The most expensive mistake a Nigerian landlord makes isn't under-pricing or waiting too long to renovate. It's skipping the screen and signing with the first person who says yes. A bad tenant costs you three to five times what a good tenant costs, and the damage is almost entirely preventable with a 15-minute phone call and two reference checks.
I've been on the landlord side of this market for twelve years and on the platform side of it for the last three. The pattern is the same every time — the landlords who screen have smooth years, and the landlords who don't call me in month nine asking how to start an eviction. This guide is the seven-filter screen I use and recommend to every landlord onboarding onto NoBroker Nigeria.
Let's put numbers on it. An average Lagos 2-bed tenancy is ₦1.8M/year. A tenant who stops paying in month eight costs you ₦1.2M in unpaid rent, plus ₦150k-₦500k to evict through the magistrate court (filing fees, bailiff costs, your lawyer), plus another two to six months of vacancy while the case runs and the unit sits empty. Call it ₦2M in cash and twelve to fifteen months of your attention.
The screen that would have caught them is seven questions over WhatsApp and one phone call. So every hour you spend screening is worth roughly ₦300k in downside avoided — maybe the highest-paid hour in your week.
Ask for full legal name as it appears on NIN or international passport. Not "Chuka" but "Onyechukwu Emmanuel Okafor." Ask for the NIN number and last-four of the phone number registered against it.
If you run NoBroker Nigeria's verified-tenant flow, this is automatic — a tenant who inquires through us has already passed NIN match. If you're screening on your own, you can cross-check via the NIMC verification service or ask them to send a screenshot of the NIMC app showing their name and photo.
Red flags. Reluctance to share NIN. Name that doesn't match the name on the bank account they eventually use to pay. Multiple phone numbers given across different conversations. A tenant who has a reason for every mismatch ("oh that's my sister's account, my bank is having issues") is teaching you what every future conversation will sound like.
Not as gatekeeping. As information. You want to know what kind of income volatility you're underwriting.
A civil servant on Grade 12 earning ₦450k/month has predictable, slow pay but never zero. A self-employed designer earning ₦800k-₦2M/month has high ceiling but occasional dry months. A PhD student on a stipend of ₦250k/month with parental support is actually more stable than the designer. These are different risks and the rent-to-income ratio you accept should be different for each.
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Victor founded NoBroker Nigeria after paying ₦420,000 in broker and legal fees on a single Lekki rental in 2023. He writes from lived experience of the Nigerian rental market and the verification processes the platform runs every day.
A LinkedIn profile or a work email address ending in the employer's domain
Red flags. "Business" with no specifics. Job title that doesn't exist at a company that does exist. Reluctance to name the employer. Very recent start date (under 3 months) combined with high rent relative to stated income.
The industry rule of thumb is that annual rent should not exceed 30-40% of gross annual income. In Nigeria's reality, tenants routinely stretch to 50% and sometimes more. That's not automatically disqualifying, but you need to see the math.
Annual rent
Comfortable monthly income
Stretched monthly income
Risky
₦1.2M
₦300k+
₦200-300k
Under ₦200k
₦1.8M
₦450k+
₦300-450k
Under ₦300k
₦2.5M
₦625k+
₦420-625k
Under ₦420k
₦4M
₦1M+
₦670k-₦1M
Under ₦670k
₦6M
₦1.5M+
₦1M-₦1.5M
Under ₦1M
Ask for rough monthly income as a range, not a precise number. If a tenant is willing to tell you, verify with a bank statement for the last three months. If they're not willing to share, that is itself the answer.
Red flags. "I earn enough" without a number. A stated income that is suspiciously round and at exactly the threshold. A tenant who earns less than 30% of rent but insists they have "other income."
This is the most diagnostic question in the whole screen.
Normal, fine answers:
Current landlord is raising rent beyond what makes sense
Moving closer to a new job
Growing family needs more space
Relationship change (marriage, separation, children leaving)
Current estate has gotten noisy or unsafe
Answers that need follow-up:
"I was evicted." Ask why. Sometimes it's landlord-side — the owner sold the house. Sometimes it's tenant-side — non-payment.
"My last landlord and I had issues." Ask what issues. Listen for pattern.
"I need to move urgently." Why urgent? Legitimate urgency exists (transfer, medical). So does fleeing a bailiff.
