Understanding the “New” Lagos State Tenancy Law and Tenancy Agreements (2026 Guide)

Chances are high that you have heard about the “new Lagos tenancy law” in your property rental or leasing business in Lagos being bandied about like a set of misplaced keys hastily resumed after a wardrobe hunt. In a WhatsApp group, it's all about "they've banned two years' rent!" In the estate agent's office, it's "the government will arrest the landlord!" Down the street, they're chanting "no more eviction!"

This so-called 'new law' is premised on the existing Tenancy Law (2011), which is beneficial to the landlord-tenant relationship in Lagos, and a newer proposal instituted—Lagos State Tenancy and Recovery of Premises Bill 2025—principally drafted to repeal or replace the old regime. So often when people say Anew law@ to Lagos, they embrace at least two propositions:

1. What the current law says (Tenancy Law 2011)

2. What the proposed Bill 2025 wishes to see altered (draft changes)

In plain language, this essay basically breaks down the development of the Lagos version of the ordinances and the contractual structures themselves, what the warning signs are, and how to avoid the pitfalls as a renter on the classic rental market.

1. Let us start at the beginning: What constitutes a tenancy arrangement in Lagos?

A tenancy agreement is just like the relationship code, for instance, who gets the property, for how long, and what the rent conditions are, to be the sort of partnership. Under Bill 2025, therefore, the legal theory of a (verbal) tenancy might still afford substantive rights and duties to the parties even where they have only an exchange of premises without a written understanding.

This has been a big issue for Lagos:

Many issues cropped up as a result of the phrase "we did not sign anything." The fact remains that, once money changes hands and possession is part of the equation, then a relationship is legally established, which the court may uphold.

Best practice: write it up. In Lagos, vibes do not spell trust in rent payments.

2. Main Headline: New advance rent rules (and the misunderstandings)

What the current Tenancy Law (2011) wanted to tackle

The idea behind the law of 2011 was to discourage over-exploitative rent in which landlords ask for advance payments of rents (e.g., demanding 2-3 years' rent) in one bar.

Proposals by the 2025 draft Bill (more lapse details + penalties tougher)

Supported by the bill reputedly sailing through the Lagos House of Assembly, the proposed Bill on advance rents would be more elaborate in its prescriptions:

For an existing tenant: This will make it an offense to ask for or receive amounts more than three months' rent in the case of a month-to-month tenancy or more than one year's rent for a tenant of up to one year.

As far as new tenants are concerned, It will be an offense to raise rent in advance with respect to any property above one full year.

The Bill also provided for no tolerance in varying criminal sanctions, with fines of up to a million naira or imprisonment for whatever would constitute an offense.

Reality check (very Lagos): enforcement is always missing. While many commentators talk in apparent amazement about how reforms, while providing formal powers, have little practical effect when enforcement and dispute-resolution capacity don’t keep up.

3. Agents, “agreement fees,” and the professional-fee battlefield

If you ever hunted for houses in Lagos, you’d know that the “fees stack” that many Nigerians talk about feels similar to getting a wedding bill.

1. Agent fee
2. Agreement fee_
3. Commission
4. Caution deposit
5. Service charge_

And whatnot, such as the inspection fee at times disappears into thin air.

Another noise you keep hearing around the 2025 Bill is that of regulating agents and their conduct. This includes things like putting stronger controls on who can act as an agent and how the market should be structured.

A few things you need to include in your hire agreement (practically):

Whois the agent, and are they representing the landlord or tenant?

Every fee that has to be paid and who it goes to; document this clearly.

Insist on Rent Payments Receipts (Rent, Deposits, Levies). The 2025 draft deliberately stresses rent payment receipts.

4. Deposits, service charges, and the “refundable” myth

Many Lagos tenants have a caution deposit story that ends like a Nollywood plot twist; “refundable” now reads “we used it to repaint,” and then silence follows.

The legal and practical point is simple: if you don’t define it, someone else surely will.

So, in a well-written tenancy agreement, please mention:

1. Security deposit amount
2. What it can be used for
3. Timeline for refund after exit
4. Being fair with damage assessment
5. To confound all services, cleaning the place-hell, don’t do it!

The 2025 draft Bill also signals the welfare of service charges, facility, and security deposits as a structured part of tenancy governance.

5. Given Notices, Evictions, and “You Have One Week to Pack Out”

This is where things get heated with Lagos-"because housing is emotional and very expensive."

Notwithstanding past-due rent, a significant degree of risk surrounds placing the landlord's eviction to set in motion bogus eviction: that, most bases from which to fight back that action provided in statute.

General notices emphasis in Nigerian legal practice is on the fact that before proceedings of a recovery for possession can succeed in the court, the landlords must have usually complied with certain statutory requirements for giving notice.

The 2025 draft Bill goes farther by specifically expounding upon different forms of notice and service of such notice, by differentiating notice/service colloquies and protocols for residential premises from business premises.

