The Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER) says it is set to submit a policy brief about the unfair and discriminatory practices perpetrated by estate surveyors and agents to landlords in Abuja, Lagos and other major cities in Nigeria.
CASER’s Executive Director, Frank Tietie, said in a statement on Saturday that his firm is currently studying multiple complaints of sharp practices by Estate Surveyors and Agents to Landlords in major cities of Nigeria.
“There are reports that some real estate firms in Abuja and Lagos especially demand personal and private documents such as bank account statements from prospective tenants before considering their applications for rent.
“There are also widely reported cases of outright rejection of rental applications based on discrimination against professionals such as police, lawyers and IT practitioners (suspected as yahoo yahoo).
“The said discriminations by these estate firms and agents are also on the basis of ethnicity and religion, with persons of South-East (Igbo) extraction reportedly suffering the most,” Tietie stated.
The human rights lawyer added that while such practices are civil wrongs in court which can entitle victims to monetary compensations and apologies, “a statutory regime is urgently required to address these forms of ethnic and religious profiling that are growing in major Nigerian cities.”
He urged those victimized by such agents to forward their complaints to add up to his policy brief to the National Assembly.
The statement partly reads, “Therefore, CASER is opening a Public Case Inquiry (PCI) to collate these abuses of discrimination against citizens of Nigeria whose rental applications are considered on the basis of ethnicity, religion and in some cases financial standing.
“Interested persons or victims of rental discriminations any where in Nigeria are invited to send reports of experiences or submit opinions and factual cases of such discriminatory practices in rental applications to CASER by email: [email protected] or;by WhatsApp: 07014444498.
“The above is to support the preparation and submission of a policy brief by CASER to the National Assembly and all the State Houses of Assembly in Nigeria
“Note: CASER has NOT received any funding from any partner for this PCI. It may therefore be unable to offer any financial assistance to any person making a submission or claim where the need arises.”
