Nigeria Content Online

The House of
Representatives is to consider a bill which will require all landlords
in the country to keep records of their tenants’ personal details for
the purposes of security and public information.

The bill is titled,
“A Bill for An Act To Provide for Landlords and Tenants Responsibility
and For Other Matters Connected Therewith,” and sponsored Emmanuel Jime
(PDP, Benue State).

If passed into law,
it will mandate landlords or property managers across the country,
especially those in urban areas, to keep the names, places of origin,
residences and places of work of all their tenants, all of which must
be verifiable.

Register your tenants

Besides, it will
compel them to forward a copy of the tenants’ register to an agency it
seeks to create, Urban Development Authority (UDA) and another copy to
a police station with a jurisdiction covering such property.

It will create a
legal duty for tenants to make a declaration or swear to an affidavit
to be law-abiding and not engage in any action that will violate the
security of lives and properties of neighbours and residents of the
community they reside in.

The bill states,
“The landlord/property manager shall forward one copy of this tenants’
register to the Urban Development Authority and another copy to the
Police Division/Station with jurisdiction covering his/her property or
house.

“The
landlord/Property Manager shall review this register quarterly or
annually to update it to reflect the necessary developments and
changes, register such review or update with the record kept in Urban
Office and Police Division Station, respectively.

“It shall be the
duty of the landlord/property manager to state clearly the number of
tenants occupying a single room or flat of his/her property in the
tenants registers accordingly.”

The bill further
requires that any tenant who acquires premises to reside and has made
payment to the owner of the property will, before packing into the
premises, make and submit to the concerned police station a declaration
of affidavit.

The affidavit shall
not only contain his declaration of his willingness to be law-abiding,
but also a disclosure that he is not a criminal and will not
accommodate criminals to execute, encourage, aid or plan criminal
activities within or outside that jurisdiction.

Tenants are also
expected to give true information failing which they shall be liable to
ejection without quit notice and prosecution by the police. If found
guilty by the court, such tenants may be jailed for a minimum of three
years or get an option of fine.

Other aspects of the bill

The bill also seeks
to ban tenants from sleeping in commercial premises except they notify
the police and the landlord. This, it states, is to check criminal
activities in such premises.

It equally seeks a
role for traditional rulers and “comptrollers of local government”, in
monitoring their environs and keeping a tab on residents.

Mr. Jime, while
speaking to journalists yesterday, said the proposed law will help to
track crimes and check criminal activities, which, according to him,
are on the rise in the country, especially in residential areas.

He expressed
optimism that the bill will be passed but said he expects some
opposition from his colleagues. According to him, the opposition might
eventually lead to the amendment of certain areas which the bill did
not take care of.

“That is why we are
a parliament. As parliamentarians, we debate bills thoroughly so that
after they have been passed, the welfare of the people will be
adequately taken care of,” he said.