INCIDENCE AND IMPLICATIONS OF CONFLICTS IN THE RENTAL HOUSING MARKET IN NIGERIA

INCIDENCE AND IMPLICATIONS OF CONFLICTS IN THE RENTAL HOUSING MARKET IN NIGERIA

                                                      BY

                                            KUYE OLUSEGUN

ABSTRACT

People with diverse orientation living together (in the same neighbourhood) are bound to have certain individual differences, thus a very strong understanding is required and the lack of which there is bound to be conflict, unless they have cause not to live together (i.e. in the same neighbourhood neither do they have to share infrastructural facilities and services. This is definitely not possible. Housing is an agent of human integration thus people from different socio cultural and ethnic background are bound to live together in the same environment and these people are bound to share certain infrastructural facilities and services. These diverse orientations need to be blended to suit general residents of the neighbourhood or community. This brings about the human relation’s phenomenon in housing. This paper therefore looked into the relationship which exists between the stakeholders in rental housing market, the various types of conflict which arise therefrom, the consequences of these conflicts. Finally, in other to create a more harmonious relationship among all the players in the rental housing market, this paper recommends that the respective roles of landlords and that of the tenants must always be unambiguously spelt out in the tenancy agreement. In addition, employers of labour are advised to pay their workers promptly so as to mitigate the incidence of rent default in this highly significant market.

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Housing is a universally accepted; most essential human needs after food. Housing in its entire ramification includes social services and the utilizable elements that constitute a community of a neighborhood which makes it livable. Housing in Nigeria has posed several challenges, exhibiting clearly and marked regional differences. But in spite of this, housing is however seen to be the quality and quantity of dwelling units available to provide shelter for man. The problem of housing is not only limited to the quantity of housing stock available but also the poor quality of the available housing units coupled with its existing environment.

Housing, which is an agent of human integration, that is, it bring people from different background, social background, cultural and religious background together. Through housing, people with diverse orientation will come together to live in the same neighborhood and share certain infrastructural facilities and services which could lead to conflict. Since the people comes from different background with different level of thinking, there is bound to be conflicts which could come in terms of religious conflicts, ethnic conflict, conflicts between tenants, tenant and landlord, tenant and agent, landlord and landlord or landlord and agent. All these various conflict have their effects on the rental housing market since housing is an investment in which the investor expects a future return after committing so much on land, building materials, labour and so on, will not want a situation where his returns will be compromise thus, conflict will arise when the tenants defaults in his duties.

In the light of the foregoing, this paper will look at the various types of conflict that could arise as a result of people living together in a particular house or neighbourhood and sharing certain infrastructural facilities and service; conflicts that could arise between different landlords with contiguous landed properties; and conflicts between landlord and his agent (if such landlord employs the services of an agent). This paper equally present a clearer view of these varying human relations problems and the effects on the rental housing market in Nigeria but with emphasis on Lagos State.

2.0    HUMAN RELATION AND ITS EFFECT ON RENTAL HOUSING MARKET

The root of the conflicts came about as a result of people from diverse orientation and background coming together to share a common object – a residential apartment commonly referred to as house. Housing is an investment in which the investor expects a future return. The investor in rental housing who must have committed so much on land, building materials, labour and who may have to pay periodic interest on loan capital (where loan was obtained to build such a house), may not want to compromise his return. This will make the landlord to conflict with the tenant on such issues as rent default. However, conflicts arise not only between the landlords and tenants, it also occurs between the managing agent (who wishes to impress his client and at the same time, act in a way that will guarantee a long term of remuneration from the property for himself) and tenants who both, may disagree on different issues that bother on the building they occupy.

Human relation plays an important role in almost all human endeavours. This is due to the fact that good human relation helps to cultivate and cement interpersonal relationships or activities. On the other hand, poor human relation will result in conflict, accelerate the disintegration of relationships between the concerned parties. It has been generally established that the problem of interpersonal relationship is more than poor communication, conflicts of interest; lack of knowledge or inadequate management control but most importantly, the cause is conflicting values.