"The house has problems." Which problems? Some are landlord neglect. Some are tenant-caused damage the tenant is trying to walk away from.
Red flags. Vague answer. Different answer given to you vs to the agent. A story that keeps evolving. Non-payment history at the previous tenancy, especially if they try to hide it and you catch it in reference check.
One reference is useless because they gave you the name of a friend. Two references, one of whom is the previous landlord, is where screening gets real.
Employer reference. Call the HR line or the direct manager. Confirm the tenant works there, in the role stated, and the tenure stated. You don't need to know the salary — you're just confirming the job exists.
Previous landlord reference. The one question that matters: "Would you rent to this tenant again?" A hesitation, a qualifier, or a no is your answer. A cheerful "yes, absolutely" is green. A guarded "well, they paid their rent" — which avoids the question you actually asked — is yellow; dig further.
Secondary questions to the previous landlord:
Did they pay on time?
How did they leave the property at move-out?
Were there complaints from neighbours?
What was the reason they left?
Red flags. Refusal to provide previous landlord contact ("we didn't have a formal agreement"). Previous landlord doesn't exist or can't be reached. Previous landlord's story contradicts the tenant's stated reason for moving. Any hedge on the "would you rent again" question.
Ask when they plan to move. Then ask why that date.
Normal: "My current lease ends on the 30th of next month." "I just got the job offer and need to be in Lagos by the 1st."
Needs follow-up: "This weekend." "As soon as possible." Tenants who need to move in three days are often fleeing something — non-payment at the current place, a dispute, a bailiff. That's not always disqualifying but it changes your diligence requirement. Ask to speak with the current landlord specifically about why the tenant is leaving fast.
Red flags. Urgency with no legitimate reason. Moving mid-month when their current lease presumably runs to month-end. Offering to pay an extra month's rent "to move in today" — paying above market to skip screening is the oldest move in the playbook.
Good answers: "At least 2-3 years." "I'm settled in Lagos, I don't move often." "Until my kids finish school at their current stage."
Lukewarm answers: "A year to start, then we'll see." Technically fine but it means you're back in the screening cycle in twelve months.
Concerning answers: "Just a few months." "I'm waiting for my company to relocate me." "I'm house-hunting to buy."
A short-stay tenant is not automatically bad — it just means the effective annual rent you're getting is lower once you factor the re-letting cost and the inevitable vacancy gap. If they're short-stay, price the rent to reflect that.
You don't owe anyone a tenancy. But how you decline affects your reputation in the market, and Lagos is smaller than it looks.
Template: "Thanks for your time and interest. We've gone in a different direction this round. I'll keep your details and reach out if anything similar comes up."
Don't explain the reason. You don't need to. Nigerian tenancy law doesn't require a landlord to justify a decline, and explaining opens you up to negotiation or argument.
Do not decline on discriminatory grounds — it's illegal and it's also bad business. See below.
Nigerian law, under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (Sections 15 and 42), prohibits discrimination on the basis of ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion, or political opinion. Lagos State Tenancy Law 2011 reinforces this in the landlord-tenant context.
In practice this means you cannot refuse a tenant because they are Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Christian, Muslim, or female. You can refuse them because they earn too little, their references are bad, or their reason for moving is concerning.
Many Nigerian landlords still screen on tribe or religion. It is both illegal and a bad business practice. It narrows your pool, extends your vacancy, and in Lagos specifically it exposes you to a discrimination suit that is increasingly being tested in the Tenancy Tribunal.
If they fail one filter, decide whether it's material. A slightly-short income with excellent references is different from weak income with evasive references. Trust the pattern, not any single answer.
If they fail two or more filters, decline. There's always another tenant. The cost of one bad tenancy is higher than the cost of three extra weeks of vacancy.
For one property, the seven-filter phone screen plus a reference call is enough. For three or more properties, you need a written screening template so every inquiry gets asked the same questions in the same order. Inconsistent screening is how you let bad tenants through.
For ten or more properties, move to software. Our Property Management tier on NoBroker Nigeria includes a screening form, NIN verification, and a reference-check workflow you can send to the tenant's referees. It's ₦7,500-₦25,000/month depending on portfolio size. You can see it live on the owner dashboard.
Or skip most of the overhead and list your property on NoBroker Nigeria, where every tenant inquiry comes pre-verified through NIN match and document review.
When to renovate your rental (and when it’s a waste)