Recovery of premises is one of the most procedurally unforgiving areas of practice — and one where landlords, acting on instinct or on advice that has not kept current, routinely hand occupiers months of free time through a single defective step. The frustrating part is that the failure almost never happens at trial. It happens at the notice.
The notice decides the file
The form of notice, the length of notice, and whether notice is even required at all depend on the nature of the tenancy: a tenant at will, a periodic tenant, a tenant holding over after a fixed term, or a licensee are not the same, and the process that recovers possession from one will fail against another. Serve the wrong notice on the wrong class, and the proceedings built on it collapse — sending the landlord back to the beginning while the occupier remains in place.
Most recovery actions fail at the notice, not at the trial. The courtroom merely confirms the error made weeks earlier.
Service you can prove
A correct notice that cannot be proved to have been served is no better than no notice. Service must be effected in a manner the law recognises and the landlord can later establish in evidence — particularly against a represented occupier whose first line of defence will be to deny receipt. How service is documented at the time often matters more than how it is argued later.
The order, and then the hard part
A possession order is a result, not a remedy. Enforcement — the actual recovery of vacant possession — is a separate, disciplined exercise, and it is where a determined occupier mounts the last resistance: applications to set aside, claims of improvements, third parties produced at the threshold. The landlord who planned for enforcement at the outset recovers cleanly; the one who treats the order as the finish line waits again.
Arrears travel with possession
Where rent is owed, the claim for arrears and mesne profits should run alongside the possession action, not as an afterthought — and the recovery of those sums then follows the same enforcement discipline as any money judgment.
The disciplined path
Recovery of premises rewards method over urgency. Identify the tenancy, serve the right notice provably, plan enforcement before you need it, and the timeline compresses from years to months. Skip a step to save a week, and the occupier keeps the property for a year.
This note is general commentary on Nigerian legal practice and does not constitute legal advice or create a lawyer–client relationship. Outcomes depend on the specific facts and the applicable law at the time. For advice on a particular matter, speak with the firm.
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