We won’t compel landlords to subscribe to monthly rental payment —Sanwo-Olu’s aides

Shedding more light on the benefits inherent in the proposed  Monthly Rental Scheme in the  Lagos State and how residents can key into the initiative, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Housing, Mrs Toke Benson-Awoyinka, has said the state authority would not compel any landlord to subscribe to the scheme.

Rather, she explained that the idea of monthly rental payments which has insurance and legal coverages would guarantee a consistent pattern of payment by the tenant, while the tenant would also heave a sigh of relief with the burden of unbundling a huge amount on a yearly basis.

The special adviser disclosed this during the maiden edition of the Stakeholders Forum which was in conjunction with the Construction Projects and Infrastructure Committee of the section on Business Law, Nigerian Bar Association(CPIC), in Lagos.

She described the proposed monthly rental payment scheme as “a social investment program of Lagos State Government to alleviate the suffering of the residents seeking comfortable shelters.”

She said: “On the monthly rental scheme, we will not legislate on it, but we will continue to work towards the scheme being generally accepted by the residents.

“What we are proposing is a scheme whereby we are going to bring in a group of financiers they would finance this scheme by paying up the landlord on a yearly basis and the tenant gets the opportunity to repay on the monthly basis.

“It’s a scheme with a single digit of payment that is going to be managed by the private sector and supported by the government.”

The special adviser who oversees the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority (LASRERA) reminded practising lawyers of the crucial roles expected of them during the implementation of the new law.

She said that it has become imperative for lawyers to be well guided by the provisions of the law so as to enable them to give professional advice to their potential clients in the area of the property and real estate business transactions.

The special adviser who decried the level of fraud being perpetrated by unscrupulous individuals in the state’s real estate industry mentioned that most fraudulent real estate transactions would not engage lawyers from the inception of such transactions to closing.

She, however, stressed that the LASRERA Law was reviewed in order to regulate and bring sanity to the real estate sector, as well as all transactions therein, stressing that the role of property lawyers is to protect the interest of all parties in any real estate transaction, as legal professionals.

In his keynote address, the state’s Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Moyosore Onigbanjo, expressed optimism about the new law, saying that it was designed to bring sanity into the sector and weed out touts that have made a lot of gains fraudulently from the sector.

Highlighting certain provisions of the law, Onigbanjo talked about the functions of the agency which involved policy formulations, training the stakeholders in the real estate transactions, collection of data of players in the Industry, issuing of permits and possibly revocation of the same, as well as receive and investigate complaints from the public regarding transactions, amongst others.