Cases of abuses by Landlords in unlawfully evicting their Tenants necessitated the Rent Control & Recovery of Residential Premises Law of Lagos State, like prior legislations before it, to seek to protect all tenancies to which this Law applies.

Where there is a default by a Tenant in respect of any aspect of his Tenancy and the Landlord intends to terminate the Tenancy and have possession of his property reverted back, a proper notice to quit must be personally served on the Tenant. This is the first and most technical of the procedures for recovering possession of premises.
WHAT SHOULD BE THE LENGHT OF A QUIT NOTICE?
The length of notice to be given to a Tenant to quit, is usually determined by the tenure of the tenancy, where no express unequivocal provision is made in a written Tenancy Agreement to such effect. Thus, where the Tenant pays his rent on a monthly basis, a one (1) month notice to quit would be valid.
Similarly, where the rental is paid half-yearly or yearly, a quarter or half yearly notice as appropriate would be valid.

It is mandatory that the notice to quit must be issued and served personally to the Tenant. It is also mandatory that the notice to quit must be served to expire at expiration of the Tenancy.

Thus, a notice to quit in respect of a tenancy that begins in January of a particular year and expires in December of the same year must be served on the Tenant on or before the end of June of that year so that from 1st July to the end of December of the same year, the mandatory six months notice would have been properly served on the Tenant. This was the holding of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
The inability of a Landlord, to comply with the technical requirement of serving the statutory notice to quit to expire at the same time with the tenancy, drew the displeasure of the Supreme Court, where for twelve (12) years, the Respondent Tenant could not be evicted because the notice of eviction was not properly served by the Landlord on the Tenant.

It is because of the frustration that comes with applying the legal process, to evict unwilling Tenants, that has led to many Landlords attempting other unlawful procedures to evict such unwilling Tenants, whose tenancy has been properly determined in accordance with the Rent Control & Recovery Premises Law.
IS THERE A REPERCUSSION?
The Lagos State Rent Control & Recovery of Residential Premises Law prohibits any form of demolition, alteration, modification, harassment or molestation of a Tenant, where the principal objective is the forceful ejection of the Tenant.
Contravention of this provision by the Landlord or his agents is an offence, which on conviction, attracts a fine of N20,000.00 (Twenty Thousand Naira) to N50,000.00 (Fifty Thousand Naira) and a term of imprisonment of three months.

The Lagos State Government has established a Citizens Mediation Centre, where disputes including those of Landlord and Tenant disputes are resolved through mediation.
Where mediation fails or any of the parties refuses to submit to mediation, the parties would be advised by the Centre to seek redress in Court.
So it is advised that before you move into any apartment there must be appropriate written agreement between you and the Landlord.