How tenants can avoid being taken for a ride

Amrit Keshav a tenant in a prominent housing complex in Ghatkopar raised this query in Open House, Magicbricks’ discussion forum:

“When I rented the house in mid-2014, I was told the maintenance cost to be paid would be Rs. 3500 per month. After a month, they told me to pay Rs. 1000 more as the `cost of maintenance had increased’. But two months after this raise some committee members came to my house and asked me to pay more as I was a non-member. Today they are asking for Rs. 6000 and I am being asked to vacate if I don’t agree”

Keshav’s is not an isolated incident.

"Tenants are often pressurised by the owner or the housing society or both as they are neither the legal owners and by virtue of this not a  member of the society either,” says Govind Sampart, a lawyer specialising real estate disputes.  “The problem is that tenants do not know their rights and are not aware of the nuances when drawing a lease agreement that can protect them.”

Few basic precautions that a tenant needs to take include:

Negotiating with the owner

“The basic power of a tenant actually depends on the rental agreement that is drawn,” says Sushant Kulkarni, himself a tenant and someone who learnt the hard way how to address the issues of the tenants.

There are two types of agreements that are drawn in Mumbai viz., the rental and leave & license agreement. Of these the latter gives more control to the owner and hence extensively used by them.

The former on the other hand comes under the purview of the Rent Act or the State Rent Control Act of Mumbai. Under this agreement a tenant cannot be asked to vacate the premises, except on the grounds for eviction stipulated by the stated rules in the act.

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MCHI-THANE has always been very clear that fine housing complexes and shopping malls cannot stand in isolation. A great City is the sum total of great buildings, great infrastructure and great people. MCHI has been committed to growth of the real estate sector and is credited with the harmonious growth and rise in quality and standards of construction in Thane City in the past decade.

Its aim as an Association of Developers has been to seek rational rules and regulations which are uniformly applied across the board as this will to a great extent result in speedy construction, cost reduction, fair pricing and a push for better quality standards at par with the developed world, with a high level of transparency.