Quit Notice in Nigeria: Exactly How Many Days Your Landlord Must Give You (by Tenancy Type)

Most quit notice fights in Nigeria are won or lost on a single question: how much notice were you actually entitled to?

Get that number wrong as a landlord, and a court can throw out your entire eviction case — sending you back to the start after months of waiting. Get it wrong as a tenant, and you might pack up and leave when you legally had two more months in the property.

So let's settle it. Here is exactly how much notice the law requires, broken down by the type of tenancy you have, with the specific section of the Lagos State Tenancy Law that governs each one.

First, find out what kind of tenant you are

This is the part almost everyone skips — and it is the part that decides everything.

Your notice period depends on your tenancy type, which is determined by how your rent is structured, not how often you happen to pay it. Section 13(6) of the Lagos State Tenancy Law 2011 says that where it is unclear, the nature of a tenancy is determined by reference to the time when the rent is paid or demanded.

The common types:

• Tenant at will — you occupy with the landlord's permission but with no fixed term and no regular rent structure.

• Weekly tenant — rent runs week to week.

• Monthly tenant — rent runs month to month.

• Quarterly tenant — rent runs in three-month blocks.

• Half-yearly tenant — rent runs in six-month blocks.

• Yearly tenant — rent runs year to year. This is the most common arrangement in Nigeria.

• Fixed-term tenant — your agreement is for a defined period ("one year certain," "two years certain") with a clear start and end date.

The statutory notice periods (Section 13, Lagos Tenancy Law 2011)

Where the tenancy agreement does not state a notice period, Section 13(1) of the Lagos State Tenancy Law 2011 fixes these minimums:

• Tenant at will: one week's notice

• Weekly tenant: one week's notice

• Monthly tenant: one month's notice

• Quarterly tenant: three months' notice

• Half-yearly tenant: three months' notice

• Yearly tenant: six months' notice

So if you are a yearly tenant — as most Nigerians renting flats are — and your landlord serves you a one-month quit notice, that notice is defective on its face. The law entitles you to six months unless your agreement says otherwise.

The single most important exception: your agreement wins

Here is what catches people out. The statutory periods above only apply where the tenancy agreement is silent on notice.

Section 13 expressly allows the landlord and tenant to agree their own notice period in the tenancy agreement, and that agreed period binds both parties. If your agreement says "either party may terminate this tenancy by giving 30 days' written notice," then 30 days is your notice period — even if you are a yearly tenant who would otherwise get six months.

This is why reading your tenancy agreement is not optional. The notice clause inside it overrides the statutory default. If you are a tenant, find that clause before you panic about a notice. If you are a landlord, the notice clause you put in the agreement is the one you will be held to — so draft it deliberately.

Fixed-term tenancies: no quit notice needed at all

If your tenancy is for a fixed term — "one year certain," for example — and that term has expired by what the law calls "effluxion of time," then under Section 13(5) no notice to quit is required at all. The tenancy simply ends on its own when the term runs out.

The landlord does not skip straight to eviction, though. Before going to court, the landlord must still serve a seven-day Notice of the Owner's Intention to Apply to Recover Possession (the statutory Form TL5). Only after that seven-day notice expires can the landlord file in court.

This trips up a lot of landlords who think "the year is up, so they're trespassers now." They are not. The seven-day notice is mandatory, and skipping it gets the case dismissed.

The two-notice structure you must understand

For most evictions in Lagos, the law requires two separate notices in sequence:

1. The Notice to Quit — gives the tenant the statutory or agreed period to leave (one month, six months, etc., depending on tenancy type).

2. The seven-day Notice of Owner's Intention to Recover Possession — served after the quit notice expires, telling the tenant the landlord is now going to court.

Only after both notices have expired can the landlord file a possession claim. A landlord who serves only one, or who serves them in the wrong order, or who miscalculates the periods, hands the tenant a clean defence.

What makes a quit notice valid

A court will only respect a notice that is properly built. A valid notice to quit must:

• Be in writing.

• State the name of the landlord (or the landlord's authorised agent).

• State the name of the tenant.

• Clearly describe the property.

• State the correct notice period for the tenancy type (or the agreed period).

• Be issued by someone with authority to issue it.

• Be properly served on the tenant.

A notice missing any of these can be challenged. The courts have repeatedly emphasised that for a statutory notice to be valid it must be validly issued, meet the required notice period, and be properly served.

A critical reminder for landlords: never use self-help

No matter how frustrated you are, you cannot lawfully evict a tenant by changing the locks, removing the roof, cutting power, throwing out their belongings, or sending thugs. Only a court can authorise an eviction in Nigeria. Self-help eviction exposes you to damages, and the new tenancy bill being debated in Lagos proposes even stiffer penalties — including jail terms — for landlords who harass tenants. Do it through the notices and the court, every time.

A note on the proposed 2025 reforms

You may have heard about the Lagos State Tenancy and Recovery of Premises Bill 2025, which proposes changes to advance rent, agency fees, and eviction procedures. As of late 2025 it remained a draft that had not been passed into law. Until it is gazetted and commenced, the Lagos State Tenancy Law 2011 — and the notice periods above — still govern every tenancy in the state. Don't act on a rule that isn't law yet.

The document that prevents all of this

Almost every notice dispute traces back to one thing: a vague tenancy agreement, or no written agreement at all.

A properly drafted tenancy agreement spells out the notice period both sides agreed to, the tenancy type, the rent structure, and the termination procedure — so there is nothing left to argue about when the relationship ends. For landlords, it is the difference between a clean recovery and a dismissed case. For tenants, it is the difference between knowing your rights and guessing at them.

If you are a landlord about to serve notice, LegalDoc's Notice to Quit template is drafted to meet the Section 13 requirements — correct period, correct content, correct form — so your notice survives a challenge in court. And if you are setting up a new tenancy, LegalDoc's Tenancy Agreement lets you fix the notice period and termination terms in writing from day one. Both are written for Nigerian law, priced in naira, and ready in Word and PDF within minutes.