Your tenancy agreement should include the following points:

1. Type of tenancy--whether it is monthly, yearly, or a fixed term.
2. Procedures for giving notice--emails and WhatsApp, as well as physical deliveries (if you are being modern--but ensure it is clearly written in the contract)
3. What happens when rent fails: any of the following-has a holdover term, a renewal term, and a rent review mechanism

6. Set up a guideline on what the "competent" agreement should include, with additional input from Lagos-based lawyers.

Whether “the 'new' Bill comes in place for or against them, negotiations are deemed sockets to having a peace atmosphere.

A. Parties and premises

Full names, phone numbers, ID references

Property address + description (flat number, fence color if you must—be precise)

B. Tenancy term + rent structure

Start date, end date

Rent amount

Payment method and due date

Late-payment interest (if any) and grace period

C. Advance rent and renewals

Amount of advance rent collected

Renewal procedure

Rent review clause (how increases happen; when; notice requirements)

D. Deposits and charges

Security deposit (and refund conditions)

Service charge breakdown (generator, security, waste, water, etc.)

Repairs: who handles what?

E. Repairs and maintenance (avoid the “landlord should fix everything” confusion)

Split responsibilities clearly:

Tenant handles minor routine issues (e.g., replacing bulbs)

Landlord handles structural repairs (roof, major plumbing, core electrical)

Emergency reporting procedure

F. Use of premises + restrictions

Residential only vs home office allowed

Subletting rules

Pets rules (if relevant)

G. Notice and termination

Notice period (consistent with tenancy type)

Grounds for termination (non-payment, nuisance, illegal use)

Move-out inspection procedure

H. Dispute resolution

Step 1: written complaint

Step 2: mediation/ADR attempt

Step 3: court process (where applicable)

This doesn’t just “sound legal.” It reduces the friction that usually turns into rent drama.

7. Was the 2025 "new law" already active?

A number of sources giving late 2025 reporting seem to describe the Tenancy and Recovery of Premises Bill 2025 as a draft/proposed series of reforms still under consideration, yet many an op-ed piece or headline sometimes talk of "passage" in a more general sense.

What to do with it: in that sense, consider the 2025 bill a set of guidelines, supported by liveability considerations in regulatory processes. A firm contractual agreement should give primary evidence for that regulatory node.

Key takeaways as far as Lagos is concerned:

Do not go by vibes when renting. Look at the paper. Even if the subsequent legislation can acknowledge itself in oral agreements, the strength and price observation of the written regulations are important to uphold, for your mental ease and financial stakes.

However, receiving documents are also proof within their standpoint as due consideration for rent, security, and others, according to the logical categorization of applicable Nigerian statutes as exposed by the Bill.

So deposits and service charges need a strong explanation such that the term "refundable" does not somehow find itself vulnerable to a vague description.

Avoid self-help eviction experiments; for instance, a fourteen-day notice by the tenant does not force the landlord to move out within five days.

Worth monitoring, if only for a prospective lease arrangement, is the ongoing Lagos rent reform hinge.

FAQs: Lagos Tenancy Law and Tenancy Agreements

1. Would it be illegal, under the Lagos tenancy law, for a tenant to pay two years' rent up front?

The 2025 draft Bill calls for rent control (including capped deposits both for new & sitting tenants). Clearly, terms must be agreed within the statutory guidelines, with documentation required all the way through.

2. Can we assume that since an agreement is not signed, it means the maker is not regarded as a tenant?

The rent draft dates back to oral or written agreements, where premises are provided to the lessee for any valuable consideration.

3. Can I be left without any rent receipt?

Receipts for payment of rent, on the other hand, are strongly encouraged in the Bill of 2025. In a place of common practice, the same shall be furthered.

4. Can I be asked to go by lock-changing or roof-removal methods?

The legality of a landlord resorting to self-help evictions itself may be dicey indeed and may turn out to vitiate self-help evictions with, at best, grave complications. In this case, proper notice and legal eviction processes are normally what are required.

5. What kind of notice will be sufficient in Lagos?

Depends on the kind of lease and the legalities. Notice terms and how to properly give notice are dealt out explicitly involving parameters of practical use. Inequalities across the metropolis progressively fueled discourse around its possible extension to fields that were not suddenly subject to exemption.

6. Is Ikoyi, VI et al covered?

2025 reform efforts in Lagos suggest widening whatever the coverage might have been in impacted geographical locations in the past, with areas hitherto treated specially in discourse now being included.

7. What is the best action when I find agents charging random fees?

Ask for a breakdown in writing, get receipts, and ensure the contract identifies the recipient of every payment. Emphasis in the lead-up to the theory debate is also aimed at what a tightened regulation of agents must mean.

8. What are the main clauses to be found in a tenancy agreement to be used in Lagos?

Rent + payment terms, duration, renewal/rent review, deposits, repairs, service charge breakdown, notice/termination, and dispute resolution.

9. Does the 2025 Bill outlaw rent hikes?

No, not exactly; it is not the total prohibition of market practices but rather the rectitude of their wrongdoings with toward creating the proper environment for operation. The enactment centers on regulatory procedures, documentation, and gains recovery.

10. Where can I see the full text of the Bill?

In the discussion pages of the bill, Lagos State House of Assembly has published the Bill, and all legal depositories are willing to host the Bill both as to its structure and its provisions.