What Is Service Charge in Nigeria, and Who Pays It?
For landlords, tenants and property managers. General information, not legal advice.
Direct answer: Service charge is what a tenant pays, on top of rent, toward shared costs at a property or estate: security, waste collection, generator fuel, lift and common-area maintenance, and similar. It is normally the tenant's responsibility where the tenancy agreement or estate rules say so, and it should be disclosed before the tenancy agreement is signed, not added afterward as a surprise.
What Service Charge Actually Covers
Rent pays for the unit itself. Service charge pays for everything shared around it: security guards and gates, refuse collection, cleaning of corridors and compound, generator fuel and maintenance, lift servicing where there is one, and general upkeep of shared facilities such as a car park or a common driveway. On a standalone house with no shared facilities, there may be little or no service charge. On an estate or a block of flats, it is usually a real, ongoing cost.
Who Is Responsible for It
Whether a tenant pays service charge, and how much, should be set out in the tenancy agreement or the estate's own rules. Where it applies, it is the tenant's obligation to pay, the same as rent, and non-payment can be treated the same way rent arrears are. A landlord charging a service fee without ever explaining what it covers is a common source of disputes, and general contract principles mean the amount should be disclosed to a tenant before they sign, not introduced afterward.
What a Fair Service Charge Looks Like
A service charge that keeps rising with no breakdown, or that never seems to match anything visibly done at the property, is the complaint that comes up most often around this topic in Nigeria. A landlord or estate manager who wants tenants to pay without arguing every time should be able to say plainly what the charge covers, roughly what each part costs, and give a receipt for it separately from rent, the same way a rent payment gets its own receipt.
Record It Separately From Rent
Mixing service charge into the rent figure makes both harder to track: a rent increase and a service charge increase are different conversations, and lumping them together makes it unclear which one actually went up, or by how much. Keep the two as separate figures in the tenancy agreement, and in your own records. In Domby, a tenant's record has its own service charge field alongside rent, security deposit and agency fee, so each one stays a separate figure rather than one lump total that is hard to explain later.
If You're a Tenant Being Asked for a Service Charge
Ask what it covers before you sign, in writing if possible, and ask for a receipt each time you pay it, the same as you would for rent. If the amount changes significantly from one term to the next with no explanation, ask why. This is the same record-keeping habit that matters for rent, described in our guide on how tenants in Nigeria can keep track of their rent.
FAQ
It is required where the tenancy agreement or the estate's rules say a tenant must pay it. It is not automatic on every rental, particularly a standalone house with no shared facilities, but it is common in flats and estates with shared services.
It should be disclosed and agreed as part of the tenancy, and a large, unexplained increase is a common source of disputes. A landlord who can explain what the money covers is on firmer ground than one who cannot.
Rent pays for the unit itself. Service charge pays for shared costs around it, such as security, waste collection, generator fuel and common-area upkeep. They should be recorded and receipted separately.
Yes, the same as for rent. A separate receipt for each payment makes it clear what was paid for rent and what was paid for service charge, which matters if either figure is ever questioned.
Yes. Each tenant's record in Domby has its own service charge field, kept apart from the rent amount, the security deposit and the agency fee.
Related guides
See what fees and deposits a landlord can charge, how landlords create a tenancy agreement, and how tenants keep track of their rent. See also the free tenancy agreement template and the free receipt generator for issuing a separate service charge receipt. Browse all landlord guides.
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