Rights of the Landlord against the Tenant

Renting flats is becoming a norm in the developing world. However, this process can be tedious in nature; as it can be plagued with problems, especially if it is not handled preemptively through proper rent agreements.. The process surrounding this form of agreement is also pertinent to understand for the said manoeuver.

Procedure to be Followed

Rental agreement is a crucial document that defines the de jure binding relationship between the tenant and the property owner.

Usually, a broker is concerned in finishing the initial dealing between the two parties. However, each of the parties may also seek a professional person to draw the rental agreement. 

Always enforce presence of two non-beneficiaries when the rental agreement is being signed between the two parties. 

It is mandatory that the rent agreement is signed by two non-beneficiaries to make it a legitimate one.

You can register the rental agreement by paying a stamp duty of INR 500/-, typically calculated as follows: 

Up to 10 years – 1% of annual rent + deposit 

Above 10 years – 2% of annual rent + deposit 

• Drafting of the rental deed and printing it on a Stamp paper of due price as mentioned. Getting the agreement signed by the owner and tenant in the presence of 2 witnesses 

• Presence of two witnesses for both parties

• Getting the document registered at the nearest Sub-Registrar workplace when paying due registration charges 

• For leases with a term of eleven months or less, notarization is not necessary. For leases created for a year or longer, registration is suggested.

What forums can be approached?

When a landowner lets out his home on rent, or once a tenant occupies a rental home, such activities make up the reach of the Rent Control Act. Each state their own Rent Control Act.

For example, Maharashtra has the Rent Control Act, 1999. These acts exist to impose varied laws on the dealings out of properties, to assist potential tenants in distinguishing and securing sensible rental accommodation.

They also impose truthful, standardised rental ranges, in an attempt to safeguard tenants against discrimination and against unfair eviction by their property owners. For the purposes of the aforementioned, the forum that is primarily available in most states in regards to these acts are the small causes courts of the capitals of the cities.

For example, under Section 33 of Maharashtra’s Rent Control Act, the court prescribed is the Court of Small Causes, Mumbai.

What are the Rights/Liabilities that a Tenant and an Owner would have?

• The owner is supposed to disclose all material defects. Such facts include all the defects which the tenant may not discover in the natural course of his conduct in the property.

• The owner is sure, on the tenant’s request, to place him in possession of property.

• The owner shall be deemed to contract with the tenant that, if the latter pays the rent reserved by the lease and performs the contracts binding on the tenant, he might hold the property during the time restricted by the lease while not interruption. The advantage of such contract shall be annexed to and go together with the tenant's interest per se and should be implemented by one and all in whom that interest is for the total or any half therefrom from time to time unconditional. 

• The rent agreement is void in case of any force majeure event or what we commonly call an Act of God. This clause is defined in most of the legal contracts and agreements with the purpose of rendering the agreement as void, if any circumstance arises when performance promised under the agreement becomes impossible or beyond the control of any person. 

• If the owner neglects to create any repairs that he's guaranteed to create to the property, the tenant might create a similar repair himself, and deduct the expense of such repairs with interest from the rent or otherwise recover it from the owner.

• If the owner neglects to create any payment that he is bound to create, and which, if not created by him, is recoverable from the tenant or against the property, the tenant might create such payment himself, and deduct it with interest from the rent, or otherwise recover it from the owner.

• The tenant can remove all things that he/she has added to the property. These things include structures like buildings and objects like a football goal. However, he/she cannot remove objects that existed before he/she took up tenancy. He/she must leave the property within the state during which he received it; 

• Even after the agreement has been concluded between the owner and the tenant, the tenant or his legal heirs are entitled to all the crops planted or seeded by the tenant. Therefore, the tenant or his legal heir are allowed to collect and carry the aforementioned plants and do as he/they see fit with the plants.

• The tenant might transfer fully or by manner of mortgage or sub-lease the total or any part of his interest within the property, and any transferee of such interest might transfer it again. The tenant does not stop to be subject to any of the liabilities attaching to the lease.

• The tenant is allowed to transfer, mortgage or sub-lease the property. This extends to a transfer/mortgage/sub-lease of either the entire property or parts of it. 

• The tenant is supposed to disclose the nature of the use he/she has for the rented property. 

