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Hello dear Team bhpians,

I wanted to vent a little and possibly get some advice from the community regarding my situation. I have rented out an apartment in Thrissur, and the current tenant has been persistently delaying rent payments. What started as an occasional delay has now become a routine, despite multiple reminders. It's reached a point where I'm practically chasing him down every month like an EMI collector. In fact, I have EMIs to pay for that property and this delay is highly inconvenient. When the agreement was made, the date of rent payment was fixed as the 5th of every month. When he started defaulting, I enquired about it and he requested to make the date 10th because that's the day he receives his salary. But even then, I have to remind him multiple times to make the payment.

Because of nonpayment, I had asked him to evacuate the premises last month. On the last day, he came, pleaded with me that this delay wouldn't happen again, and cleared the dues. Come this month, it's the same story again. The guy won't respond to my calls/messages. The property is a 2-hour drive from my home and there's no guarantee that my visit will be fruitful as he's always traveling as informed by the security guard. Out of sheer frustration, I contacted the tenant's employer, and to their credit, the organization responded promptly and asked me to send a formal mail with his ID proof, which I have done. They have confirmed that the guy is indeed their employee. But being a personal issue, they have some limitations. For the time being, they have assured me that they will talk to the manager and let me know if anything can be done.

I have been holding my nerve thinking about how people have their issues to deal with and I don't want to add to their troubles, but this guy is really testing it now. Is there a more streamlined/legal way to handle these episodes without getting into full-blown legal proceedings? What are my options?

Get a new tenant. "A leopard can't change its spots".

Yes indeed. I should've done it last time itself. But I can't even get the guy on phone/text. How should I proceed? Put in an eviction notice on the door? Go the long legal route? Remove the fuse and change all the locks? I seriously doubt this guy vacating the premises without making a hue and cry.

You will certainly have to ask him to vacate. May not need to go the legal route, but talk to a lawyer.

First is there a notice clause in the rental agreement? Something about either party giving 1/2 months notice and being able to leave? Or is there a lease agreement that expires at a certain date.

Any lawyer will almost certainly tell you to first make a reasonable attempt to give proper notice to the tenant. And maintain some record of doing so. It will take some effort on your part. You will have to call him a few times, send messages (also helps to maintain a record). Above all as frustrated as you may be getting, all of this must be done in a patient, reasonable tone. The more polite, the better, if this ever comes to court.

When you visit and he is not around, make it a point to meet a neighbor and ask if they have seen him, when he might be back. Again this will show that you have made a reasonable attempt to contact him first.

Finally, I guess a lawyer will send a legal notice. Then after that you need to discuss with the lawyer what needs to be done. But from personal experience, when it comes to property, any honest lawyer will try and avoid getting their clients to go full-on to court, that just punishes everyone involved!

Resist the urge to do things like this. If a lawyer needs to do this at some later date, let them handle it. Actually I am surprised the organization even entertained your query. What can a company do about an employee's personal dealings outside of work? Plus, if this does escalate, a smart lawyer can always twist this as intimidation, landlord contacting and harassing the tenant's company/family, etc.

Yes, there is a clause of providing one month's notice for vacating the premises, applicable to both tenant and owner. The agreement is an 11 month one, expiring this September. The security deposit is hardly enough to cover 2.5 months of rent. He has already defaulted on one. If I serve a notice period now, that would be the next month.

A similar scenario happened in February. The guy was breaking deadlines set by himself. Upon confronting him then, he voluntarily agreed to vacate the premises and asked me to claim the due amount from the security deposit. When the day came, he pleaded that he couldn't find an alternate arrangement and things will be better from hereon. I was wrong to trust the guy.


I contacted them to confirm again that he's still their employee. He is. Although they expressed their helplessness, the person whom I contacted also mentioned that their salary date is 5th of every month, not 10th like my tenant said. Like said above, I was too naive to think the guy would be any different this time.

