All you need to know about proposed law to regulate house rent in Abuja

For many residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), securing a roof over their heads can imply elevating tons of of 1000’s, and generally tens of millions, of naira directly.

Beyond the annual rent itself, potential tenants usually have to cope with company, settlement and warning charges, whereas present tenants face rent will increase that may drive them to transfer to inexpensive and generally extra distant communities.

It is in opposition to this backdrop that the House of Representatives has begun consideration of a brand new invoice searching for to regulate advance rent funds and defend tenants from what it describes as illegal rental practices.

The Federal Capital Territory Advance Rent Regulation and Tenants’ Protection Bill, 2026 (HB.2839), collectively sponsored by Paul Nnamchi (APC, Enugu) and Ahmed Doro (PDP, Katsina), handed first studying on Thursday, 22 October.

But the proposal shouldn’t be merely one other try to inform landlords how a lot rent to acquire.

A better have a look at the 17-page invoice obtained by PREMIUM TIMES exhibits that it seeks to create a whole regulatory framework for tenancy in the FCT, masking advance funds, written agreements, brokers, complaints, refunds, eviction practices, penalties and dispute decision.

What precisely does the invoice suggest?

The central provision is contained in Section 4 of the invoice.

Section 4(1) of the invoice offers {that a} landlord, property agent or property supervisor “shall not demand, receive or compel a tenant to pay more than twelve months’ rent in advance” as a situation for granting, renewing or persevering with a tenancy.

This merely prohibits the demanding, receiving or compelling of a tenant to pay multiple 12 months’s rent in advance as a situation for acquiring, renewing or persevering with a tenancy.

That means the invoice doesn’t ban advance rent or make month-to-month rent obligatory. Instead, it establishes 12 months as the utmost quantity that may be compulsorily demanded upfront.

A landlord would nonetheless have the ability to acquire one 12 months’s rent in advance if that’s the agreed association. But demanding two or three years as a situation for granting or renewing a tenancy would develop into an offence if the invoice turns into law.

The invoice additionally makes an attempt to stop landlords and brokers from merely discovering one other approach across the restriction.

It particularly lists intermediaries, unexplained premiums, obligatory service expenses, synthetic renewal or re-grant of a tenancy, separate agreements and different preparations designed to extract greater than 12 months’ rent in advance as prohibited technique of evasion.

Tenants can nonetheless voluntarily pay greater than a 12 months

The proposed restriction has an exception. Section 4(4) states {that a} tenant could voluntarily pay greater than 12 months’ rent in advance if “the tenant initiates the offer” and the cost shouldn’t be imposed by the owner and the tenant should not have been subjected to coercion, discrimination, threats or retaliation.

The settlement have to be recorded in writing, and the individual receiving the cost bears the burden of proving compliance.

This might develop into one of many contentious provisions in the course of the legislative course of.

While the invoice makes an attempt to distinguish voluntary funds from obligatory calls for, proving {that a} tenant genuinely volunteered to pay a number of years’ rent may very well be tough the place the owner controls entry to the property.

The invoice goes past advance rent

The proposed law additionally seeks to formalise the connection between landlords and tenants.

Section 5 requires landlords or their authorised brokers to present written tenancy agreements stating the rent, cost schedule, length of the tenancy, refundable deposits, charges and different expenses, and the rights and obligations of each events.

“A landlord or agent shall not impose a fee, premium, charge or other compulsory payment unless its nature, amount and lawful basis were disclosed to the tenant before the tenancy agreement was concluded.”

Landlords and brokers would even be required to disclose the character, quantity and authorized foundation of obligatory charges earlier than a tenancy settlement is concluded and situation receipts or verifiable digital acknowledgements for funds.

The invoice additionally prohibits retaliation in opposition to tenants who refuse to make illegal funds or who complain about violations.

A landlord or agent wouldn’t be allowed to threaten or unlawfully evict such a tenant, impose a punitive cost, withdraw a lawful profit or in any other case retaliate in opposition to the tenant.

Tenants might demand refunds

The invoice introduces a treatment that might considerably change the stability between tenants and landlords.

Section 7 introduces a mechanism for recovering unlawfully collected rent. A tenant who has paid rent in violation of the proposed 12-month restrict might apply to the proposed FCT Rent Regulation and Tenants’ Protection Authority for a refund.

Where the proposed authority determines {that a} cost contravened the law, it might order the recipient to refund the illegal quantity inside 30 days.

