[GKR9900]

Hello everyone, I have a peculiar problem that requires some sound advice.

My father has a property at our hometown-a 3 storeyed building, the roof of which was leased out to Indus towers for operating Airtel telecom tower for the past 20 years. On January 17th of this year the agreement expired. We had already contacted Mr P, the person from Indus towers, who is in charge of the tower on our building, and told him about contract renewal. The increment he offered was not acceptable to us. He informed us that for accepting the increment that we proposed, a site visit and proper approval by higher ups is necessary. This happened somewhere in January. We waited for a while and seeing that there was no further communication, contacted him again. He said that the company officials are busy with the financial year end and things would be sorted out by the beginning of next financial year. Meanwhile, they paid us the existing rent for January, February and March. We haven't received further rents. April came and seeing that there was no response, we contacted him again. There was an assurance that things would be sorted before April 12th. Nothing happened. On April 15th, an unpleasant incident occured where a couple of tower technicians were caught vandalising our building. They broke in to an area of the building that was in no way assigned for the purpose of the tower. The incident was reported to Mr P and Indus towers. Prompt and severe action was ensured, but nothing happened. Now this incident really shook us up.

Currently, the tower operates in our premises without an agreement per say, based on mutual trust between the parties. But the incessant complacency of Indus towers has eroded our trust in them. Should some similar incident happen again, they might just wash their hands off any responsibility. We also received a legal opinion on similar lines. This led to a hue and cry from our part and once again an assurance was given by Mr P that contract renewal would be done before May 22nd. This was on April 26th. I kept reminding Mr P in between. Masterly silence and inactivity followed again. The guy wouldn't respond to calls or texts. Frustrated, I sent a text today that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable. Now here comes the catch. He mentions that he has been transferred from Kerala circle to Karnataka circle, shares the phone number of one Mr A, who is his replacement and advised us to take up the matter with him. So with 12 days left for the deadline that he committed to, Mr P is now making us run behind someone else for the contract renewal. I informed him that we will not do that and should Indus wish to renew the contract, they should contact us and get things sorted or we would be closing off the access to our building after May 22nd. He hasn't responded yet. We have some construction going on in other parts of the building and if they didn't intend to renew the contract, we had planned some work in the tower area after it's dismantled. This was also informed earlier to them. We had specifically asked them to vacate the building if the contract is not being renewed. But they were always assuring about the contract renewal part. After heeding to their suggestions and excuses for so long and with no sign of concrete action from their part, we are growing increasingly tired and frustrated. I was wondering what the best course of action is in this scenario and would love to hear your opinions on this.

[Sheel]

First thing first, contact your lawyer or get referrals from friends / relatives about a competent lawyer who deals in similar jurisdiction.

If things get ugly, they would be the first to go legal, remember, they are a company and you are one of their hundred landlords and they should be going through this every month. They should be having a team of lawyers who deal with such cases on a very regular basis.

[GTO]

- Send them a letter or notice drafted by your lawyer. Now, put everything on paper. No fake promises on calls or WhatsApp. This will show serious intent from your part and if they want to proceed, they will revert.

- Give them a deadline of 14 days, post which the material will be removed from your premises at their cost.

- Cut off the power supply to the tower. It's your property and they are illegally keeping a foreign object there. They are legally bound to empty the spot and remove their equipment upon the expiry of the agreement.

I sure hope your agreement is registered. It is a "best practice" for lease & rentals.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by GKR9900

My father has a property at our hometown-a 3 storeyed building, the roof of which was leased out to Indus towers for operating Airtel telecom tower for the past 20 years.

Switch off the power connection to the property. That's all you need to do. The tower will still operate on diesel with a backup invertor atleast for a day or two. There's always a control room monitoring power access to all towers and which towers are running on diesel (/solar). That would get the support staff on your premises within hours of the power being turned off.

You can choose to give Mr. A clear warnings of your intentions (but check on the legal front which is the more ideal option). Even if you don't he'll be made aware of the problems as such issues are tracked on a daily basis within the local office. Been in this industry so trust me when I say he'll be aware of it within the hour.

Repeating this twice or thrice will turn the tables with them running after you than the other way. But do check on the legal front as you don't want to make this into a different headache.

[GKR9900]

Originally Posted by Sheel

They should be having a team of lawyers who deal with such cases on a very regular basis.

Originally Posted by GTO

I sure hope your agreement is registered. It is a "best practice" for lease & rentals.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

You can choose to give Mr. A clear warnings of your intentions

Thanks for the responses everyone. Consulted with our advocate and a draft regarding the legal notice is being made. The previous agreement was registered, so no issues there. In the meantime, I decided to give Mr A, who's Mr P's senior, a call and he has assured a resolution at the earliest (like all the other times). Although, he is ready to meet us and have a discussion on Monday. So I'm refraining from sending the notice or taking drastic measures until after that.

[GKR9900]

UPDATE: The issue has been resolved. As follow up to the previous post, Mr A met us a couple of times over the past few weeks. We informed him that the site will be closed and no staff will be permitted to enter into the building premises. Had some discussion about our demands and finally closed the deal for conditions that were agreeable to both parties. MoU has been signed and the final agreement will be signed soon. Thank you all for the suggestions and advice.

[GKR9900]

Bumping up this old thread due to a recent development.

So everything was going fine till a few months ago. About 4 months back, Airtel decided to back out of the tower that is present in our building. The only other party now left is Vodafone idea. It seems that Vi cannot afford the tower rent on its own, so now Indus Towers has approached us with a request to reduce rent. The registered agreement is for 5 years, out of which 3 years are remaining. I casually checked the financials of Indus Towers and Vodafone Idea on the internet. While Indus seems to be doing great, Vi seems to be faltering with evidence of cost-cutting and price increases for its services but overall seems to be stable. Although initially they asked for a 25% drop in rent, which we straightaway refused, now they are requesting a 12.5% drop. This is the first time something like this has panned out. We had rented that area of our building for dirt cheap rent initially. As the agreement was for 20 years, we decided to wait it out until renewal to ask for an increment. And now this!

According to the opinion of learned members here, how should I approach it?