Proper renting system should be developed in Metropolitan cities
I was working as a Software engineer in Hyderabad , one of my friend was preparing for Govt exams .. so ,we started looking for a flat to stay together . soon we found a To-let Board stating “semi furnished flat, Flat.no:f3 , Sri sai apartments,Domalguda ”, so, we spoke to the person (Nitin)whose number was given in that To-let board .
He has shown the apartment , it was full of dust and had lot of old furniture , vessels , utensils and the flat was partitioned with an wooden rack , in which the other half had a small office.
we were worried about the furniture , as if some thing breaks or misplaced , we have to pay . so , we are were bit puzzled to take up that flat . But the guy said the furniture etc.. belongs to his family , as we share the same door . there wont be any problem regarding that, as he will be staying in the other half of the Flat, where he runs a small office .
This made us to believe , so we have paid him 2 months of advance and rent started living in the apartment .
There were no issues for few months .but on a Sunday , An old lady came to our flat stating that this is her apartment .she (“ didnt say her name”) has given to her son ,As her husband (“Mr.subbaiah chowdary, name was written on the wall of the apartment association”)expired in the same apartment. but she never knew that the apartment was given for rent and never received the amount . we said we are just tenants , we have paid the rent Rs.10,500 ( “Car parking + power bill + rent” .Thanks to Modi’s demonetization , as we had paid the rent online, we had bank Statements”) . you can ask the guy who rented us , if she wants we will leave the apartment . as there is some kind of litigation involved in it . she said ,she will sort out with her son and asked us to continue.
So mean while , we asked the guy who rented us regarding the issue , we thought of vacating and asked us for the advance we paid . so , that we can go to a new place . the guy said “ as he cant repay now , he asked us to stay for one more month and he also said , “That he is sort of relative with that women and her son , he is paying the rent to her son , not to her . as there are some family issues . so, no problem for us ,as it is family issue they will sort it out “.
But we weren't feeling safe , so started searching for one more Flat, but in the next two days , when i was at work , i received a text message
So , we went to the flat , to give the keys .. There was the Old women , The guy who gave us for rent and the other person(“as per true caller his name was Murali, it was Karnataka sim”) , who was her son (“he was a middle aged person “).
The guy who gave us for rent asked us to keep quiet , as there is some family drama going on . he was explaining something to that old lady , her son was making some drama , saying that he didn't rent the whole flat , he just asked the other guy to rent only hall not the bed room etc etc (actually the bedroom has washroom , we were puzzled when he was saying that statement , as who would rent a hall, without a washroom. god knows).
Suddenly their family drama reached peaks , the so called “son” of the old women , turned on us verbally abusing , we are shocked and we asked him to stop, he literally jumped on us to fight , as my roommate was strong enough ,he give him a reply . soon , we dragged him away , my roommate was in utter shock of his behavior . (what if ,we got hurt or the condition would have gone wrong , who would be responsible, without any mistake of us ,we were into the issue).
soon the old lady , started saying bachelors are worst etc etc consoling her son , in no time both of them left without saying any word .(though the guy , who gave the flat rent to us ,was there with them , they should have asked him regarding the issue, they should have sorted it out , in worst case they should repaid our advance back , we could have vacated long back . But as those three are some sort of relatives , they turned on us )
But we were really shocked of what happened , we were paying the rent every month properly , we used be good in the apartment , but suddenly this happened in which there was no mistake of us . we asked the guy to pay our advance , we will be vacating the very next day . The guy who gave us for rent ,payed our advance back.he apologized us for Wat had happened.as my father came to us the next day from my home town to talk about this issue.
we have vacated the flat , the very next day .. But the issue is…I have seen many instances like this In cities. where
- The owners never pay the advances back , stating some or the other reason.
- There is no proper receipt given for the rent or advance paid , in which we cant go to any court of law , in lot of cases (Thanks modi for demonetization , as we had paid rent online for two months , we could have shown them as proofs if some thing could have gone worse)
- even we cant find the real owner in cases of joint properties , every one claims as owner himself . we just enter the house by seeing the “To-let Board” or an AD, and we cant ask them to show their ID or proof that the building is theirs . so at end we will be the victims.
- especially for the bachelor’s or students , its a hell .. they take our rent when they are in need and when they get a better opportunity (“in terms of rent). they just ask us to vacate in no time , if we ask for a week of notice. suddenly they start saying “ these boys are bad , they booze , they bring girls etc etc “ , even though we don't do that. The society easily believes.
5. lot of owners has these attitude problem that , tenants are their slaves , they can shout , talk roughly or ask them to do some works ( especially in case of boys). they don't realize that every one has their own houses , we shift to cities just for better opportunity . like even if i had house in Bangalore , may be for my job purpose i may go to pune . it doesn't mean that i am slave or poor or i cant do anything.
we have searched for the several case studies like this with lot of friends in Bangalore , pune , noida etc..
a) check out this case study …
a married woman committed suicide , just because of her house owner couple , behaving rudely with her . she said in her suicide note that “ house owners should stop harassing the tenants , they should not treat them rudely and my house owner should be punished by law “
b) Another issue in Bangalore , where the student tenants were beaten up by the house owner on a parking issue .
3. Recently , just for using “extra water” a tenant was beaten up by his owner in Bangalore .so , badly that he is in coma now .
Solutions:
- There should be a proper renting system in Cities or for the whole India , where the receipts should be given for the tenants for the rent and advance paid.
- As it is completely unorganized sector , even govt is loosing its taxes .but , it is a huge market , if we impose a tax on each and every months rent transaction , we can use that money for development of housing colonies for the poor .
- There should be a proper rental agreements signed between the tenants and house owners , which should be questionable in court of law.
- There are few places in cities , where even dorms , small rooms under the steps are also given for rents and the rents of the houses are touching the skies for no reason . government should keep an eye on the house renting.
Its not about solving our own issue , we have mailed the same to G.H.M.C officials and tried to send a copy to Human rights commission .
if some one want to eradicate a problem , it should be eradicated from root level . we are paying our hard-earned money for paying rents , we will be in different cities for different purposes . we will stay in one or the other place .
But as there is no proper system in India for these house rents , lot of people are facing huge troubles . loosing their hard earned money , facing harassment from the house owners.
“Right to live “ doesn't mean that the” life of mechanical respiration” , it means to live our life in respectable manner .
So , hope the government takes an serious action on this issue and develop a proper system of the renting “industry” . where the both parties are answerable to each other.