The invoice additionally permits an aggrieved celebration to enchantment an order of the authority to the FCT High Court.

“7(1) A tenant who has paid rent in contravention of section 4 may apply to the Authority for a refund order. (2) Where the Authority determines that a payment was received in contravention of section 4, it may order the recipient to refund the unlawful amount within thirty days after service of the order.”

A brand new forms for rent regulation

Under Section 8, the invoice proposes the institution of the Federal Capital Territory Rent Regulation and Tenants’ Protection Authority.

The authority would obtain and examine complaints, monitor landlords, property brokers and property managers, situation compliance notices, facilitate mediation, order refunds and refer suspected prison offences to related law-enforcement or prosecuting authorities.

It would additionally set up grievance workplaces and digital reporting channels all through the FCT, together with satellite tv for pc cities, and publish periodic stories on rental practices and enforcement outcomes.

Its governing board would come with representatives of the FCT Administration, the federal ministry liable for housing, the federal ministry liable for justice, tenants, landlords or property homeowners and property surveyors and valuers.

The president will appoint the chairperson and members of the board, topic to Senate affirmation. The president may even appoint the director-general, topic to Senate affirmation.

What occurs when landlords violate the law?

The invoice proposes monetary penalties.

An individual convicted of knowingly demanding or receiving illegal advance rent would face a tremendous of between ₦500,000 and ₦5 million.

A company physique might face a tremendous of between ₦5 million and ₦20 million.

The court docket might additionally order refunds, compensation for confirmed losses and cost of lawful prices.

Failure to adjust to a compliance discover issued by the proposed authority would additionally represent an offence punishable by a tremendous of up to ₦1 million.

Estate brokers and property managers are expressly lined. Where an offence is dedicated by an middleman, anybody who knowingly authorised, participated in or facilitated the offence is also liable.

Unlawful eviction additionally focused

The invoice shouldn’t be solely about the amount of cash tenants pay. It additionally targets the strategies some landlords could use to get well possession.

It prohibits violence or threats, disconnecting important companies, eradicating or damaging a tenant’s property, altering locks with out lawful authority and different types of illegal self-help.

At the identical time, it makes clear that tenants stay obliged to pay rent lawfully due and that landlords retain the suitable to get well rent and possession by due course of.

This is important as a result of the invoice makes an attempt to defend tenants with out eradicating landlords’ present property rights.

Will the invoice make housing cheaper?

This is maybe the largest query the lawmakers can have to confront.

The invoice regulates how a lot rent could be demanded upfront, however it doesn’t regulate the precise quantity landlords can cost as rent.

There isn’t any rent ceiling and no restrict on how a lot rent can improve when a tenancy is renewed.

A landlord who can not demand two years’ rent upfront might nonetheless cost a excessive annual rent.

The invoice additionally doesn’t tackle the scarcity of inexpensive housing, development prices, mortgage entry or the broader components driving rent will increase.

Its affect will due to this fact rely closely on enforcement.

The proposed authority would have to monitor landlords and brokers, examine complaints and implement its choices throughout the FCT.

The invoice additionally offers for the authority to develop into operational inside six months of the law taking impact.

Things lacking or not addressed in the invoice

Despite its proposed restrictions on advance rent, the invoice doesn’t comprehensively regulate different expenses tenants face when securing lodging in Abuja, together with company charges, settlement charges and warning deposits. In Abuja, these expenses are random and a few tenants pay as excessive as 40 per cent of their rent for them.

Although Section 5 requires landlords and brokers to disclose the character and quantity of expenses, it doesn’t prescribe a most share or quantity that may be demanded as company or settlement charges. Neither does it set up an ordinary ceiling for warning deposits. The invoice requires refundable deposits to be said in tenancy agreements however doesn’t clearly set out an ordinary formulation for calculating them.

This means tenants might have a clearer proper to know what they’re paying for with out essentially having safety in opposition to extreme expenses.

Section 4 prohibits landlords and brokers from utilizing expenses that aren’t moderately associated to a service as a method of circumventing the 12-month advance rent restriction. However, this doesn’t quantity to a complete regulation of legit company charges or different letting prices.

Consequently, tenants might nonetheless face substantial upfront bills even when the invoice turns into law. A landlord could not have the ability to compel a tenant to pay two years’ rent, however the tenant might nonetheless be required to pay company, settlement and different expenses, supplied these expenses adjust to the law.

Another main situation left unresolved is the cost association for wage earners.

