How Do Landlords Screen Tenants in Nigeria?
A practical checklist. General information, not legal advice.
Direct answer: Screening a tenant in Nigeria means checking a valid ID, confirming income against the rent, taking a guarantor who can genuinely afford to stand in, and calling at least one reference, usually a previous landlord. Nigeria has no shared credit bureau or rental history database landlords can search, so verification depends on what the tenant hands over and on the calls a landlord actually makes.
Why Screening Matters More, Not Less, in Nigeria
In markets with a credit bureau, a landlord can pull a report and see a stranger's payment history in seconds. Nigeria has nothing equivalent that most individual landlords can access, so the usual shortcuts don't exist. That makes the basic checks, ID, income, a guarantor, a phone call to someone who already rented to this person, carry more weight than they might elsewhere. Skipping them because "everyone does" is exactly how a landlord ends up with a tenant who stops paying six months in.
Check a Valid ID
Ask for a government-issued ID: a National ID card, a driver's licence, an international passport, or a voter's card. Take a photo or copy for your own record, and check that the name matches what goes on the tenancy agreement. This does not prove someone pays rent on time, but it means you know who you actually let the property to, which matters the moment anything goes wrong.
Check Income Against the Rent, Not Just a Promise
Ask what the tenant does and where, and ask to see something that backs it up: a recent payslip, an employment letter, or bank statements showing regular income. Nigeria has no formal credit score, but a bank statement still shows whether money moves in and out in a pattern that looks like a steady income, or looks thin. A rough rule some landlords use is that rent should not be much more than a third of monthly income, though this is a guide, not a hard rule, especially where rent is paid a year at a time.
Take a Guarantor Who Can Actually Cover the Rent
A guarantor agrees in writing to cover the rent if the tenant stops paying. That promise is only useful if the guarantor could genuinely afford to keep it. Ask for the same things you asked the tenant, ID and proof of income, and consider a guarantor whose income is a multiple of the annual rent, commonly cited as around three times, though landlords vary. A guarantor with no real income of their own is not much of a guarantee.
Call at Least One Reference
Ask for a previous landlord's phone number and actually call them. Ask directly: did they pay on time, did they take care of the property, would you rent to them again. A personal reference from a friend or pastor is easy to arrange and tells you less, a previous landlord who has nothing to gain either way tells you more. If a tenant has never rented before, ask an employer instead.
What to Avoid Asking
Screening is about ability to pay and history as a tenant, not about a person's tribe, religion, marital status, or family plans. Asking about those, or turning someone down because of them, is not a good look and is not what any of the checks above are actually for. Keep the questions to identity, income, and rental history.
Put What You Learn on Record, Not Just in Your Head
Once a tenant is approved, the details that mattered in screening, contact information, an emergency or guarantor contact, occupation, are worth keeping on their record rather than only in a WhatsApp thread that gets buried. In Domby, a tenant's contact details, occupation and guarantor information sit on their record alongside their rent history, so the information you checked at the start is still there a year later, not lost in an old chat.
FAQ
Not in the way a credit bureau report works in some other countries. Most individual landlords in Nigeria cannot pull a shared credit or rental history report, so screening relies on the ID, income proof, guarantor and reference checks a landlord does directly.
There's no single legal figure. Some landlords look for a guarantor whose income is roughly three times the annual rent, so they could genuinely cover it if needed. Treat this as a guide, not a fixed rule, and always check the guarantor's own ID and proof of income.
A valid government ID, proof of income such as a payslip or bank statement, and a guarantor's details with their own ID and proof of income. A previous landlord's contact, to call as a reference, is also worth asking for.
Screening should be based on ability to pay and rental history, not personal characteristics like these. Basing a decision on them is not good practice.
No. Domby does not perform background or credit checks. It stores the tenant details, occupation and guarantor information a landlord collects, alongside their rent and payment history, so it stays in one place.
Related guides
See how landlords create a tenancy agreement, the free tenancy agreement template, and how to avoid late rent payments. See also what fees and deposits a landlord can charge once a tenant is approved, a tenant's rights in Nigeria, and the full landlord rent collection guide. Browse all landlord guides.
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