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1. Introduction
The necessity of shelter as one of the basic human needs along with feeding and clothing gives rise to rental housing in cities. In recent years, rates of owner occupancy have declined and more people now rely on rental units. Rental housing is expanding as few people can afford their own homes. Rental accommodation in Ibadan Metropolis has usually been associated with low-in come households but it has also become the main form of housing for middle-income households and new urban residents of all income levels. With fewer households able to pay rents at market rates, units have become extremely competitive and rents have increased sharply ([58] Nwangi, 1997). At the same time, housing conditions have deteriorated as a result of tenants' behavior.
Rental housing has emerged as a solution to urbanization and its legislation therefore dates back to ancient Greece and Rome ([68] Simecek, 2006). Rapid growth of cities and the drift of people from rural areas to towns in search of greener pastures coupled with the shortage of manpower have dampened such efforts that have been made to solve the management problems of residential properties in Nigeria. This explains that management cannot be denied when it comes to residential properties as averred.
It incorporates the right to quiet enjoyment, fit for habitation from the Landlord, (the right to observe the implied covenant, the right to pay rent, covenant to repair and covenant not to assign from the tenant ([74] Utuama, 1990; [43] The Law Commission, 1996). There are usually remedies for breach of any of these covenants such as, action for distress, relief against forfeiture and others.
In Nigeria today, there is proliferation of difficult tenants. Difficult tenant may be individual, corporate entity. This issue however creates a big problem in the management parlance. With a difficult tenant in an apartment, it is difficult to enforce or implement policy.
It is a against this background that this paper examines the menace of recalcitrant tenants in Nigerian residential property market within Ibadan metropolis with a view to improving residential property management practice. It also examines the cause of recalcitrance of tenants in residential premises, investigates the category of recalcitrant tenants in residential premises, identifies and examines approaches to curtail the challenges...