Your intent may have been that, but this can easily be twisted by any lawyer: "Why were you harassing my client at his workplace/defaming him in front of his colleagues?"

We are all naive when it comes to dealing with someone who is trying to get out of paying their dues. One neighbor of mine went to complain about another neighbor's dog barking the whole day (and all of us had complained at different times). The owners twisted it saying he had shouted at their daughter!

One colleague of mine was in a similar situation, trying to get a tenant out. After an argument, the tenant filed a case under the sc/st act and now my colleague has to do the rounds of a court.

While I don't think it will come to court or anything, I'm saying we need to always be cautious and go about these things legally when dealing with troublesome people, even when, or rather especially when, they are in the wrong. Such people have long since learned that attack is the best form of defense and they have nothing to lose.

I have been renting out my ancestral properties in Kerala for a long time and can relate the ordeal you are going through.

Kerala has a tenant friendly culture and the norms (compared to Bangalore which is landlord friendly) with respect to advance, compensation for destruction of fixtures, maintenance etc are anti-landlord.

My recommendation is not to go the legal route as it will take a long time and effort; not worth the hassle.

My recommendation:

1. Make sure you renew the agreement promptly until you get him vacated.
2. It is a good sign that he cleared the dues last time. It is very difficult dealing with tenants who do not reciprocate in any way. As he has already broke the promise of prompt payment, deal with him through someone who is influential in that area (local leader, local residential association secretary, police officer etc) and get commitment to vacate the property.
3. If he defaults on rent before leaving, deduct it from the security deposit that is given.
4. Keep some security deposit with him to pay any additional arrears after he leaves - electricity, water, cable etc.

It is very difficult (read near impossible) to evict a tenant legally in India, as long as he/she keeps paying rent event after a delay. If it goes to the courts it is advantage tenant not the landlord. People have had to pay huge sums of money to the tenant just to vacate the premises, even after putting a case.

The rental/lease agreement will not stand in court unless it is registered and has proper witnesses who can vouch for the landlord in court.

So try to get it settled outside.

All the best.

Having experienced the troubles faced by both the sides at different points of time, I can clearly empathize with the OP. Hope his problem gets resolved soon. In a parallel discussion going on in the Real Estate thread, folks are examining the issue of renting out houses to live-in partners!

Interesting times.

As other have suggested, find another tenant. I think you can reach out to the local Police GKR9900, if you're facing any trouble there. Odds are, they won't take it as an FIR; they'll only offer CSR, which is meant to deal with such minor nuisances in an efficient manner. I think this is as streamlined as it gets.

Other than that, prefer tenants from people you already know of, taken via word of mouth. I know how much of a hassle that is; but I'm sure it's the lesser one to have/face than what you do now.

Update on my issue: I’ve sent a message to the tenant yesterday stating that due to non payment of rent, the terms of the agreement has been violated. He had mentioned during the brief exchange that we had yesterday that he will be moving out on 20th of this month (which I suspect is just a farce). In my message I have stated that I agree to this date and he’s to leave the premises by 20th. He has seen the message and not responded. Tried calling him again today to reiterate and confirm the date, but as usual the calls are ignored. The corporate office where he works at had called me yesterday to inform me that there would be an internal enquiry of sorts and they would update me on this today, but nothing so far. Can’t expect much from them anyways as this isn’t related to their business.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. In the past we owned several properties that we rented out.

We had one rule: somebody gets behind the rent more than twice we want them out! Period!

We experienced several times tenants not paying the rent in time. We had one tenant, a young single mother.

She was the only tennant that contacted us prior to the rent due day saying she could not meet the payment and would it be ok to pay a week later. Sure we said, not a problem, thanks for giving us a heads up.

That was the other thing, the others never gave us a heads up of going to miss the rent payment. They just let it happen. So then we would have to contact them. The last thing I want to do is chase people up for paying the rent.

