Court orders tenant to pay landlady N593,000 accumulated rent
A Life Camp Magistrates’ Court in Abuja, on Tuesday, ordered a tenant, Mr Arubi Ikala, to pay accumulated rent of N593,534.47 to his landlady, Mrs Kenechukwu Eleh.
The amount is the rent which the tenant owed his landlady between June 1, 2018 and Feb.11, 2019. Delivering judgment, Senior Magistrate Raphael Egbe, held that the plaintiff had proven her case against the defendant and ordered him to pay the amount immediately.
The plaintiff’s counsel, Emeka Anioha, had filed the suit seeking to recover from the defendant the unpaid rent of N694,063 between 2018 and 2019. The amount included the sum of N150,000 as cost of the court action.
However, the defendant in his counterclaim, filed through his lawyer, Mr Linus Okwute, denied the plaintiff’s claim and instead prayed the court to grant him damages against the plaintiff.
He alleged that the rented apartment was in a bad shape which he said caused him and his family illnesses for which he expended huge sums of money to treat.
He, therefore, prayed for an order of court compelling the plaintiff to pay him the sum of N2,921,000 for special damages, N1,600,000 for general damages and N400,000 for cost of court action. The defendant’s total counterclaim against the plaintiff, which also included the claim that he repaired the plaintiff’s apartment when it became dilapidated, was N4,521,000.
Magistrate Egbe, however, did not grant the plaintiff’s prayer for an order compelling the defendant to pay her the sum of N150,000 being the cost of the court action against the tenan.
The Magistrate said, “It is my humble opinion that the defendant did not prove his counterclaim against the plaintiff and it is hereby dismissed.
“The plaintiff is hereby ordered to recover the sum of N593,534.47 from the defendant immediately.
“The court does not speculate. The fact that the defendant lived in the house, which he claimed caused him all the alleged calamities from 2011 to 2019, in my opinion, was self-inflicted and malicious.
He further held that, “The claim for repairs failed and I make no order as to cost. The defendant did not establish by evidence that the action or inaction of the plaintiff caused the destruction of his properties.
“There is no evidence before the court that the medical predicament of the defendant’s wife and other family members was caused by the action or inaction of the plaintiff.”
Egbe, however, did not grant the plaintiff’s prayer for an order compelling the defendant to pay her the sum of N150,000 being the cost of the court action against the tenant.
