Evaluating Service Charge Administration Practices in South East Nigeria: A Comparative Assessment with Global Standards

Abstract

In most residential properties in the South East Nigeria, the idea of service charge is not fully appreciated or well understood. Tenants of residential properties are most times being asked to pay for service charge without the landlord or his Agent informing the tenant of the actual components item of service charge. The objective of this study is to evaluate service charge administration in South East Nigeria vis-à-vis global best practice. The study adopted quantitative and qualitative research design to compare that which is obtainable in the study area with global best practices. The study was carried out in the five South Eastern States of Nigeria namely; Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Abia and Ebonyi. The population of the Study was 102 Estate surveying and Valuation firms who are into service charge administration. Data collected were presented with the use of frequency tables and analysed with mean score analysis and percentage. The hypothesis was tested with One-way Analysis of Variance using SPSS. The results from the analysis revealed that most firms of Estate Surveying and Valuation in South East Nigeria include the details of service charge in the tenancy agreement. The mean score analysis revealed that Estate Surveying and Valuation firms practicing in South East Nigeria renders service charge account to payers of service charge at the end of every service charge year, this is evidenced by the mean score of all the response from the five States being above 3.0 which is the average mean score. The One-way Analysis of Variance used to test the hypothesis produced an F-value of 2.137 with a significance (p-value) of 0.213. Since this p-value is greater than the 0.05 level of significance, the observed differences in mean scores among the five states are not strong enough to conclude that the States differ significantly in the specificity of service charge details. Therefore, the null hypothesis was accepted, which states that there is no significant difference in the specificity with which details of service charges are covered in tenancy agreement in South East Nigeria. The available literature revealed that other climes have legal framework for service charge administration whereas such is not obtainable in South East Nigeria.