My SITTING Landlady | #SackYourLandlord

I will like to advice anyone seeking for accommodation; consider a house without a sitting landlord or landlady.

I once secured a 2-bedroom apartment, somewhere in downtown Lagos, hoping to enjoy a brand new lease of life after living in a face-me-I-slap-you for years, but reverse was the case.

I have a live-in landlady that monitors every movement in and out of the premises.

My first taste of her bitter pill was when I tried installing a DSTV.

She stopped the technician, insisting that she was not informed before installing DSTV. According to her, permission ought to be sought before trying such a thing in her house. I was dumbfounded but kept my peace and apologized to her.

She graduated from there to not allowing the use of generator in her house, meanwhile she uses generator.

We have 2 surface water tanks, one for the tenants, one for the building owner, yet we lack constant water supply.

Landlady insisted that she can only pump water for tenants once in a week, and if we volunteer to use our generator to pump, she will deny us access to the pumping machine control switch as it is located inside her shop by the gate. However, she uses her tank to sell water to people around.

Sometimes, I go on for days without adequate supply of water, meanwhile she pumps water regularly to sell to outsiders.

I was shell shocked when she demanded for money from me before I could fetch water for my use.

Payment for PHCN bills was another kettle of fish. None of the tenants ever set his or her eyes on PHCN bills. The bills are most times dropped-off at her shop, close to the gate and what she does was allocate whatever figures she deemed fit to each tenants.

An attempt to know the actual monthly consumption and bill was met with stiff resistance as she insisted that she is not under any obligation to disclose such information to anyone, and anybody that is not Ok with it knows what to do.

That was the last straw that broke the camel’s back and I was left with no option than to look elsewhere for accommodation and rest of mind.

Please, when seeking accommodation, kindly ask questions, and don’t always consider the beauty of the apartment. It can be deceitful sometimes.

May the almighty give us house of our own.

AUTHOR: Oyakhire Emmanuel