HOW A WIDOW MAY BE DENIED RIGHT OF OWNERSHIP TO HER DECEASED HUSBAND'S PROPERTY BY A DIFFICULT TENANT

Sometime ago in Lagos, Nigeria, the widow of the deceased landlord of a three-bedroom flat had to step into her late husband's shoes to manage the flat shortly after the demise of her husband.She then decided to eject the tenant occupying the flat from it to avoid the landlord/tenant fracas he used to have with her late husband over rent and other issues. Subsequently, she issued a six-month quit notice to this tenant as a yearly tenant prior to the termination of his current tenancy. At the expiration of the quit notice, the tenant still remained in the house.

When the said tenant refused to quit the premises even after being issued further notice ( this is statutorily called notice of owner's intention to recover premises.It lasts for seven days and it is issued after the expiration of the quit notice.), the widow had to engage further process to evict him and this led to instituting an action in court.In court, the tenant (now the defendant) denied the fact that the widow ( now the plaintiff) was his landlady as he said nobody had validly inherited the building he was occupying since the demise of his landlord. The plaintiff was furious to hear this from the defendant who had known her as the only wife of the deceased for years!

How valid is the tenant's argument in law?

THE LEGAL POSITION

In Lagos and other parts of Nigeria, succession to property of a deceased person is governed in two ways, namely: testacy and intestacy.  A person is said to die testate if he dies with a will.Note that a will is a testamentary document written by a living person about how his estate should be distributed  when he is dead.It becomes operative upon the death of the deceased.If a person is said to die intestate he dies without a will.If a person dies with a will, the persons named in that will shall be the executors of the deceased's estate and these are the persons that shall step into his shoes to manage his estate in trust for other beneficiaries of his estate.On the other hand, if a person dies intestate, his personal representatives  shall apply to the probate registry of the state where the deceased estate is situate for a probate document called letters of administration.The personal representatives of the deceased shall be named in this probate document as the administrators of the estate of the deceased to hold the deceased's estate in trust for other beneficiaries of the deceased's estate.

In the above scenario, it is a requirement of law that the widow must produce either the will written by the deceased wherein she was named as an executor of the deceased's estate if her deceased's husband had died with a will. Alternatively,  if the husband had died without a will, she had to present letters of administration wherein she was named as an administratix of the estate of her deceased husband.

Failure to fulfil either of these two conditions would deny her a right to exercise any act of ownership in respect of her deceased's husband estate including the three-bedroom flat in question and exercise of the right of ownership in respect of a property includes evicting a tenant from it.

If her husband had died without a will, she must obtain letters of administration to manage her late husband's estate including the flat or else she would not be able to eject the tenant lawfully.

Thank you for reading.

See you tomorrow.