Renting
Renting a property in Nigeria: a viewing and agreement checklist
A practical checklist for inspecting a property before you commit, verifying who you are dealing with, and agreeing a written lease that protects you when something goes wrong.
Last reviewed 2026-09-26 · 3 min read
Confirm who you are actually dealing with
In any rental you are contracting with someone. It may be the owner, a letting agent, or a managing company, and the difference matters when something needs to be fixed or a deposit needs to come back.
Ask to see the owner's identity and, if you are dealing with an agent, the written authority to let the property. Where the owner is a company, ask for the company's name and registration number. A genuine landlord has no reason to object to you confirming that they own what they are letting.
The physical inspection
Rent is paid up front, which means you carry the risk of a property that was not properly checked. Go through the property in daylight and, if you can, visit once at night and once during a period of heavy rain. Water, drainage and noise problems are the ones tenants most often discover too late.
Test the things that actually fail: run every tap, flush every toilet, switch on every light, test the sockets, and open and close every window and door.
- Water: run every tap and flush, and check the pressure on the top floor as well as the ground.
- Power: confirm the supply, and ask what happens during an outage, including any generator or inverter.
- Roof and walls: look for damp staining, cracks, mould and any sign of previous water ingress.
- Doors, windows and locks: check that each one closes and locks properly, including the gate.
- Kitchen: check the sink, the cooker points and whether the cabinets are sound.
- Bathrooms: look at the grout, the sealant and the ceiling for damp.
- Outside: drainage, refuse disposal, security, lighting and parking, plus the state of the road.
- Pests: evidence of termites, rodents or insects, particularly in timber and kitchen areas.
Get a written lease, and read these clauses
An unwritten agreement is an agreement you will not win. Get the lease in writing, signed by both parties, and keep a copy. A deposit receipt, however carefully worded, is not a lease.
Before you sign, be clear on the term, the rent and how it must be paid, who pays utilities, what happens to a deposit, the notice period either side, and whether the premises may be sublet. Those five or six items account for most of what goes wrong.
- The term: start date, end date, and any break clause.
- The rent: amount, when it is due, and where it is paid.
- Advance rent: commonly one year, but rules that limit how much can be paid in advance, and any registration requirement, vary by state. Check the rule that applies where the property is.
- Deposit: amount, the conditions for deduction, and the timescale for refund.
- Utilities and service charge: state which are included in the rent and which are separate.
- Maintenance: who is responsible for repairs, and to what standard.
- Notice: the notice period required from either side, and how notice must be given.
How to pay, and how to keep the evidence
Pay rent by bank transfer into an account in the name of the person you have a lease with, and keep every transfer confirmation. Pay agents only where your lease names them, and take a receipt immediately in all cases.
Photograph the condition of the property on the day you move in, and send those photographs to the landlord by email or message on the same day, asking for confirmation. That single step is the most effective protection against a deposit being withheld for damage that was already there.
What to do next
If you are searching for a rental, send us your budget, preferred locations and move-in date, and we will send you matching options on WhatsApp, including serviced and managed units that may not be listed publicly.
