“Landlords should stop collecting rent in advance” – Fashola
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has urged landlords to desist from demanding rent money from tenants in advance.
Fashola said rents should be paid in arrears, due to the salary structures in the country.
He said such moves would assist low income earners in the country in meeting up with due payment.
Fashola, speaking at the Business Day Real Estate Roundtable and Exhibition programme in Abuja on Thursday, said: “If you ask me to go and bring in advance, one year’s rent, to what I am going to earn monthly in arrears, how feasible is that?
“Even my salary as a minister is paid at the end of every month, not even at the beginning, then why should landlord be asking for next year’s salary. And we are complaining that there is corruption?”
The Minister noted that all the developed economies being compared with Nigeria do not even collect one year’s rent in advance.
He advised all landlords and their tenants to reach an agreement where the tenant’s employer will deduct money on a monthly basis from the tenant’s salary to cover for the rent.
