Prospective tenants and home buyers in Lagos State have been advised to avoid people the state has described as pseudo or practitioners who parade themselves as estate agents and developers in the state’s real estate mark.
With a very active rental market and over three million housing market, real estate business in Lagos is very lucrative and that has led to the development of quackery and unwholesome activities by fraudulent elements who take advantage of the high demand to defraud home seekers.
The state government has therefore enjoined residents seeking for accommodation to engage the services of only registered developers and agents across the state.
Wasiu Adedamola Akewusola, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Housing, gave this advice during a site visit in Ketu area of the state where a fraudulent property developer collected money from over 262 prospective home buyers for only 15 units of studio apartments.
“Residents of should desist from patronising quacks and criminals when scouting for accommodation and homes to buy,” Akewusola counseled, decrying rate of fraudulent activities by illegal estate agents and developers who, through their nefarious activities, are swindling innocent people of their hard earned money.
“We are greatly concerned about the rise in the criminal and callous activities of some dubious estate agents who lure unwary individuals to purchase non-existent parcels of land or rent one flat out to hundreds of prospective tenants,” he said.
He disclosed that it was the responsibility of Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Department (LASRETRAD), a directorate under the Ministry of Housing, to register, monitor and regulate activities of genuine estate agents and developers.
The permanent secretary advised intending tenants to ensure that they transacted business with only registered agents who could be recognized by the state government’s estate agents registration banner.
He seized the opportunity to enjoin the people to continue to have confidence in government’s ability to fulfill the mandate of providing accessible, affordable and qualitative housing. “Lagos State is a responsible government and will not relent in its efforts at ensuring that the well-being of the people is upheld,” he said
Also speaking during the visit, Ajayi Adeyeye, a director at LASRETRAD, described the activities of the dubious estate agents as “not only criminal and illegal, but also an offence punishable under the Lagos State tenancy law of 2003 formerly known as Rent Control and Recovery of Residential Premises law (Vol.7 Law of Lagos State 2003.)”
Adeyeye said the law that governs the renting of property was the basis of the legal contract that defined the relationship between the landlord, developer and tenant. He assured that the state government was poised to curb the excesses of swindlers and quacks in estate agency through prosecution.
He encouraged the public not to hesitate in reporting any unscrupulous estate agent to LASRETRAD at the state government secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja.
“A secured society can only be achieved if all sorts of unscrupulous elements are restrained,” he noted, appealing to the registered estate agents to imbibe the culture of trustworthiness in rendering services to the public.
CHUKA UROKO