Value, according to Webster Dictionary (1970), has among other meanings “the quality of fact of being excellent, useful or desire, worth in a thing”. The common denominator of almost all conflict between the landlord and tenant or agent and tenant is to be found in the area of values. Although it is generally accepted that value differ widely from person to person and from culture to culture, its influence on people’s thinking, acting and behaviour tends to be seriously underestimated.

It is easy for people to feel that their own way of life is natural and God-given. Ones culture is not like a suit of clothing that can be discarded easily or exchange for each new life style that comes along. It is rather like a security blanket and though to some, it may appear worn and tattered, outmoded and ridiculous, yet it has great meaning to its owner and there are many reasons for this – the value laden nature of what we learn as member of the society. Cultivated value overtime determines people’s ideas, principles, standards and norms, attitudes towards cause and issues concerning politics, economic and social interactions. Furthermore, value determines the kind of people with whom to associate with. All these and more gives a better understand of values and its effect on human relations and/or interaction and this in turn gives a clear understanding of the reasons for conflicts between landlord and landlord, landlord and tenant, tenant and tenant, not leaving out their respective agents. Value is therefore an arbitrary conception of what is desirable in human experience and also constitute an inevitable part of all human experience.

There are numerous ways of resolving the conflict between what people can do on their own and what they must do as members of the society and it is through internalization of values. This provides security and contributes to a sense of personal and social identity. According to Glass & others (1969) quoting McMurry, the influence of value on an individual is powerful because they:

• principally determine what he regards as right, good, worthy, beautiful, ethnical, and so forth (thus establishing his violation and life goals and many of his motivations, for it may be assumed that he will seek that which he deems desirable)
• provide the standards and norms by which he guides his day-to-day behaviour (in this sense, they constitute an integral part of his conscience).
• chiefly determine his attitude towards the causes and issues, political, economic, social and industrial; with which he comes into contact daily.
• exert a powerful influence on all the kinds and types of person with whom he can be personally compatible and the kinds of social activities in which he can engage.
• largely determine which ideas, principles and concepts he can accept, assimilate, remember, and transmit without distortion.
• provide him with an almost unlimited number and variety of moral principles which can be employed to rationalize and justify any action he has taken or is contemplating.

The adequate knowledge and proper understanding of values as it affects human behaviour will go a long way to explain why there is constant conflict between the landlord and tenant or tenant and agent. This knowledge will serve as bedrock or foundation upon which a reasonable explanation could be given to such conflicts.

3.0 THE RENTAL HOUSING MARKET

The market is a place where people buy and sell. Housing market is a physical area in which all the houses are in a close chain of substitution. Every house in a locality is a good substitute. A single housing market does not exist in reality but there are many housing sub-markets. To know that two houses units are in the same sub-market, there must be some degree of substitutability i.e. there must be a close relationship in terms of comfort, rent and size. There is no clear-cut demarcation of these sub-markets – the greater the distance between two sub-markets, the lower the degree of substitutability. However, sub-rentals market can be linked together by location, tenure, value and structure. These types of links are ways by which houses change hands and this depends on level of information.

Sub-markets could be classified according to type of structure, the price that goes on properties, the rental class, the location, the quality and age of property. The operators within the rental market include landlord/agent as vendor, and tenants who could be a household, or the purchaser. Household could be classified as owner or renter.

The principal features of the housing commodity which distinguish it from most product traded in the economy are its relatively high cost of supply, its durability, its heterogeneity and its location fixity (Quigley, 1997). According to Quigley, the high costs of construction imply that housing is expensive, that a large rental market exists, and that mortgage repayment makes owner occupied housing an attractive instrument in wealth accumulation. Arimah (1992), in his study of the prices and demand for housing attributes in Ibadan revealed that space related attributes such as the number of rooms occupied and average room size, utilities such as the presence of electricity, construction materials such as concrete wall covering, and neighbourhood and locational attribute which include school quality and distance to the CBD, are important determinants of annual housing rent. The ever- increasing rate of urbanization coupled with the rapid growth of population in Nigeria has brought many problems. These housing problems are manifested in overcrowding (Abiodun, 1985; Onibokun 1985), inadequate social amenities, urban squalor and homeless (Labeodan 1989; Agbola, 1987), inaccessibility within residential areas, absence of open space, scarcity and high cost of building materials.

