Lagos Lawyer, Oluwole Kehinde, On Behalf Of Clients, Writes County Estates Ltd, Terminates Sublease, Demands N2.9 Billion For Outstanding Rent

<h4>Lagos Lawyer<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that a Lagos Lawyer&comma; Oluwole Kehinde&comma; has written a letter on behalf of the beneficiaries of Estate of a Lagos business man Cletus Victor Kwakwu the beneficial owner of the property lying and being at number 10 Macpherson Avenue Ikoyi Lagos state known as Plot 1 section S E South East Ikoyi with Title No L03350&comma;the managing Director of County Estates Limited for immediate surrender of the property&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In addition&comma; the beneficiaries owner of the Estate is also demanding the sum of N2&comma;957&comma;378&comma;716&period;33 being the outstanding rent plus accrued interest on the rent due to the beneficiary owners&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the letter&comma; the lawyer stated that <em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our clients inform us that sometime in 1998&comma; our clients&comma; represented by the Executors of the Estate&comma; for themselves and on behalf of the Beneficiaries of the Estate&comma; executed a Deed of Sublease in respect of the property in favour of your company for a term of 35 years with a construction period of 1 year&period; Some of the fundamental covenants contained in the deed of sublease include&colon;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&lbrace;A&rcub; Payment of the prevalent annual rent obtainable for the two units of four bedroom flats due to the Executors and Beneficiaries of the Estate&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<em><strong>&lbrace;B&rcub;Payment of the balance of N5 million for the premium due on the property&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>&lbrace;C&rcub; Compliance with approved building plans and standard specifications&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>In addition to the foregoing&comma; your company only paid our clients part of the rent due for the two years in respect of the 2 units they were entitled to&comma; as the amount paid to our <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchng&period;com&sol;">client<&sol;a> was far below the prevailing rent for similar properties in the location at that time&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Also&comma; your company has not paid the outstanding balance of N5million due on the premium for the property&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<em><strong>By our clients’ reckoning&comma; your company is owing our clients rent for 26 years from 2000 to 2025 &comma;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em> the lawyer wrote among other things&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Arising from this however&comma; the lawyer disclosed to County Estates Limited that it is owing a grand total of N2&comma; 957&comma; 378&comma; 716&period;33&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It therefore added that <em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote; From the foregoing&comma; it is certain that your company brazenly and defiantly breached most of the fundamental terms of the sublease regarding the subject property&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Accordingly&comma; our clients have no option but to terminate the said sublease and demand” payment of the N2&period;952&comma;378&comma;716&period;33&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The letter&comma; however stated that the <em><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;clients are not averse to an amicable settlement of the matter in the spirit of Alternative Dispute Resolution&comma; ADR&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;