Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in India

Hi,

I live in Palam, New Delhi. We shifted to this new house in the month of October 2010, the landlord declined to provide any rent agreement.He just said that he will increase Rs 500-600 rent each year. My parents asked him to confirm if its going to be Rs 500 or 600, So he and his wife said Rs 500 but and we agreed. Our landlord lives in a different house near by ours and its a 3 storied building.

He also said that electricity will be charged @ Rs 4/unit.

For water he said we will have to make payment as per the meter reading in a sepreate meter installed only for water which is again Rs 4/unit. As there is a motor installed for water so the bill is actually the electricity bill for water and its for sweet as well as the regular water. Before we shifted to this place we confirmed everything from him like would there be any extra charge for anything at that time he said "no". Now for the past 9 months i.e from Feb 2012 we are not getting any supply of sweet water, we asked him about this issue and he said, no one here is getting sweet water, which is not true as we have seen in other houses near by ..are getting supply of sweet water, because of this we actually started ordering Bisleri cans as we use sweet water for making food as well. We asked our landlord to decrease the rent a little as we are not getting sweet water supply, but the landlord did not agree to this. Not just that our landlord asked us to pay Rs 500 Extra for water in the month of September, he said that he has received a sepreate bill for water and so we will have to pay. When we asked him that we have been living here for the past 1 and a half year and now how come all of a sudden you have received a bill for water and told him that we will not make any payment @ this he started yelling so we asked him to show us the water bill but he did not show any bill. Again in the next month he asked us to pay Rs 500 Extra, we asked him to give us a xerox of the water bill, only than we will make the payment. On this he said "tumhare uppar waalo ne to kar diya payment unhone ne koi bill nahi manga, tumhare hi saare nakhde hote hain, pay to tumhe krna padega nahi to kar do quarter khali", we said we will leave this house but that will take time (the reason we can not leave this house right now as i have applied for my passport on this address so untill and unless i receive my passport i can not leave this house) When this month my dad went to pay the bill he started yelling at him and said make the payment of Rs 500 and for electricity from now he will charge Rs 7/unit. He has already increased the rent again this October. As my father went to his house to pay the rent for the month of October and asked him to show the bill but again he did not.

Could you please guide me on how to handle this issue.

Secondly i want to know if there is a way to file a complaint or some thing which will process the case in a timely manner and we will not be required to pay.


Asked on 11/03/12, 2:08 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Sunil Goel S.G. SOLICITORS

It is a fact that the electricity and water charges have increased tremendously in last few months in Delhi and thus your landlord appears to be justified in increasing the charges for the same.

However, if you feel your landlord is harassing you, you can file a complaint in court under Delhi Rent control Act if the rent is less than Rs.3500/- per month. You may also bring the matter to the knowledge of local police.

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Answered on 11/03/12, 4:03 am


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