The Senate has passed for second reading, a bill seeking to stop landlords in the Federal Capital Territory from demanding advance payment of one-year rent from their tenants.
The legislation is titled, ‘A bill for an Act to Regulate the mode of Payment of Rent on Residential Apartments, Office Spaces, etc, in the FCT and for Other Matters Connected Therewith.’
Sponsored by Senator Smart Adeyemi (APC/Kogi-West), the bill was aimed at ending the practice whereby landlords demand a yearly advance payment of rents from their tenants.
Adeyemi said the bill seeks to replace the current annual advance rent payment with monthly payments in arrears. This, according to him, is aimed at making life meaningful for workers who are finding it difficult to pay their house rents.
The Deputy Chief Whip, Senator Aliyu Sabi-Abdullahi, who supported the bill, said many residents of Abuja “are groaning in pains to pay house rents in advance.”
He said the Senate would be helping poor Nigerians working and residing in Abuja if the bill was signed into law.
Sabi-Abdullahi described the proposal as welfare-oriented and would enjoy the support of Abuja workers and residents.
Senators Ibrahim Gobir and Bala Ibn Na’Allah also lent their voices to support the bill, saying it would end corruption among workers and immorality among young ladies who engage in desperate activities to pay their rents.
Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, however, opposed the bill, arguing that the payment of rents should be driven by market forces.
Nnamani insisted that the Senate should not dictate the rent payment modalities to the landlords when the government was doing nothing to either regulate the cost of land and prices of building materials.
