably because, only a court bailiff can lawfully eject a tenant from a demised property (PLEASE DO NOT ARRANGE THUGS TO FORCEFULLY EJECT A TENANT OR REMOVE THE ROOF OF THE PROPERTY TO FRUSTRATE THE TENANT, IT COULD LEAD TO PROSECUTION AND MAY FACE A JAIL TERM). However, service of the 7 days’ notice can be done by a landlord, his Property Manager or his Lawyer. Please it is advisable that the landlord’s lawyer issue the 7 days notice to carry more weight and force of law with his NBA stamp and seal on the letter.
This, said persons have to paste the said notice on the gate or building in question and for further evidence, take a picture of what you’ve pasted, capturing the house or building number appropriate to the demised property in question, then send said picture to tenant maybe via WhatsApp or other medium as evidence and a notice to him.
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Note that you must have duly served a notice to quit on the tenant before serving 7 days’ notice otherwise known as owner’s intention to recover premises. The timeframe for valid eviction notices can be determined by the tenancy agreement, but if the agreement fails to specify said timeframe, the timeframe will be determined by the operation of law based on the period of the tenancy and the mode of payment of rent as follows:
- If the tenancy is on a weekly basis, you are entitled to 7 days’ Notice to Quit
- Tenancy at will – 7 days’ notice to quit
- Monthly tenancy – 1-month notice to quit
- Quarterly tenancy – 3 months’ notice to quit
- Half-yearly tenancy – 3 months’ notice to quit
- Yearly tenancy – 6 months’ notice to quit.
CONCLUSION & ADVICE
Tenancy is a legal affair and must be carried out within the ambit of law no matter the provocation from the tenant or landlord.
Having abided with the aforementioned, you can be rest assured that the 7 days’ notice would’ve been duly served. The notice will communicate your intention to recover the property not less than 7 days after the notice is served. Essence being that it gives your tenant adequate time to evacuate the premises. The 7 days’ notice is to be calculated from the day after the service of the notice on the tenant and not from the day when it was served. If it is served before a Quit Notice or during the lifespan of a Quit Notice, it is thus rendered invalid. I advise the following;
- Do not be hasty to personally evict or frustrate a troublesome tenant.
- Always seek the counsel of a legal practitioner, for both advice and drafting of necessary documents as all cases are unique in their individual way.
- If you must have a property manager get one who is sound and probably conversant with extant laws
- The landlord or his property manager should Take note of the various quit notices listed above as prescribed by extant laws.
- Every notices must be documented properly