It's a story Nigerian tenants tell often: you pay ₦1.2 million service charge when you move in, and a year later the facility manager sends a bill for ₦2.4 million, with no breakdown.
Ask for receipts, diesel logs or a statement of account and some managers get defensive, call the accounts private, or threaten to cut the power. Stories like this come up again and again, from Lekki to Ikeja GRA to Abuja.
The Legal Reality: Service Charges Are Not Landlord Profit Centers
A service charge pays for shared services; it isn't extra rent. Lagos's Tenancy Law treats it separately from rent, with its own receipts and a written account at least every six months (section 10). While a landlord is entitled to set rent at market rates, service charges exist solely to maintain shared facilities such as security, common area lighting, waste disposal, and compound grounds.
Because service charges represent cost recovery rather than commercial profit, tenants are generally entitled to ask how it was spent, and many tenancy laws and leases expect landlords to account for it. What applies to you depends on your state's law and your lease, so check both, and get advice if the amounts are large.
The Root Problem: Manual Ledgers and Opacity
Why do these disputes occur so routinely? In most Nigerian estates, accounting is conducted on fragmented Excel sheets, paper notebooks, and informal WhatsApp chats. When diesel prices fluctuate or electricity distribution tariffs increase, managers resort to arbitrary lump-sum estimates rather than transparent utility calculations.
How BreeUp Solves This for Landlords and Tenants
BreeUp helps estates and facility managers show their working:
- Each bill says what it's for, so a security levy and a power charge don't disappear into one lump sum.
- Every expense goes into the spending log with the receipt attached, and residents see it once it's published.
- When a resident pays by transfer, the payment is matched to their home and they get a receipt.
- At the end of the year, the treasurer's statements and exports are ready for the AGM.