The rental housing market, for quite some time now, has been faced with astronomical rent increase. Clearly, one reason for this has to do with the declining value of the Naira. Despite the fact that most of these houses have been in place for a long time, the changes have been catastrophic for many Nigerians. In this regard, the impact of economy on the housing situation has been very negative (Olufemi, 1997). A lot of factors influence the fixing of rent in rental housing market. Such factors include the following:

• Location: The location of any housing will affect the rent that is receivable. The rent that can be received in a highbrow area will definitely be higher than that of lowbrow area.
• Cost of building materials: The high cost of building materials has also contributed to the increase in rents. The continuous increase in the cost of building materials has led to housing owners increasing rents so as to make profits from their investments.
• Rent control edicts: The rent control edict was formulated to control rents payable in certain areas but since the government that enacted this edict cannot give what they do not own, the rent control edict did not work and as a result of this rents has continue to skyrocket.
• Town and country planning laws, notably zoning, building regulation and density control.
• The state of the economy: This is another factor influencing rent within a locality. The rate at which the value of the Naira is dropping and the prices of commodities being hiked, the more the investors and landlords alike would want to meet up with their other financial obligations thus necessitating the continuous hike of rent in the housing market.
• Access to land: The availability of land is also another factor that can affect the rental value of housing within a locality.
• Population increase: An increase in population will invariably result to an increase in the rental value of housing, that is, more people will mean higher demand for accommodation. 
• High demand for housing: Demand is another factor that can affect rental value for housing. Demand for housing is as a result of increase in population, which will also result in an increase in demand for housing and when demand is high, the price will also be high.

4.0    TYPES OF CONFLICT

Conflict according to Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary is a serious disagreement, an argument between, two parties. In the rental housing market, such conflict may occur among these varying relationships:

a. Landlord versus another landlord

b. Landlord versus tenant

c. Tenants versus tenants

d. Agent versus tenants

e. Conflict between landlord and agent

f. Agents versus landlords

Conflicts can lead to a serious difference of opinion, desires, etc., and can result into a struggle and finally a fight between two people. In residential housing market, individual rights and obligations begin and end somewhere. These rights and obligation come under what the psychologist described as ‘territoriality’. Territoriality is the intense feeling of personal possession or the possession of which one tends to protect, preserve and prevent unwanted and uninvited individual from encroaching upon. Altman & Sandstorm (1974) states that territoriality involves the mutually exclusive use of areas and objects by person or groups. The feelings or notions or action of someone e.g. tenant to infringe on the right and obligation of another e.g. landlord, may result into conflicts in rental housing market.

4.1    Landlord Versus Landlord

• Territorial control: A landlord considers his house as a primary territory, which is possession that is personal, exclusive and central to the lives and existence of the owners. Human being generally is possessive of their primary territories, they have very strong emotional attachment to them and as such they will go to any length to secure and protects their primary territories. A landlord enjoys a primary territory, that he will not like another landlord to infringe upon as such, that he will employ the use of markers as well as some other methods. In the case of houses and landed properties, conspicuous markers are used. These could be inform of high wall fences, locks, barbed wire/mesh security guards, dogs, close circuit monitors and signpost stating the name of the owner and warning trespasser. An attempt by any individual, group of people or other Landlord to infringe on the owner territories may result into conflict. This is the basic reason why people protect their territories to ward-off invaders, and ensure safety and privacy.
• Conversion or change of use: Conflict between landlords could occur where there is illegal conversion of residential houses to commercial or any other uses such as church, brothels or hotels, offices, This conversion will bring about the influx of people into the area designated mainly for residential thereby, intruding into the privacy of other Landlords. Some Landlords complain of the noise pollution emitting from the grinding machine/generating plant used by some other Landlords to grind pepper or to produce electricity respectively either, for private or commercial use, which often resulted into conflict.
• Waste disposal: Another area of conflict between landlords are in the way each individual Landlord used the secondary territories, which at times may evoke emotional reaction and feeling of possessiveness. In all areas of study, it was discovered that all residential units lead their waste water to public drains, if it happened that a Landlord blocked the drains at his own end, it would affect all other houses in the immediate vicinity and as such bring about tension. Waste have to be disposed with, waste disposal method especially in all areas of study is nothing to write home about, there is no organised waste disposal system, resident prefer dumping their refuse on any available unoccupied space e.g. abandoned houses which can result in health hazard to the immediate vicinity and thereby bring conflict.

