Sai 08 October 2015

Owner harassing the tenant(no rent agreement)

Hello Sir/Mam,

I have been staying in a rented apartment for 2 years. Before moving in, we paid a deposit of 2 month's rent to the owner. There was no agreement/lease signed. Also, we do not have any receipts(for the rent and the deposits), but we have online bank transaction statements of the amount transfered to his account.

Meanwhile we heard several stories about him not retuning deposit of previous tenants as well as of other people in the apartment. So we have decided to vacate the house and not pay him the rent for the last two months and asked him to recover from the deposit. Now, its been 6 days,he has been harassing us saying i will put a legal case against you, put a lock on the house and i will not allow you to stay unless you pay the rent. I will prove that you have not given me any deposit. Our worst nightmare came out to be true. He is actually in no mood of returning our deposit and want us to pay the rent of last two months also.

He has been threatening us ever since to pay the rent. He has been calling us and warning us. I have all his calls recorded where he is saying that I will falsely implicate you and get my money. Also I have his messages where he is refusing to accept deposit as two month's rent.

I want to know about the leagal actions that he can take, and the counter actions that we can take against him. We are three girls staying in the rented flat.

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5 Replies

naveenraj jain (proprietor) 08 October 2015

I have been suffering from the tenant not vacating. I have filed suit for eviction and waiting for past two years for the order. Actually the landlord needs to be honest in his dealing. He needs to understand the repercussions when you girls lodge a complaint of harassment. If he tries to throw you all out before that ensure you lodge a complaint against him in the local police station and keep all the things to show that you have resided there. Like postal letters, bank statements etc. Or better approach any advocate and take his opinion and proceed.

saravanan s (legal advisor) 08 October 2015

the landlord cant lock the premises where you are staying just because you are default in paying rent.if he does so that itself is enough to initiate criminal action on him.he can evict you through due process of law only.make call recordings where he admits to have taken money as advance and also his threatenings to file false cases on you.if he doesnt return the advance once after you had vacated the premises you can initiate a recovery suit on him with the gathered proofs

Sai 09 October 2015

Thankyou for the reply sir. The house we are staying in is on mortgage under icici bank. He(owner) has to pay emi monthly. He is even a defaulter in paying the emi properly. Many a times the bank ppl visit our house enquiring about him. Even if he goes for a legal process, MINIMUM how many days notice he can get from the court as a tenure for us to vacate. And before he gets this notice, doesn't the court verifies if his case his true or false.

(Guest)

Since there is no written lease agreement he cant get it vacated unless any conditions to get vacated is met.You are under normal rent .As tenant you need not bother what is his source of finance. He appears to be cheap greedy guy hankering for 2 months rent money.That is funny. Since you are all girls did he permit you 3 to stay? or is it in given to 1 person only In India no one can take alw in hand he cant do any of of following: 1. Enter your space occupied 2. Peep inside 3. Disturb you in night or even in day by knocking or crying. 4. Cutting off water or electricity 5. Obstruct passage to your portion of house or flat whatever it is.. Do you have Mahila Thana in your city? File complaint there. why you want to vacate? No need There has to be atleast one women police station in your city You can also take injunction form a magistrate by filing complaint And if you want to have fun, just collect a few more girls and show black flags to him.CallTV unit.Ha ha! Just relax

(Guest)

If he phones frequently just file mobile or phone abuse complaint to the service company to take action. You can also give details of phone number by which he calls in your police complaint.