Many Abuja residents earn month-to-month salaries however are anticipated to pay a full 12 months’s rent upfront, with some landlords demanding two years’ rent from new tenants. For staff whose revenue comes in month-to-month, elevating such a big sum directly could be tough, even once they can afford the rent over the course of a 12 months.

The proposed law would prohibit landlords from compelling tenants to pay greater than 12 months’ rent in advance. However, it doesn’t require landlords to settle for month-to-month or quarterly funds.

A landlord might due to this fact nonetheless insist on a full 12 months’s rent upfront, supplied the demand doesn’t exceed the proposed restrict.

This means the invoice addresses the size of obligatory advance rent however doesn’t absolutely tackle the monetary issue created by the annual cost system.

A tenant who can not increase 12 months’ rent directly could due to this fact stay unable to safe lodging, even when the owner is not demanding two years’ cost.

It’s not the primary try by lawmakers

The newest proposal is a part of a longer-running try by lawmakers to tackle rent practices in Abuja.

In January 2022, the Senate introduced a invoice sponsored by Smart Adeyemi, then representing Kogi West, searching for to regulate the cost of rent in the FCT. The invoice handed second studying in February 2022.

PREMIUM TIMES reported on the time that the proposal sought to cut back advance rent for brand new tenants from the prevailing one- or two-year funds to three months, adopted by month-to-month funds.

Mr Adeyemi argued that the present system positioned an extreme burden on low-income residents, notably salaried staff who couldn’t simply increase one or two years’ rent directly.

While supporters argued that advance rent was putting insufferable stress on residents, Chimaroke Nnamani, then the senator for Enugu East, opposed the proposal, arguing that rent cost was an financial matter that ought to be pushed by market forces, together with the provision of land, development prices and revenue.

He argued that the federal government ought to as an alternative make investments in housing schemes, mortgages and housing credit score quite than regulate the enterprise of personal landlords.

The Senate nonetheless voted overwhelmingly for the invoice at second studying and referred it to the Committee on Housing and Urban Development for additional consideration.

However, the invoice in the end lapsed and didn’t develop into law earlier than the expiration of the ninth National Assembly in May 2023.

Under Nigerian legislative guidelines, any invoice that doesn’t full all levels of passage, together with matching approval by the House of Representatives and presidential assent, earlier than the tip of a four-year parliamentary tenure expires and have to be fully reintroduced.

The distinction between the 2 proposals is substantial.

While Mr Adeyemi’s invoice sought to change the annual advance cost system with an preliminary three-month cost and subsequent month-to-month funds, the 2026 proposal permits landlords to proceed demanding up to 12 months’ rent in advance.

The new invoice, due to this fact, doesn’t go so far as the 2022 proposal in addressing the issue confronted by wage earners. It seeks to stop obligatory funds past one 12 months however leaves the annual cost association intact.

The distinction issues as a result of limiting advance rent to 12 months doesn’t essentially make lodging extra accessible to staff who obtain their revenue month-to-month.

What occurs subsequent?

Having handed first studying in the House of Representatives, HB.2839 continues to be at an early stage of the legislative course of.

The subsequent stage is second studying, when lawmakers will debate the final rules and targets of the proposal and resolve whether or not it ought to proceed to detailed consideration.

If it passes, the invoice shall be referred to the related House committee for scrutiny. At this stage, lawmakers could look at its provisions clause by clause, invite submissions from authorities businesses, landlords, tenants, property brokers and housing professionals, and maintain a public listening to to receive views from affected teams.

The committee will subsequently current its report and proposals to the House at plenary. Lawmakers will take into account the report and any proposed amendments earlier than the invoice proceeds to third studying, when the House will take into account its remaining model and vote on its passage.

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If handed by the House, the invoice shall be transmitted to the Senate for consideration. Both chambers should go the identical model. Where their variations differ, the disagreements have to be reconciled earlier than the harmonised invoice is transmitted to the President for assent.

The president’s assent would convey the invoice into law, topic to the relevant constitutional course of.

If enacted, the proposed laws will set up the FCT Rent Regulation and Tenants’ Protection Authority. The invoice states that the authority ought to develop into operational inside six months of graduation, whereas the FCT minister is predicted to take steps in the direction of appointing its board and director-general inside three months.

The invoice additionally offers that its graduation date shall be decided by the president by a discover revealed in the Federal Gazette.

Until the legislative course of is accomplished and the law comes into drive, the proposed restrictions and penalties stay legislative proposals and can’t be enforced in opposition to landlords or brokers.