4.2      Areas of Conflict between Landlord and Tenant

In the rental housing market, conflict is an everyday occurrence between the landlords and tenants. From a recent study, it was discovered that conflict is more prevalent in a multi-tenanted houses than in those occupied by one or two households. Furthermore, it was observed that the area of conflicts varies from one house to another and it depends mainly on the behavioural pattern of either the landlord or tenant. For instance, the way Mr. A, a landlord, will react to his tenant may be quite different from the way Mr. B, another landlord, will react to the same tenant if he should find himself in Mr. A’s shoes. Generally, some of the usual areas of conflict between landlords and their respective tenants are as follows:

• Failures to abide with lease agreement: The failure of a party to observe and abide with the rights and obligations specified in the lease agreement may erupt a conflict between such landlord and his/her tenant(s). For example, the failure of the tenant to pay his/her rent as at when due will definitely result in a serious disagreement between such tenant and his landlord. This will be more pronounced where the landlord concerned solely depend on the rent for his life sustenance; a slight delay by the tenant will spark off a row between them. Furthermore, failure of the tenant to keep the house in a habitable condition could lead to serious disagreement. On the other hand, where a landlord fails to observe his/her repair obligation, the tenant may decide to withhold rent due to his landlord until such repairs obligation is fulfilled; most landlords frowns at this practice.
• Change of use: An attempt by a tenant to convert his rented accommodation to another use may ignite a conflict between such tenant and the landlord; and this may even lead to a forceful ejection of such tenant.
• Racial discrimination and prejudice: Discrimination against race is another source of conflict in the rental housing market between the landlords and tenants. Racial discrimination is defined as behaviour that results in preferential treatment based on race where the people being discriminated against are denied their basic rights and/or opportunities. Prejudice is reflected in an aversion to living near members of another race – a negative attitude toward members of a particular racial group. During the course of this study, about 75% of those that responded vowed that they can never give their house to a particular set of people; no wonder that the Hausas are found mainly in Oyingbo, Obalende and Agege areas of Lagos State.
• Religion: Most of the people interviewed in the course of this study were either Muslims or About 50% of the people interviewed shows indifference to religion as a basis of deciding who to accept as tenant or landlord but another 50% of the landlords interviewed vowed that they can never give their house to a non-Muslim and vice versa. In some cases where landlord and tenants are living together, a Christian tenant may be prevented from holding night vigil or fellowship in his apartment by a Muslim landlord and same goes for a Christian landlord. It came to light in the course of this study that a Muslim landlord returned the rent earlier paid for his property when he discovered that his house was let to a Christian of the Celestial Church of Christ sect by his Agent. The tenant however refused the returned rent and stayed put. At the expiration of the term, the tenant refused to carry out the necessary terminal repairs on the ground that he did not enjoy his stay in the premises simply because the landlord made things unbearable for him because of his religious persuasion.
• Rent Review/increase in rent: Another area of conflict in the rental housing market pertains to arbitrary rent Even though the lease agreement may have specified the percentage of increment at each lease renewal, at times this clause is not followed by the Landlord or the Agent concerned but instead he/she would insist on following the economic trend.
• Failure to keep the property in good state of repairs: A tenement building wholly occupied by Igbo family was stumbled upon in the course of this study. This particular family prefers to use firewood for cooking and consequently, smoke has completely defaced the paint colour of the wall. This reckless attitude of voluntary waste will definitely lead to conflict between the landlord and such tenant.
• Discrimination against profession: There are certain professions that some landlord will never let their houses For example, in recent past, we usually see some billboard indicating “Houses to let but not for teachers” because most of the landlord knows that teachers are not well paid, and as a result, it is the thinking of some landlords that they may likely default in the payment of their periodic rents. Apart from this, some landlords will not let their house to a soldier, who in all probabilities, is likely to turn into a debt ridden, alcoholic and a fierce bully in the immediate future; a polemical lawyer who always knows all the rights but usually forgets their respective rental obligations; a female divorcee with her league of regular men friends; a student with his regular disco jamborees; a drug addict who is always getting into troubles with the police; and recently, HIV/AIDS victim.
• Emotional Projections: One of the major sources of conflict between the tenant and his landlord/agent is usually the state of mind of the tenant at the time of routine inspection/visit. A tenant who has just lost a loved one (father, mother, wife, husband or child) and receives a rent demand, routine inspection notice, etc., will, in all probabilities, ignore such demands. If physically confronted, the tenant who has hitherto be a good tenant may suddenly become irritated and violent. Knowing the disposition of tenants at particular times will help douse whatever tension that could degenerate into conflict later on.

