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Legal effect and the Difference between an ordinary written letter by Landlord/ Attorney or his agent to wit-legal notices and notice filed and served through the Law court within the appropriate Jurisdiction on a tenant.

Tenancy proceedings covers more than 70% of magistrate Court matters every day but still most landlords, their agents/ Attorney continuously loss their cases in court notwithstanding that the tenant is in possession of their properties and never showed up throughout the entire proceedings. Regrettably these matters do last for more than 2years.
Thus I will here pursue and proffer solutions which will aid the landlord to desist from these costly mistakes in sequel to the topic.
Statutory Notices are to a tenancy proceedings the blood of the matter. It is very fundamental and once there is something wrong with these notices, the whole proceedings is bond to fail no matter how good the evidence were. See Pan Asian African Co. Ltd v. National Insurance Corp. (Nig) Ltd (1982) All NLR 229.

These notices includes, the quit notice with its various durations (statutory notices are well detailed in my previous post on tenancy in Nigeria) and the 7 days Owners Intention to recover possession.
These notices can be served personally by the landlord/ agents with their letter headed paper or through the court whereby the heading of the court would be used.
Practically and legally too, nothing stops a landlord from carrying out a personal service of this notice on his tenant however the real issue and the problem is proving that the letter was actually served especially where the tenant is a troublesome one and had refused to endorse on a return copy of the said notice, the landlord must prove that the tenant was actually served.  The party alleging such evidence of service as a state of fact and evidence must prove it. See sections 135, 136 and 139 of the Evidence Act.Broadline Ent. Ltd v. Monterey Maritime Corp. (1995) 9 NWLR (pt. 417) 1; Chime v. Chime (1995) 6 NWLR (pt 404) 734; Usman v. Ram (2001) 8 NWLR (pt.715) 449; Attorney-general of Lagos State v. Purification Tech. (Nig) Ltd (20030 16 NWLR (pt. 845) 1; Archibong v. Ita (2004) 2 NWLR (pt. 858) 590.
Take note that in the presence or absence of a defence put up by the tenant, the landlord is hold to show course why the court should allow his claim and notices must be properly served to give the court the Jurisdiction to so do.
Haven spoken about notice served by Landlords personally with their letter headed paper which tenant may refuse to sign thereby making it doubtable to the court. The landlord can serve any of these notices through the court using the officer of the court. The Baliff of court has a lot of powers backed by a special law. They in certain situations don't need to serve the notice on the tenant, the law permit them to do other things any other person is not so permitted in fact, a landlord merely need to just get a Baliff of court, gives the instructions and allow the Baliff do his job. Such services carried out by these officers of court is proper.
Therefore, it is advised that instead of allowing waste of time and money due to persistent attitude of landlord to pay fees for these officers to carry out their works leading to eventual loss of good tenancy matters, counsels should pay more attention and proffer more advice to forestall such incidents.
The court in MR. JERRY MAMMAN VAMPA vs.  FUNSHO MUFUTAU (in reported) FCT/HC/CV/2886/12
Hold that the fact that the evidence of a plaintiff is unchallenged and uncontroverted does not entitle the plaintiff to judgment if he fails to prove his case or comply with the basic procedural rules. The court therefore, holds the case of Garba v. Zaria (supra) untenable in the case.

The onus still lies on the plaintiff to prove that valid quit notice under the law was made which gives efficacy to his case and valid jurisdiction to the court.
Remember there are lapses under our law that state that where a tenant is in arrears of rent for 3 months, he is no longer legally entitled to the 6 months notice to quit but just the 7 days owners intention to recover possession.

Comments

  1. Eternal10 October 2020 at 07:56

    My comment is more like a question. It thus goes like this: Can a Landlord issue a tenant a notice of intention to recover premises without first issuing the tenant a notice to quit?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eternal10 October 2020 at 07:56

    My comment is more like a question. It thus goes like this: Can a Landlord issue a tenant a notice of intention to recover premises without first issuing the tenant a notice to quit?

    ReplyDelete

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