58. Tenant not paying rent to NRI landlord in India
Q: Dear Sir, Currently I am living in Abu Dhabi, I have small home in my country Kerala -Kannur it is fully registered in my name, I have all relevant documents I am paying its bldg. tax & land tax yearly. The above home rented to somebody without a legal agreement but by mutual verbal agreement between my father (passes away) and the party since last 8 years, since two months the party not paying agreed rent. Actually I want get back my home, what is measures I have to taken where I should approach. Kindly advise, I going on vacation next month. Thanks with regards. Haris Abu Dhabi - UAE A. Evicting tenants is next to impossible in India without a formal written agreement. The time for verbal agreements is long gone and in reality even written agreements run into problems and laws in India are unfortunately misused by tenants. The chances are, your tenant after a set number of years may even claim ownership! alarming as it may sound this can happen. In many cases tenants who stop paying rent in the end claim to have paid cash all along. Hence one should NEVER accept cash payments when renting properties in India. My advice to you is to get in touch with your tenant and come to a mutual understanding that he vacate the premises as you are moving back to India and require the property for your own use. This will not be easy and you probably will have to agree to write off the rent owned and probably pay the tenant from your own pocket to help him find place to rent. All this may sound absurd but this is probably the easier way out. You also have the alternative to get a lawyer and take the legal course which may take anywhere from five to twenty years to resolve depending on how much of a pull you have with the authorities. NRIs BE AWARE! NRIs who rent properties in India should if possible, make it a point not to rent their properties to the same party for more than five years. It is better to change tenants periodically just to be on the safe side. Once a tenant has lived in a place continuously for ten years, problems can arise if the tenant and landlord do not get along.
NRI - OCI - PIO Guide & Information
58. Tenant not paying rent to NRI
landlord in India
Q: Dear Sir, Currently I am living in Abu Dhabi, I have small home in my country Kerala -Kannur it is fully registered in my name, I have all relevant documents I am paying its bldg. tax & land tax yearly. The above home rented to somebody without a legal agreement but by mutual verbal agreement between my father (passes away) and the party since last 8 years, since two months the party not paying agreed rent. Actually I want get back my home, what is measures I have to taken where I should approach. Kindly advise, I going on vacation next month. Thanks with regards. Haris Abu Dhabi - UAE A. Evicting tenants is next to impossible in India without a formal written agreement. The time for verbal agreements is long gone and in reality even written agreements run into problems and laws in India are unfortunately misused by tenants. The chances are, your tenant after a set number of years may even claim ownership! alarming as it may sound this can happen. In many cases tenants who stop paying rent in the end claim to have paid cash all along. Hence one should NEVER accept cash payments when renting properties in India. My advice to you is to get in touch with your tenant and come to a mutual understanding that he vacate the premises as you are moving back to India and require the property for your own use. This will not be easy and you probably will have to agree to write off the rent owned and probably pay the tenant from your own pocket to help him find place to rent. All this may sound absurd but this is probably the easier way out. You also have the alternative to get a lawyer and take the legal course which may take anywhere from five to twenty years to resolve depending on how much of a pull you have with the authorities. NRIs BE AWARE! NRIs who rent properties in India should if possible, make it a point not to rent their properties to the same party for more than five years. It is better to change tenants periodically just to be on the safe side. Once a tenant has lived in a place continuously for ten years, problems can arise if the tenant and landlord do not get along.
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