Access Road : Good access road is one of the important factors to consider when looking for a house to rent. A man whose pregnant wife falls into labour at night will find it very difficult to convey his wife to the hospital for safe delivery. These can lead to serious complications that can cause internal injuries to the mother and unborn child and death eventually. As minor as the road issue looks, bad road can cause majour setbacks and painful stories in a family.
Using road networks during rain seasons can be very frustrating and also dangerous. A man recently set out to travel out of Lagos so he must catch up with the first morning bus. He had to leave his estate before sunrise. There was heavy downpour during the night. He had to walk through the flooded road to get to the bus-stop. The fury of being soaked in the cold water after having his bath was not bad enough, he went through a path that had a deep gutter which he was not aware of. He fell inside with his luggage and couldn’t climb out as the gutter was deep and it was slippery below. This incident is capable of causing death if it was a little kid as the child could have drowned if no one was around to rescue. Bad access road has subjected to people to loneliness. This is because the road scares friends and family away from visiting regularly.
People fall from bikes along bad roads and have to spend more money on transportation. This is due to the fact that the bad road discourages transporters and the few available ones, increase transport fares without apologies. They spend a lot of money repairing their bikes & vehicles and the money is recovered by the high transport fares.
It is always recommended to inspect properties to be rented during rainy seasons as this is the best period to ascertain the true state of the road in an environment.
Water Supply: Water supply is very very important. It is one of the most important things needed to live comfortably in an apartment. Water is needed to clear up kitchen wares after use. It is used to flush the toilet after waste disposal. It is used to wash cloths and bath. When the kitchen is a mess because water is not available to clear used wares, bad smell, flies and cockroaches will fill the place. This can be very annoying.
It will also be impossible to cook food when water is not available. Using the toilet for urinating and eliminating wastes from the body is one thing that is done every day. This will be difficult when there is no water to flush the toilet. The house becomes engulfed with terrible toilet smell. This is a health hazard as it can lead to an outburst of certain epidemic capable of spreading within the neighbourhood. Bathing is a must in the morning and at night just as used clothes must be washed. This cannot happen if there is no water.
Epileptic water supply can happen in apartments without back up plan to pump water when there is no light or when too many tenants depend on well water in a compound which makes the water dry up eventually. In some cases, there is water but it is dirty or cad to use.
It is important to carefully check water supply before taking decision on renting a property to avoid unpleasant surprises.
Electricity : Nigeria is still yet to come up with stable power supply but some areas are better than others when it comes to power supply. Some areas get totally disconnected from power distribution companies when they refuse to pay bills, get physical and threaten officials of the power company.
Getting an apartment in a place like this will mean budgeting money to personally generate power through use of generators, inverters and solar panels. This can be as expensive as the rent depending on the capacity needed. Areas without life will hardly have a night life as the whole environment will become dark when the sun sets. Workers whole close late will have a silent path way to go through before they get to their homes.
Security : A Secured environment is one of the factors to consider before moving into an apartment. There are two types of tenants in Lagos those that sleep with one eyes open and those that sleep with both eyes. Some areas are known as crime bases for notorious criminals. Some have rapists, buglers, armed robbers, kidnappers and bullies living in the environment. Some environments also have such people to deal with because they are vulnerable.
Some communities and estates have stubborn tenants and landlords who consider paying security bills and community development meetings a liability rather than an asset for development and improvement. Renting a house in such an area is a very bad idea.
Some areas in Lagos state and Ogun state between 2016 and 2017 where terrorized by heavily armed militants whose alternative source of oil bunker income failed when supply of fuel was cut off from the pipelines they vandalized regularly. They had to settlefor other forms of making money such as kidnapping, robbing houses and obtaining people. The nature of sophisticated weapons in their custody give them so much confidence to resist law enforcement agent. Many of which they have killed while these nefarious activities are at top gear. Some of the affected areas were houses close to swamp and water ways as this was a major transportation route for them.
Sometimes short interviews with residents in prospective areas to live can help gather enough information to evaluate the security condition of the environment. Getting information on the world wide web is also good for ascertaining security state of various locations as Newspapers now use online websites to broad cast crime watch news. We will review Cleanliness, Good Neighborhood and Religious background of inhabitants in an environment in our next Chapter.