Managing Tenants from London or Houston: A Lagos Playbook

TL;DR: Managing a Lagos rental from London or Houston works if you run it like a small system, not a favour chain: a written management agreement, rent paid into a traceable Nigerian account, pre-agreed maintenance approval limits, monthly photo/video reporting, and one planned inspection trip a year. Family goodwill is not a management structure.

Last year a client of mine in Houston found out his Lekki tenant had not paid service charge for eight months — from the estate's lawyer, not from the cousin collecting his rent. The rent itself was arriving, mostly. The problem was everything around it: no inspection record, no receipts, no agreed scope for repairs, and a generator repair billed three times. Nothing about that situation is unusual. It is what happens when distance meets informality.

This playbook is the structure I put diaspora landlords on before a tenant moves in, not after the first dispute.

Start with who actually manages the property

You have three realistic options, and each has a failure mode you should price in.

A professional management company. A firm with a registered office, a written agreement and other landlords you can reference-check. Market quotes I see for full management — rent collection, tenant liaison, inspections, maintenance coordination, reporting — commonly sit around 5–10% of annual rent, paid by you as landlord. That range comes from what firms actually quote; get yours in writing, with a schedule of what is included and what is billed extra. Tenant placement is usually charged separately.

A lawyer-managed arrangement. Your Lagos lawyer holds the tenancy documents, issues receipts and handles notices. This works well for one prestige property, less well for day-to-day maintenance chasing. Lawyers are good at paper, not at supervising a plumber on a Saturday.

Family or a trusted individual. Zero fee, highest variance. If you use family, put the same written scope on paper anyway: what they can approve, what they must send you first, and how money moves. Most diaspora landlord problems I am called into are not theft — they are undocumented informality that becomes a dispute when memories differ.

Whichever route you choose, the agreement should name: rent collection and remittance dates, inspection frequency, maintenance approval threshold, reporting format, and how the arrangement ends.

Money in: how rent should reach you

Rent should land in an account you control and can view online — a naira account for local expenses, with surplus moved to your domiciliary account when you decide, not when someone else decides.

Practical rules that prevent most problems:

• The tenant pays the landlord's (or manager's) designated account directly. No cash collections as the default method.
• Every payment gets a receipt. Under Lagos tenancy law landlords must issue receipts for rent; from abroad, that paper trail is your audit system.
• Service charge is collected and accounted for separately. The fastest way to fall out with an estate is service charge collected but not remitted.
• Keep a local float for repairs — roughly one to two months of expected maintenance — so your manager is not funding your property or stalling repairs while waiting for a transfer from Houston to clear.

On FX: rent is a naira income. Convert on a schedule (monthly or quarterly) rather than trying to time the market between London and Lagos. What you must not do is let rent accumulate informally with a third party while you "wait for a better rate." That is how balances become arguments.

Maintenance approvals without midnight phone calls

The five-hour time difference to London and six-to-seven hours to Houston will punish any system that needs your live approval for a leaking tap. Set three tiers in writing:

1. Under an agreed small threshold — manager fixes, sends photo and invoice, deducts from float.
2. Mid-range repairs — manager sends two quotes and a short video; you approve on WhatsApp within an agreed window.
3. Capital work (roofing, borehole, generator replacement) — written quotes, your explicit approval, staged payments against photo evidence.

Insist on before-and-after photos for every job, and keep the invoices in the same cloud folder as the tenancy agreement. In my experience, photo evidence settles 90% of maintenance disputes before they start.

Communication rhythm with the tenant

Silence from abroad reads as absence, and absence invites drift — late rent treated as normal, small breaches becoming habits. A light, predictable rhythm works better than intensity:

• A named contact (manager, not you personally) the tenant deals with day to day.
• Rent reminders issued on a fixed cycle before due date, not after default.
• A written condition report with photos at move-in, signed by both sides. From London, this document is your only reliable memory of the property's state.
• Annual rent review conversations started early, with the notice periods Lagos law requires for increases.

You should still introduce yourself properly at the start of the tenancy — a short call, expectations stated once, clearly — then step back and let the system run.

The annual trip: use it properly

One trip a year, planned around the property, pays for itself. Walk the unit with the move-in report in hand. Meet the estate facility manager. Check the borehole, generator hours, water treatment and the state of the external paint — the things photos flatter. Meet the tenant briefly and professionally.

If your calendar allows, time the trip for the dry season months when inspection is easiest and, if you are also viewing property, when you can see streets and drainage honestly. What you should not do is spend the whole trip at family events and inspect your asset by video call from a cousin's phone in traffic.

Do not manage by panic between trips. If the monthly report, photos and bank credits are arriving, the property is being managed — even when you cannot see it from Houston.

Frequently asked questions

Can I collect Lagos rent directly into my UK or US account?

Tenants in Lagos pay in naira into Nigerian accounts in practice. The workable structure is rent into your Nigerian naira account, expenses paid locally, then surplus converted and moved to your domiciliary account and onward. Ask your Nigerian bank to set up the accounts so you can view and instruct online from abroad.

How much do property management companies charge in Lagos?

Quotes for full management commonly fall around 5–10% of annual rent, with tenant placement often charged separately. The exact figure depends on property type, location and scope — a serviced flat in Ikoyi costs more to run than a standard flat in Gbagada. Get the schedule in writing before you sign.

Should my family member collect rent to save the management fee?

Only with the same written scope, receipts and reporting you would demand from a company. The fee you save is small compared with the cost of an undocumented tenancy — arrears you cannot prove, repairs you cannot verify, and a family relationship damaged by money. If family helps, pay them properly and document everything.

How often should my property be inspected if I live abroad?

Quarterly external/common-area checks by your manager with photos, and a full internal inspection at least annually — ideally on your own trip, with a signed condition update. Serviced and high-value units justify more frequent internal checks, agreed in the tenancy agreement.

What happens if my tenant stops paying while I am abroad?

Your manager or lawyer serves the proper notices under Lagos law — arrears and recovery follow statutory notice periods that depend on the tenancy type. This is exactly why receipts and a signed agreement matter: from abroad, your case is only as strong as your paper trail. Do not authorise self-help measures like locking out the tenant or cutting utilities.

Related reading

• The 5-Day Viewing Trip: Inspecting 10 Lagos Properties Well
• Managing a Rental from Abroad: Systems That Work
• Property Management Companies in Lagos: Fees & What They Do
• How to Handle Rent Arrears: The Lagos Landlord Playbook