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A landlord in Ikeja called her agent in June 2026, waving a printout of a WhatsApp broadcast claiming Lagos had just banned one-year rent demands outright. The agent froze a signed tenancy, told the incoming tenant to wait for “the new law,” and nearly lost the deal. The Lagos State Government had to issue a public statement that same year rejecting exactly this kind of fabricated claim. The old law never stopped applying.

That contrast matters more than it looks. One version of events has Lagos operating under a brand new rent regime with tighter caps and harsher penalties. The other has the state running on rules written over a decade ago, unchanged, still enforceable, still the only thing a court will actually apply if a dispute lands in front of a judge. Only one of these is true today.

Is the new Lagos rent law in effect yet?

No. The Lagos State Tenancy and Recovery of Premises Bill, 2025 is still a draft sitting with a committee at the Lagos State House of Assembly, not a law a landlord or tenant can rely on. The bill passed its second reading and has been under committee review since, but it has not been signed into law, and nothing about Lagos tenancy has changed because of it.

The Lagos State Government confirmed this directly. In a statement responding to viral posts claiming an update had already happened, a government spokesperson said the Tenancy Law of 2015 is still subsisting, and that the bill for a new law is “under due consideration” at the House of Assembly, “yet to be passed into law.” She added that the public would be told when that changes, which tells you something useful on its own: there has been no such announcement since.

So what governs a lease signed in Lagos this week? The existing Tenancy Law framework, including the advance rent limits in the 2011 statute, which this firm has written about separately for what a landlord can lawfully demand. If an agent or landlord tells you a new cap or new penalty already applies, ask them to show you the gazetted Act. They can’t, because it doesn’t exist yet.

This distinction decides real choices. A tenant negotiating a renewal this month has no legal ground to invoke a 5% agency fee cap, because that cap doesn’t bind anyone yet. A landlord drafting a new lease has no extra protection from the bill’s proposed penalties either way, good or bad, because they aren’t in force. Everyone currently transacting property in Lagos is still bound by the existing Tenancy Law, and any contract, notice, or fee arrangement should be checked against that, not against headlines about the bill.

The draft reforms cap agency fees and require LASRERA registration

The bill proposes capping estate agency professional fees at 5% of a property’s annual rent, a figure that doesn’t exist anywhere in current Lagos tenancy law. Today, agency fees are negotiated case by case, often well above that, and nothing in the existing statute stops it.

Right now, that registration requirement has no statutory force. An agent can operate without it, and a tenant has no legal basis to refuse dealing with an unregistered one purely on that ground, however sensible it might be as a precaution.

Here’s the practical implication. If you’re negotiating a lease today and an agent quotes a fee above 5% of annual rent, you have no statutory cap to point to. That changes the moment the bill becomes law, but not before. Treat agency fee negotiation as commercial bargaining for now, not a compliance question, and keep records of whatever fee is agreed in writing regardless.

The registration requirement matters for a different reason. Once it’s law, dealing with an unregistered agent could expose a landlord or tenant to disputes that are harder to resolve, since the agent would be operating outside a recognised framework. That’s worth anticipating even now: ask any agent you’re engaging whether they intend to register once the requirement takes effect, and keep that answer on file. It costs nothing and tells you something about how seriously they take the coming changes.

What the current law actually limits on advance rent

A landlord in Yaba asks a new tenant for 18 months of rent up front. Under the law currently in force, that’s unlawful. The Tenancy Law of Lagos State 2011 states plainly that a landlord or agent cannot demand or receive from a new or prospective tenant rent exceeding one year, and the tenant equally cannot lawfully offer or pay more than that.

For a sitting tenant, the current statute sets the ceiling differently: up to six months for a monthly tenant, and up to one year for a yearly tenant, both for demanding and for paying. Anyone found receiving or paying rent above these limits is liable, under the current law, to a fine of One Hundred Thousand Naira (N100,000) or three months’ imprisonment, under Section 4 of the Tenancy Law of Lagos State 2011.

The fix here is simple arithmetic before signing anything. If a prospective tenant is quoted ₦2,400,000 as one year’s rent and asked to pay ₦3,600,000 up front for 18 months, that demand sits outside what the current law permits, full stop, regardless of what either party is willing to agree informally.

Check which part of Lagos your tenancy actually falls under

Measure this first: does the property sit in Apapa, Ikeja GRA, Ikoyi, or Victoria Island? The Lagos Tenancy Law does not apply to premises in these four areas unless the Governor extends it there by specific order.

