The renewal demand is an opening position, not a bill

You already tried the two things everyone tries

First you asked in a group chat, and somebody told you there is a law against unreasonable rent increases in Lagos and you should just cite it. Then you rang an agent, who said the market has moved and every landlord is doing the same thing, which is true and also useless to you. What neither of them told you: the Lagos Tenancy Law 2011 does not cap what a landlord may ask for on renewal. And the areas excluded from parts of that law — Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Ikeja GRA, Apapa and others listed in the law itself — mean that tenants in exactly the higher-value neighbourhoods sit outside the reasonableness route entirely. If you are in one of those areas, the advice you were given in the group chat was never going to reach you. Confirm your own area and the current position of the law before you rely on any of this, including this page. So you are left with the three moves most tenants actually make. Beg, which sets no record and moves nothing. Shout, which converts a commercial conversation into a personal one. Or pay, and go quiet, and repeat the whole thing next year from a weaker position. There is a fourth move. It is boring, it is written, it is dated, and it is the only one that leaves a file behind.

What you will actually have done by Sunday night

This is a working weekend, not a read. Saturday morning: you establish what your tenancy status legally is right now — yearly, monthly, statutory, tenant at will — because the answer determines what notice you are owed, and most tenants are wrong about their own status. You then check whether valid notice was even served, and what makes notice defective. Saturday afternoon: you take the demand apart. Rent here, service charge there, agency fee, legal fee. You use the breakdown request letter to ask for the service charge itemisation — a request that asks for figures without accusing anybody of anything, which is why it tends to get answered. Sunday morning: you gather three to five defensible comparable rents on your own street, learning which listing figures are asking prices rather than closing prices, and you log the outstanding repairs with dated photographs so your position reads as evidence rather than complaint. Sunday afternoon: you fill in the stay-or-move worksheet. Around 10% agency, 5% agreement and 5% legal on the new place, fresh deposit, moving, downtime, transport change, and the deposit you may not see again — set against the increase you are being asked to absorb. Percentages vary by agent and area; confirm the real ones you would be quoted. At the bottom of that sheet is your walk-away number, and you do not write a single line until you know it. Sunday evening: you write, date and deliver the counter-proposal. A figure, a rationale, your payment history, and a response deadline. Then you log the delivery so you can prove it was received.

What you get

• Answer the Rent Increase in Writing — 104-page PDF guide (₦20,000) — What the Lagos Tenancy Law 2011 and the Abuja position actually say, including the excluded areas, in chapter one rather than buried at the back. Tenancy status, valid notice, splitting the demand into its four parts, building the evidence file, writing and delivering the counter-proposal, and the escalation path: Multi-Door Courthouse mediation, then Magistrate Court or the rent tribunal — and what a landlord may not lawfully do while a matter is open.
• The Counter-Proposal Letter Templates — three versions (₦15,000) — A first counter-proposal with figure, rationale and response deadline. A follow-up for when nobody replies by the date you set. A service-charge breakdown request. Each annotated line by line explaining why the wording is what it is, so you can change the figures without wrecking the tone. Twenty minutes to adapt.
• Stay-or-Move Cost Worksheet (₦12,000) — The arithmetic almost nobody does before accepting a 40% increase. Fill it in and you know your walk-away number before you negotiate. Many tenants find staying wins by a wide margin. The ones it does not, stop arguing and start packing early, which is also worth knowing in week one instead of week six.
• Delivery and Proof-of-Record Pack (₦9,000) — A letter is worth what you can prove you sent. Hand delivery with an acknowledged copy, courier with tracking, email and WhatsApp as evidence, what to do when the caretaker refuses to sign, and a dated log sheet for every call, visit and message from the day the demand arrived.
• Comparables Evidence Sheet for Your Street (₦8,000) — How to get three to five defensible comparable rents in your own area — what to ask agents without becoming their lead, which figures are asking rather than closing prices, and how to log condition and outstanding repairs with dated photographs.
• When to Stop and Pay a Lawyer — Escalation Ladder (₦7,000) — The point where a PDF stops being the right tool. The trigger events, what a property lawyer should reasonably cost at each stage, exactly what to ask for so you are not sold a retainer you do not need, and the free routes: Multi-Door Courthouse, Legal Aid Council, Office of the Public Defender, and the police where there is harassment.

Includes 5 bonus items.

Questions you’re probably asking

There is no law capping rent, so what is the point of writing anything?

Correct, and the guide says so on its first pages rather than in a footnote. Neither the Lagos nor the Abuja regime caps what a landlord may ask on renewal, and the excluded areas put many tenants outside the reasonableness route altogether. What moves a renewal figure in practice is not a statute. It is an itemised demand that has been questioned, a documented payment history, three comparable rents on the same street, and a written counter-proposal with a date on it. Landlords negotiate with the tenant who has a file. They dictate to the tenant who has a WhatsApp reply.

If I push back, he will simply refuse to renew and tell me to pack.

That is the real risk and the guide is built around it. Every template is written to keep the matter commercial: no accusations, no legal threats, no citing sections at him. You are asking for a breakdown and proposing a figure with reasons, which is what any tenant is entitled to do. The guide is also honest that this can still end with a landlord who says no. That is why you complete the stay-or-move worksheet first, so that if he refuses, you already know what refusing costs you and are not deciding in a panic in week six.

Another ₦12,000 PDF from a stranger on Facebook.

Fair, and there is no version of this page that proves otherwise to you. So here is what you can check. Chapter one tells you the law does not cap your rent and that Ikoyi, VI, Ikeja GRA and Apapa sit outside parts of it — that is a bad opening for anybody trying to sell you false hope. The escalation chapter tells you when to close the guide and pay a real property lawyer instead, and points you to Multi-Door Courthouse, the Legal Aid Council and the Office of the Public Defender, which cost nothing. A product designed to take your money does not spend six pages sending you elsewhere.

Why not just take him to court or the rent tribunal?

You can, and the guide maps that route properly. It also tells you the thing that decides most of these matters: an application often concludes after your renewal date has already passed. Which means for many tenants the court route answers a question they no longer need answered. Mediation at the Multi-Door Courthouse is faster and is covered. But the letter, written early and delivered with proof, is what usually settles it before either becomes relevant.

I do not have a weekend. Can I just get the letter?

You can adapt the first counter-proposal in about twenty minutes and send it today. But a figure with no rationale behind it is just a smaller demand, and it will be treated as one. The comparables and the payment history are what turn your number into a position. If you truly only have one hour, the guide tells you which two sections to read and which one letter to send first.