Some residents of Lagos on Saturday in Lagos expressed concern over the increasing rate of accommodation fraud in the state.
The residents, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), urged the state government to check the situation as the rate at which some landlords and estate agents had been defrauding the masses was becoming alarming.
The residents said that most landlords and estate agents were greedy, and had turned accommodation fraud into a business, using the housing need of the state to exploit residents.
Mr Chinedu Ikpat, a lawyer, said that some landlords and estate agents were dishonourable and exploiting accommodation seekers.
“There are several fraud cases in various courts across the state of landlords using a particular property to defraud different accommodation seekers of their money.
“It is not supposed to be so. They take advantage of the housing need of residents in the state to defraud unsuspecting accommodation seekers.
`They have no regard for the Tenancy Law of the State as they demand exorbitant rents and commissions from accommodation seekers; still, they do not let out the apartment to them after taking their money.”
The lawyer suggested that property of landlords that are serial fraudsters be confiscated by the state as a penalty for the offence.
“It will serve as a deterrent to landlords if they know that their property will be confiscated by the state when they engage in fraudulent practices,” he said.
?Mr Goriola Adebiyi, an engineer, said that landlords should be empathetic to the plights of accommodation seekers as the government alone cannot solve the housing challenge of the state.
“We are all aware of government's efforts to build affordable housing units in different parts of the state; the houses are insufficient for the vast populace of Lagos.
“Landlords should complement government's efforts and stop defrauding people.”
Also speaking with NAN, Mr Azeez Olayiwola, a civil servant, said housing had been a major challenge facing the state, and dishonest people use it as an opportunity to swindle people.
Narrating his experience, he said: “I had to relocate to Ikorodu due to the flood challenge at my previous residence in Mile 12 and I paid a two-year rent for a self-contained apartment.
“To my surprise, when I got there with my things, the key that I had previously used to open the apartment had been changed.
?“ I was forced to pass the night at a nearby church with my family. Till date, I have yet to get a refund of the N300,000 that I paid for the rent and commission,” he said.
A businessman, Mr Tony Nwankwo, who was also defrauded of his money, told NAN that an estate agent collected money from five of them for a particular three-bedroom apartment.
“I paid N2.2 million for the apartment at Maryland. I later heard that four other people paid for the same apartment. The estate agent got an elderly man to impersonate the owner of the house to make it credible.
“We later got to know that the apartment was been renovated for the actual owner to move into when he arrives from the U.S.,’’ Nwankwo said.
?Nwankwo urged the government to take adequate measures to check the fraudulent practice before it turns to anarchy.
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