4.3    Conflicts among Tenants

Conflict between tenants is more prevalent in multi-tenanted houses such as block of flats tenement houses (face me and face you building designs) and military/police barracks. Most tenants are not as good-natured as they appeared to be when sourcing for properties. But soon after securing accommodation, their true nature emerges and they become uncontrollable to both the landlord/agent and other tenants, that is, they metamorphosed into difficult tenants).

4.3.1  Who is a Difficult Tenant?

A difficult tenant could aptly be described as a perpetual troubleshooter who makes life very difficult for his/her co-tenants through his/her actions and reactions. This tenant will generally be the black sheep among his co-tenants thereby making his rental occupation a source of nuisance to others.

He/she will not readily cooperate with his co-tenants for anything, for example, he is the one who will not contribute the weekly or monthly refuse disposal fee; he/she does not abide by the terms of the tenancy agreement; deliberate delays in the payment of his/her rent; and he/she is one who will want to convert his/her apartment to a canteen or barbing saloon or a grocery shop without having any thought of the effect of such actions on his co-tenants. Furthermore, he/she cares very little about the lawns and is not concerned with environmental sanitation. Normally, he/she will not observe the repairs liability imposed upon him/her by the terms of the Tenancy Agreement. He/she will usually have large bills of water rate, tenement rate and electricity unsettled. If NEPA official came to disconnect the light, he will normally go through the back door to have it reconnected without settling the bill. Without doubt, a difficult tenant is a source of conflict to other tenants, as he/she will always infringe on the rights and privileges of other tenants; constitute a big nuisance to the neighbours and always behave irrationally.

Apart from the above, there are other areas of conflict among tenants and some of these are:

