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| By Elizabeth Onuoha |
I have been lucky to
have come across fantastic landlords in all my life of being a tenant, my
current landlord (and am hoping he will be my last) is an angel of some sort.
If all landlords were to be like him the world will be a better place for
tenants.
The first day I moved in
here, he told me that his prayers for all his tenants is for them to move into their
own houses from his place. At first, I thought the man was just talking but on
investigating his claims, I found out that previous tenants have all moved to
their own houses from here and those who did not move to their house were able
to secure plum jobs and the single ladies got married.
In my myopic view, I
thought most landlords were like mine, not until I went to visit an old school
mate from the school of journalism whose colleague at work had housing issues
and we got talking. Bola (not her real name) and Femi (not his real name) were
looking for an apartment. They just got married and wanted a place comfortable
and safe enough to start a family. They were lucky to get a three bedroom
apartment with well apportioned space. Bola fell in love with the kitchen at
first sight and that clinched the deal for them.
When they moved in, the
landlord asked if the couple had a car, to which Femi responded saying that
they were yet to get a car and the landlord jokingly said that ‘your car must
not be better than mine o’.
Everyone had laughed
that day. No one took the landlord’s comment to heart. Not long after the
couple moved in, Bola was able to secure a loan from her bank and they bought sienna.
Not long afterwards (On
a fine Sunday morning), the newlyweds were rudely roused from a well deserved sleep
by a loud banging on the door to their living room.
Who could that be? They
wondered.
On getting to the door,
Femi found the landlord with a towel round his waist chewing away at a chewing
stick.
“Who owns that car
outside?” he barked.
Femi was at a loss.
“what car?’ he replied
to which the landlord fired back
“Who owns that sienna?”
“O the sienna, well sir its mine, we …..”
The land lord cut him
off mid sentence.
“Did I not tell you that
your car must not be better than mine?’
Femi started to say
something but stopped, as the landlord had left.
On getting back in, he
told his wife what happened. They just could not understand what the problem
was. They bought a car, so what? It was not even a brand new car
A week later, on getting
back from an outing one Saturday evening, the couple found the latest model of
their sienna parked conspicuously in front of the house. Mr. Landlord had
gotten himself a car
Femi and his wife
decided it was time to furnish their apartment and promptly engaged the
services of a good furniture outfit.
On the day the furniture
was to be delivered, the landlord was on his balcony upstairs and saw all the
beautiful pieces of furniture being taken into the compound. He sent one of his
grand children to go downstairs and find out where the furniture was being
taken.
A couple of weeks later,
the landlord invited Femi and his wife to his apartment. On getting to the
landlord’s flat, they noticed the transformation. Everything from the ceiling
fan right down to the carpet was brand new! There was a total over haul of the
apartment- new sofa, curtains; split unit air conditioners name it. Mr.
Landlord went to town!
The couple went back to
their flat afterwards. They understood the subtle message. I learnt the couple
is out house hunting. One of the requirements is (your guess is as good as
mine) the landlord must not be resident in the premises or better still he or
she must not be in Lagos.
PS: Before
writing this piece I asked my source if her colleague has moved and was told
that they were yet to get a place. The couple I learnt just had a baby. I
smiled mischievously at this, and asked what did the landlord do, did he also
in annoyance make a baby?
LOL..... Landlord wahala truely
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