Later on we decided to leave everything to an agent. Best decision we ever made when it comes to renting out. Yes, you pay a fee. This was on our UK properties. The fee was 8% of the rent. But it also included a tenant non payment insurance. Even if the tenant did not pay the rent, we would still receive the rent. And immediate action would be taken to evict the tenant! All at no cost to us and we would receive our rent right up to the day of eviction!

With an agent, the tenant doesn't know who owns the property, doesn't have your phone number, nor email. Something breaks, they contact the agent and the agent will sort it.

I'm not sure how this agent model works in India, or is even available.

Irrespective which model you choose, never ever accept repeated non rent payments. Get rid of them.

Jeroen

^^^the laws are different here in india where tenants enjoy a significant degree of protection. This also varies from one state to another, for eg Kerala, West Bengal etc are kinder to tenants, perhaps because of historical reasons of land redistribution. Things could be different in places like Punjab, UP etc where there is a more feudal mindset.

In any case, the Supreme Court, about a decade back, had observed that a tenant in India cannot be evicted before 5 years as long as rent is being paid

https://www.google.com/amp/s/indiane...years-sc/lite/

In this case, the tenant seems to be falling behind on rent on a regular basis. It needs to be ascertained if this is wilful. Also, not a very good idea to complain to his employer, who has no jurisdiction over the matter. The employer is not the tenants moral guardian. If anything, if they act overzealous and act against the tenant, the latter will have a valid reason to act truant

In India too many rights are available to a tenant and too few to the landlord. Some of this arises from an outdated mindset that landlords are all powerful dirty rich folks who extract rent and harass the poor landless labourers. Unfortunately too many socialist minded judges have added fuel to this fire.

In today's India the average landlord is a middle class home owner who funded the house purchase via an EMI based loan and needs that rent to service the EMI with the hope that one day once he retires he has a roof. Our outdated laws make life very difficult for these kind of homeowners.

My mother loved giving her only flat out on rent much against my advice and then the headache of ensuring rent compliance fell on me. One worthy worked at TCS and troubled me a lot. When my patience gave way I shot off a letter to the TCS Chairman. That got the tenant's attention. He left the next month. I put my foot down with my mother, sold her flat put the proceeds in an FD and told her this interest is way greater than that paltry rent you got.

In India rent as an income on investment is often as low as 3% or 4% or less.

I deal with this nonsense frequently. My advice:

- Don't take stress at all. It's the cost of running a business (or renting out). Leave the stress to the lawyers.

- Make a verbal request 2 - 3 times. If the tenant is still ill-mannered enough to delay & avoid paying rent, then it is time to get stricter. Talking & requesting is over.

- First, send him a formal legal notice, but on your letterhead. Don't get the lawyer in at this stage, but have a lawyer draft the letter for you. Send it via email, WhatsApp and RPAD (Registered Post with Acknowledgement Due). 75% of tenants will deposit the rent right away because they know you are now serious.

- If still not received, then send a legal notice from your lawyers letterhead, along with a "Pre-Termination Notice". It's basically the lawyer telling them, pay our rent, or empty our premises. 99% of the time, the problem gets solved at this stage.

- In the 1% chance that the rent still doesn't come in, that means he / she is a wilful defaulter. Don't delay matters & file for eviction in court. In Bombay currently, I have seen orders within 1 - 2 years. Not that long. Sometimes, interim reliefs are granted to landlords in a year.

Courts are strictly against enjoying premises without paying rents. In leave & licence agreements, they have become very landlord-friendly. The government (at least in Mahararashtra) wants to send the message out that MH is a rent / lease friendly state. If the rental market shrinks because of scared landlords, the local economy will collapse.

Attached is a legal notice format that I have finalised and used. It has always solved the problem for me. Feel free to plug in your details and send it across to the errant tenant.

Naah. Rule #1 of business is, always try to work things out with your existing client / tenant / employee...to the best of your capability, before looking for a replacement.