• Joint responsibility:- This can also lead to conflict between tenants within a building. Joint responsibility refers to things that need to be done within a building jointly by all the tenants residing there. These joint responsibilities include payment of NEPA bill, water rate, refuse disposal, environmental sanitation security, community development fees. In a building, most especially tenement building, there is bound to be a tenant that is heady and such tenant might just refuse to pay or contribute his own quota of these bills claiming that he has no money, or that he see no point in contributing money towards any community development claiming that the members are thieves. All these could lead to conflict between that tenant and other tenants in such a building.
• Children/wife conflicts: a disagreement among children may result into fighting and this may call for reactions from their respective parents.
• Difference in religious belief: there is the possibility of mistrust or mutual suspicion between a fanatical Muslim and Christian and this may not give room for their mutual co-existence. Although this study revealed that many tenants are indifferent to religious beliefs but misunderstanding anchored on religion can snowball into irresolvable conflict.
• Conflict of value (status): Latta (1978) reported that status often affect personal space. In his study, he measured the distance that these target persons placed between them: a high school student, a college student, and a psychologist. Latta found out that the higher the status of the target group, the greater the distance that the students placed between themselves and the target person. A tenant who places more value upon his status may have less to do with other tenants and thus become a subject of envy to other tenants; envy may develop into jealousy, and later hatred, and finally, the eruption of uncontrollable conflict.
• Personal characteristic: The personal characteristic of individuals will determine the size of his/her personal space. People that are classified as having violent tendencies or hostile disposition will have very large personal space or zones because other people will not want to move near them. Any attempt by other tenants to encroach on the personal space of a man with an hostile disposition will bring about conflict.
• Reaction to nuisance: Different types of nuisance affect the wellbeing of people and consequently, their behaviour and emotions. Noise, for example, is one of the major nuisances in the home. New and modern technology has turned the society into a very noisy place, blaring automobile horns, screeching tires, high decibel electronic appliances, industrial mechanics, wailing sirens, murmured and shouted conversations are some of the sources of noise in the individual homes and cities. Blum (1967), Azrin (1958) found that noise is stressful to human and that people become physiologically aroused when subjected to high intensity noise which he/she have no control over. This according to him, make them become irritable and may have the tendency to become aggressive. Thus noise pollution is a source of conflict between tenants.

4.4    Agents and Tenants

An “Agent” is the one expressly or impliedly authorized to act on behalf of another often referred to as the “principal” in any dealing with the third parties. An agent is therefore a person who is employed with, or for, the purpose of putting his employer (the principal) into legal relationship with third parties (Esan, 1988). In the rental housing market, an agent is the one employed and empowered by the principal (i.e. the landlord or house owner) to act on his behalf and to see to the management and maintenance of his (the landlord) property or house, while the third parties here is the tenant. It therefore means that any action of the agent is binding on the landlord. It was discovered during the course of this study that many tenants never come across their landlord; they only transact with the agent. Suffice it to say that the same nature of conflicts that used to exist between landlords and tenants as earlier highlighted in this study are also prevalent between the agents and tenants. In addition to these conflicts, the following are the other areas of conflict between agents and tenants:

• Failure of agent to promptly respond to tenants’ complaints: Many agents have developed a thick skin to tenants’  complaints; it is either they do  not  respond at all or whenever they respond, it is belated. The reason for this is not farfetched, it is because these agents are quack (that is, they are not qualified for the job they were saddled with).
• Demand Notice: What irritated a tenant most, is when he receives demand notice from the agent especially when he/she is not in a good mood, or he/she is short of fund, such a tenant become irritating and abusive.
• Routine inspection: Although it is the function of an agent to carry out routine inspection but not at odd hours, it must be during a conducive hour of the day when the tenant will be available to accompany the agent otherwise; this legitimate exercise could result into conflict.
• Serving a tenant with quit notice: Many agents took the law into their own hands by not taking the proper process of the law to eject a tenant. Many tenants are forcefully ejected without consideration of the process of law and the effect of such ejection will have on the welfares of the concerned tenant(s).
• Refunding of caution fee: At the beginning of a tenancy, tenants used to pay caution fee, should in case some repairs need to be carried out at the expiration of the tenancy, but where there is no need for such repairs, tenants often find it difficult to retrieve his caution fee.
• Failure to render the account of service charge: In a multi-tenanted houses, managed and maintained by an agent, tenants use to make contributions to the service charge account, to be administered by the agents, but most times, the agent failed in their duty to render account to the contributors (the tenants) and this often result in conflicts.

4.5    Conflict between Landlord and Agent

• Non-remittance of rent: This is an area of conflict between landlord and his agent. In a situation where the agent is not trustworthy, he has the tendencies to embezzle the rents received from tenants and end up not remitting anything to the landlord which will result in conflicts between them
• Non-payment of agent’s fees: This can result in conflict if the landlord refuses to pay the agent his fees after he has carried out his duties judiciously.
• Nonchalant attitude towards his duties: Conflict can also arise as a result of the agent’s non-chalant attitude in carrying out his duties and at the same time expecting to collect his agency fee from the landlord.
• Refusal of landlord to heed agent’s professional advise regarding repairs.