• The tenant is supposed to pay rent at the correct time and place.

• The tenant is supposed to maintain the property in a way that is at the very least, nearly the condition that the property was in before the agreement began. In this regard, the owner and his agents are allowed to conduct inspection regarding the condition of the property. In a case where the tenant has wilfully damaged the property, due to his own acts, the owner is allowed to tender a notice to the tenant for eviction, this notice must be sent 3 months prior to the eviction date.

• The tenant could use the property and its merchandise as a person of normal prudence would use them if they were his own.

What can the landlord do if the tenant refuses to pay the rent?

• Living or perhaps, extending your entry into somebody else’s property against his consent is crime. 

• Under Indian Law, a tenant is required to pay his rent on time and is not allowed to reside the owner’s property without paying rent.

• The primary part for trespass is getting into the property of somebody else. A simple claim or declaration that a person can enter into the property cannot represent trespass. For a case of trespass to be registered, a physical trespass should happen.

• If someone enters into a property wherever he has not been allowed to enter, specifically or typically, then he has said to commit trespass. 

• If someone does not leave the property after the time he was given consent to has passed, it shall be considered committing trespass.

• The occupation or extended stay by a tenant without paying rent can be construed to be trespass under Indian Law.

• Under Section 103 and 104, the owner is allowed to use force for the removal of the tenant. However, only when it is necessary to protect the property, otherwise, the owner can be sued for battery.

• Under Section 108 (o) of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882, the owner has the power to vacate his house in case of a violation of the rent agreement and the non-payment of the rent can be considered a violation.

• Trespass of property of an individual while not his consent, by another person while not authority, has been outlined as criminal trespass in Section 441 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

• As per the Section, if any unauthorised person enters upon the property of another person, while not his consent then he shall be reprimanded for criminal trespass. 

• The punishment of criminal trespass has been outlined in Section 447 of the Indian Penal code.

•  If the tenant refuses to go away your property even once he has been asked to vacate shall be reprimanded underneath criminal trespass. 

• The punishment for criminal trespass is imprisonment which can reach three months or fine which can reach five hundred rupees or each.

How to do the verification process of the tenant?

• Under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code, an owner who does not take the proper procedure for the verification of tenants may be punished with imprisonment for a term that may extend to one month or with a fine that may extend to 200 Rupees.

• Legally, the process is rather simple. The Owner must approach the nearest police station and provide them with all the necessary information of the tenant.

• It is also recommended for the owner to check the tenant’s credit history.

• It is advised for the owner to check the tenant’s eviction history.

• It is advised for the owner to go through all the tenant’s references he provided; and a thorough background check is also beneficial.

What are the other important legal documentation works to do?

• In property law, a title may be a bundle of rights in every piece of property in which the owner holds, either a legal interest or equitable interest. The rights within the bundle is also separated and controlled by different parties. It also requires the obtainment of a proper document, like a deed, that is, in certain cases, proof of possession. Conveyance of the document is also needed to transfer possession within the property to a different person. Title is distinct from possession, a right that always accompanies possession however is not essentially sufficient to prove it. In several cases, each possession and title is also transferred. For real estate, land registration and recording offer public notice of possession info. Title documents prove that the person renting or leasing out the premises is the actual owner of the place.

• When a Co-operative Housing Society of a new building is registered, then it's new elective managing committee problems share certificate to every member of the flat, shop, closed garage or go-down, within the society's building. As per new Byelaws, every premises, no matter the realm or form of the premises, ought to be issued 10 shares of Rs.50 each, in one share certificate. Share certificate issued to the member (that is, once new society is registered, and every premises of the society's building is issued the share certificate) for the primary time, share certificate is freshly issued.

• Verification of built-up area of the dwelling place by a qualified architect. 

• No Objection Certificate (NOC) by a landowner becomes necessary once a Tenant (usually for a company), who has taken a property on lease from the owner, plans to use the premises or a region of it as a registered workplace. For putting in place a company’s registered workplace during a rented premises, the corporate should get a No Objection Certificate by the owner. It essentially states that the owner has volitionally rented the premises to the corporate and has no objections for the premises (or a part of it) to be used as the company’s registered office.

• No-objection certificate can also exist to specify conditions for rent/lease. For example, to disallow females visiting the flat or bachelors residing.

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