A tenant renting a flat in Ikoyi who assumes the standard Tenancy Law protections automatically apply is working from a false premise. These four areas sit outside its reach under the current framework, which means different rules, often older ones, may govern that tenancy instead.

Skip this check and you risk citing the wrong law entirely in a dispute, embarrassing yourself in front of a tribunal or losing an argument you should have won. The proposed bill would extend coverage to the whole of Lagos State, premium areas included, but that change isn’t in force. Confirm which regime actually covers your property before you rely on any provision.

Tenants who overpay advance rent lose both ways

Paying more than the law allows doesn’t just expose the landlord. The current Tenancy Law makes it unlawful for the tenant to offer or pay in excess of these limits too, meaning both parties can face the same fine or imprisonment if caught collecting or paying unlawful advance rent.

The fix is refusing the arrangement outright rather than assuming only the landlord carries the risk.

A worked example: a yearly tenant offered a flat at ₦1,800,000 annual rent is asked to pay ₦2,100,000 covering 14 months. Both the demand and the payment sit above what the current one-year ceiling for new tenants permits, and both sides carry legal exposure for it.

Where the current law is silent, get it confirmed before you sign

Lagos tenancy law doesn’t set out statutory notice periods for every scenario a landlord or tenant might face, and where the current, enacted statute is silent on a specific notice requirement, don’t assume a figure from the draft bill or from informal practice fills that gap.

This matters because the proposed bill does introduce specific notice structures, tied to tenancy type, that don’t exist in the current law. Relying on an unenacted notice period as if it already binds a landlord is a mistake that could sink a possession case or a defence against one.

Confirm the applicable notice position with a lawyer for your specific tenancy type and location before acting on it, rather than guessing from draft clauses that may or may not survive committee review unchanged.

Compare what changes once the bill actually passes

This comparison, drawn from Legal 500’s analysis of the draft bill, shows where the gap actually sits. The one-year cap for new tenants survives untouched in the draft. What moves is the penalty, the sitting monthly tenant’s ceiling, the geographic reach, and agent regulation. None of it applies until the bill is signed into law and gazetted.

What to do before relying on either version of the law

Look at the date on whatever source told you the law had changed. If it’s a social post, a forwarded message, or a blog without a citation to the Lagos State House of Assembly or an official government statement, treat it as unverified until you can trace it back.

That matters because the gap between “passed second reading” and “signed into law” is where most of the confusion sits. A bill that has cleared committee review can still change substantially before final passage, or stall for months. Nothing in that process binds anyone until it’s complete.

1. Identify which Lagos area the premises sits in, and whether the Tenancy Law applies there at all.
2. Check the advance rent being demanded against the current 2011 law’s limits, not the draft bill’s figures.
3. Confirm any agent you’re engaging holds, or intends to seek, LASRERA registration, even though it isn’t yet mandatory.
4. Keep every rent receipt and written agreement, since disputes under the current law turn heavily on documentary proof.
5. Ask a lawyer to confirm the applicable notice period for your specific tenancy type before serving or responding to any notice.

A worked example ties it together. A commercial tenant in Lekki signs a lease this quarter at ₦6,000,000 annual rent, paying one year up front, which is within the current law’s limit for new tenants. The agent charges a fee outside any statutory cap, because none currently exists. Both of these facts are correct today, and both would look different the moment the bill becomes law, which is exactly why checking the date on your information matters more than checking the headline.

Frequently Asked Questions

Has the Lagos State Tenancy and Recovery of Premises Bill been signed into law?

No, not yet. As of the Lagos State Government’s own statement, the bill remains under consideration at the Lagos State House of Assembly, and the government said the public would be informed once it passes. Nothing published since changes that position.

Which law currently governs rent agreements in Lagos?

The Tenancy Law of Lagos State, in the form confirmed as still subsisting by the state government, governs tenancies today. This includes the advance rent limits set out in the 2011 statute, which remain enforceable regardless of what the draft bill proposes.

Can a landlord legally charge a 5% agency fee cap right now?

Not as a legal requirement. The 5% cap on agency fees appears only in the draft bill. Until that bill is enacted, agency fees in Lagos remain a matter of negotiation between the parties, not a fixed statutory ceiling.

What happens if a landlord demands more than one year’s rent from a new tenant today?

That demand is unlawful under the current Tenancy Law, which caps advance rent from a new or prospective tenant at one year. Both the landlord demanding it and the tenant who agrees to pay it face liability for the offence, not just one side.