by Anshu Gupta (PC-17/403, 9810075172)
In the past few months, multiple incidents of tenants not leaving their rented apartments have come forward in PHPC. In a recent case, a 74-year-old senior citizen lady owner of a flat
in PC had a tenant who refused to vacate the flat after their lease ended in September. Since then the tenants have not been even paying rent and are not staying in the flat. However, all their belonging and there and the flat is occupied.
Usually, landlords are seen approaching the AoA to help with the situation and also to disallow the tenant from entering the society. At the time of giving an NOC, the AoA encourages the owners to sign a rent agreement and get it registered with the Sub Registrars’ office but often reluctance is seen towards paying stamp duty.
Even though the issue can be legally resolved in the Rent Court, the first step is to sign a rent agreement and register it with the Sub registrar’s office. This secures both parties.
If a tenant does not vacate their flat after the rent agreement has run out its time, the Landlord can file a complaint with the Rent Court which will direct the DM of the District to get the flat vacated. The DM also has powers to immediately direct the payment of double the amount of rent for the first two months and thereafter 4 times after the four months of occupation.
Rent agreements can be entered into for less than a year or more than a year with a fixed period of time and both kinds of rent agreements are equally secure.
Unfortunately, many a time besides the unwillingness to pay the stamp duty, owners are also seen giving away their flats on rent without any background check simply because of the good rent they are getting. At times this decision is later regretted.
