Our tenant has vacated our house after staying for 23 months (location: Bangalore). The tenancy was subject to contract, which included a full inventory of items in the house. Before renting out, the walls were not freshly painted but they were absolutely clean without any marks. The tenants have defaced the walls by allowing their children to scribble all over. They have fixed 20-30 nails on the walls and even on furniture in violation of a contract clause that prohibits this. They have badly scratched one of the doors. There are also writings and burn marks on some furniture. They tried to clean some of the walls, but instead of becoming cleaner, there are now big black smudges on the walls. We are deducting the charge for these damages from the security deposit. This is based on the actual quotation from the vendor for repairing and polishing the damaged furniture items and for painting the walls. For painting, we are only charging them 60% of the amount the vendor has quoted, and giving 40% discount for normal wear and tear. The tenants are refusing to pay even one rupee for these damages. They are claiming that it is normal to fix nails, burn furniture and for children to write on the walls and that they cannot be held responsible for any of these actions, as it is a normal part of staying in a house. In writing, they are saying that we are cheating, swindling, extorting, hoodwinking etc. They have also said that they don't care about the contract or its clauses. They returned the cheque we gave them for the balance security deposit. My question is, what can we do to make them accept the cheque? It is impossible to talk to them because anything we say is answered by them with "I don't care what you say". They have also threatened us indirectly by saying "there are other ways of getting the money" and "you don't know anything outside your 4 walls". Is there a legal authority with whom we can deposit the cheque and ask them to collect it from there?