5.0 CONSEQUENCES OF CONFLICTS ON RENTAL HOUSING MARKET

Quite a number of inferences were observed and drawn from the information collected in the course of this study and it was discovered that conflicts are more ubiquitous in the high-density areas than the low-density residential neighbourhoods.

Positively, conflict may force the tenant to go and put up a house of his own, as he will no longer be convenient where he is experiencing ceaseless conflict. This in a way has helped to create or increase number of housing stock in the rental housing market. If there is no such conflicts between such tenant and his/her landlord or co-tenants, he/she may be contented to live in such building for a longer time. Hence, this type of conflict has made such tenants an “emergency landlord”.

A protracted conflict may lead to legal tussle which can force a tenant to live in a property without rent payment pending the determination of the case by the court; this will mean a loss of rent or reduction in the income to the landlord for the time being. This in turn may discourage such landlords from making further investment into rental housing market and thereby affecting the stock of houses in the rental housing market.

Poor performance in working place: A conflict-ridden life will reflect in one’s performance at his/her working place thus making such individual not to perform up to his/her full potential.

Insecurity to life and properties: Conflicts in a residential housing market can bring about insecurity of life and property. A landlord may employ the service of hired assassin to terminate the life of a difficult tenant or engage in a diabolical activities, all in a bid to get rid of a perceived ‘difficult tenant’.

Conflicts discourage rental-housing investors: The incessant conflicts in the rental-housing sector often discourage investors in investing more into the rental housing market. This majorly is in area of unabated increases in the rate of rent defaulters. The desire of a prudent investor is to invest in business that will not be too risky, and that which will enable him recoup the money so invested. Therefore, many real estate investors have diverted their investments portfolio into stocks and shares. There have been many instances where landlords sold their respective houses because their tenants are perpetual rent defaulters. Some of these landlords even vowed never to build houses for rentage again and this has inevitably created scarcity of residential houses in the rental housing market due to short supply and thereby brings about increasing rent or price.

6.0    RECOMMENDATIONS

Olufemi (1997) opined that about half of the urban populations in developing countries like Nigeria are tenants; and that the constraints on the land and housing markets in many cities had made access to house ownership increasingly difficult. The problem is even more compounded when an investor think of the conflicts that used to arise in rental housing market. The following suggestions are made to promote and sustain cordial relationship and to reduce conflicts between landlords and tenants and all other categories of relationships thereby sustain an improvement in the rental-housing market particularly in Lagos, and generally in Nigeria:

• The role of landlords and that of the tenants must always be clearly spelt out in written form called tenancy agreement.
• Employers of labour are advised to pay their workers regularly so that rent default will be reduced to the barest minimum.
• Enforcement of law that control environmental pollutant such as noise, smoke, discharge of effluent must be activated and enforced. There is a need to establish landlord and tenant association to ensure mutual understanding as whatever problem they might have could be discussed and amicably resolved at such forum.
• Making the rent legislation simple, not vague and easy to understand by both the tenants and landlords.
• Creating an enabling environment for housing development by making building materials available and cheap to increase housing stock.

7.0 CONCLUSION

Human beings are endowed with varied personal traits which conflict with other people’s personal traits and this is bound to generate conflict at different level of their interactions with one another. The best relationship is not synonymous to a conflict-free relationship but rather it simply means that such conflict is brought to the barest minimum. A good understanding of human relationship will help to ‘lubricate’ the relationship and prevent a lot of friction that would have resulted from a bad human relationship. Such understanding will contribute immensely to the growth of rental housing market in the study area and consequently in Nigeria at large. If proper working relation is established between the landlords, agents and tenants, the rental housing market will be more buoyant, lucrative, attractive and promising to the new investors. This will also help to retain the old or current investor in the rental housing market thus increasing the number of housing stock available in the market at any given time.

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