COLLECTION OF ARREARS OF RENT BY A LANDLORD IS NOT A WAIVER OF ALREADY SERVED QUIT NOTICE

COLLECTION OF ARREARS OF RENT BY A LANDLORD IS NOT A WAIVER OF ALREADY SERVED QUIT NOTICE

The recent decision of the Supreme Court has given relief to the landlords who have been suffering at the hands of stubborn tenants. It is commonplace to see tenants dragging on the validity of the quit notice and refusing to quit within the time given in the quit notice. Some tenants even go as far as refusing to pay rent during the period of the quit notice. Some pay and the landlord collects and they conclude that the quit notice has been abandoned by receiving the arrears of rent.

In the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of PILLARS NIGERIA LIMITED V. WILLIAM KOJO DESBORDES (2021) 12 NWLR (pt.1789) P.122 delivered on Friday, the 5th day of February 2021, the court held that the fact that a landlord collected rent on a property still in occupation or possession of the tenant after notice to quit, cannot by any stretch of the law, equity or imagination amount to a waiver of the notice to quit even where the notice had expired. The tenant refused to yield possession in time. The notice to quit would subsist until it is formally rescinded by the landlord, or when a fresh tenancy agreement is entered into.

The court further held “Equity demands that wherever and whenever there is controversy on when or how notice of forfeiture or notice to quit is disputed by the parties, or even where there is an irregularity in giving the notice to quit, the filing of an action by the landlord to regain possession of the property has to be a sufficient notice on the tenant that he is required to yield up possession”.

For more information, please contact:
Ayobayo Babade Esq. ACIArb(UK), FIMC
Tope Babade & Co (Real Estate Consultants),
5B, CMD-Jubilee Road,
Magodo GRA Phase 2,
By Value Exchange Superstores,
Shangisha, Lagos, Nigeria.
Tel/WhatsApp: +234 813 834 4488
Website: https://topebabadeandco.estateagentsng.com/