The owners of a five bedroom detached house situated at No. 55, Raymond Njoku Street, South West Ikoyi, Lagos, have deplored the way their last tenant, Ruyi Communications Limited, handled the building. The owners described Ruyis use of the building as disappointing.Speaking to PUNCH Metro, the representative of the owners of the property, Mrs. Janeth Oni, said the property was handed over to the last tenant in a good state. She lamented that it was now in a state of disrepair.Oni, an 82-year-old widow, said the building currently had no meters and other important household fittings. She said the missing items were in the building when it was let out to the company.Our correspondent gathered that Ruyi Communications had appealed to the owners to be allowed to alter some sections of the property after the initial letting. The request was contained in a letter written by Ruyi Communications, on January 8, 2001.The letter reads, We would like to make the following slight structural adjustment to enable us perform our corporate functions effectively.We would like to remove the wooden wardrobes in the three bedrooms upstairs. We promise to replace them whenever we vacate the premises. We would like to convert the shower-room of the boys-quarters to a toilet to accommodate visitors to our offices.We would like to construct four additional air-conditioner vents on the ground floors in the smaller rooms where there are none. The garage door will also be removed for better operations. Lastly, we would like to demolish the frontal fence (wall) to accommodate parking of vehicles.The owners, who replied through their estate agent, Jide Taiwo and Company, wrote, The landlady could only grant her consent if there will be a written commitment to restore any alteration to the building and replace any removed fixtures and fitting back to the original form at the expiration of your tenancy.Oni said the firm had not kept to the agreement reached even after it had left the property for over a year.In addition to the alterations, Oni said the firm also defaulted in the area of rent. She added that the outstanding rents that Ruyi owed the owners of the property were the subject of an ongoing court case. When our correspondent reached the Chairman, Ruyi Communications, Mr. Soni Irabor, on the telephone, he said the rent issue and other related issues were being addressed in court, and he would not comment further on the matter.
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