Mumbai Tenant associations Criticized Model Residential Tenancy Act 2011
The Mumbai Tenant associations decried proposed Model Residential Tenancy Act 2011 and claim that the move does not allow for Mumbai’s unique rental system and might leave lakhs of Mumbaikars homeless. Tenant associations claim that the new law would spell disaster for Mumbai, where thousands of old properties are still rented out under the long-standing ‘pagdi’ system. If the new law goes through, these tenants will have to pay rents at nearer to market rates.
The Model Residential Tenancy Act, 2011 prepared by the housing ministry is intended to replace archaic rent control legislation that capped rentals, resulting in landlords getting a pittance for properties in prime localities in metros.
Tenant associations claim that the new law would spell disaster for Mumbai, where thousands of old properties are still rented out under the long-standing ‘pagdi’ system. Under this practice, the tenant pays a big non-refundable lump sum at market rate at the beginning with the understanding that the landlord will charge only a minimal rent. If the new law goes through, these tenants will have to pay rents at nearer to market rates.
“Lakhs of tenants in Mumbai and Pune will be left at the mercy of landlords. There are 19,000 cessed properties in the island city alone and all of them are tenanted properties. If the law is accepted in Maharashtra, it would mean that a majority of those living in these properties would be thrown out. No government can afford such a situation.” said Advocate S N Shroff, an expert on tenancy laws.
Utsal Karani, a member of the Action Committee for Protection of Tenants’ Rights, argued that it would be difficult to implement the law in Mumbai and Pune. “The government is providing free housing to slumdwellers and encroachers. It cannot evict lakhs of tenants who have paid pagdi and have been paying taxes and cesses to the municipal and state authorities,” he said.
“Under the Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999, landlords are in any case permitted to charge market rents if the premises is not let out for a year,” Shroff said.
Landlords, meanwhile, welcomed the Centre’s move. “There is a housing shortage in the city and the country. Facilitating rental accommodation would help ease the shortage,” said B R Bhattad, executive president of the Property Owners’ Association.
Model Residential Tenancy Act, Model Residential Tenancy Act 2011, Mumbai, Mumbai Property Owners' Association, Mumbai's unique rental system, pagdi system, Tenants in Mumbai
I want to meet the comittee member of Mumbai Tenant Associations.
I am looking for phone number of Mr. Utsal karani. I want to discuss my case and seek suggestion.
I think all the rented property should be made ownership by taking 100 months rent.This seems to be the only solution.
I would like to know when will the “model residential tenancy act 2011″ drafted in 2011 come into existence.
I think its a good move by govt with no injustice to tenants as well as landlords.Also it can bring hope for the middle class man like me to buy home in cities like pune and mumbai.I could see lot of tenants have their own house constructed ,but still are not vacating their old rented homes.The reason is very low rents paid by them.
Why should a person like me should suffer by not getting a rented house,though I am ready to pay rents nearing market rates?
This is a disaster to the tenants who had paid lump sum to get a house and the owners who received this sum amount made it to four folds earning interest. Is the home minister ever lived in a rented flat is he blind and does he know the misery of life of the common man for his survival. Is the head of the ruling government not working gone totally mad.
The owner has made ten folds of money from there property and even if the same land goes for redevelopment he will earn more than expected.
But what happens to the tenant who paid rent for 22 to 30 years and above just to be thrown out.
This is not the question and fate of one tenant every building 30 to 40 tenants and there families will come on the street.
Please if you really see the owners has made more than enough and still they are the owner that is not denied by the tenant but please for gods sake do not kill the poor tenants.
zamindari system was abolished after independence the same should be applied.
@ DD Mello: want to clarify on my earlier comment. I miscontrued that ur comment was in reply to Ms.Neha’s comment…obviously a mistake. apologise
still my point in holds good
@ DD Mello- rich r poor desn’t matter here….whats right & wrong is what matters..& obviously everybody needs protection against injustice….ofcourse higher society tenants wld have to pay more….but the charges cant be at whims & fancies of greedy society members….there ought to be some governing laws & controls
@Neha: Hi, same here. Iam staying in a new flat in Andheri, where wepaid 10K annually when we moved in….we got a notice from the “Interim association” stating tenants shld pay 1 lakh annually or 10K+taxes monthly, while its free for owners who reside there. this is day light rip off. no other similat society charges so much. This money goes to maintenance & building funds. I am sure this interim assoc is made of owners who intend to stay there for ever, trying to offset the entire maintenance charges thru tenants staying in other owners property. The owners of the rented house shld realise that they r being wronged too as they will have trouble renting out the property, or even end up reducing rentals to accomodate
so how much can these people charge? no limit??????
Generally I don’t read post on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up pressured me to check out and do it! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thanks, very great post.
hi i am staying in a rented flat in borivalli east.the society is good n the flats r good too.when we opted for the flat we were told that we r free to use the gym,club house n the pool freely.but after only 4months the society prohibited the entrance of tenents in the club n stopped giving all the services.we r paying the rent on time n our landlord says that we can use but the society people don’t want to talk to tenent n think of tenents as inferior people.they use bad language when talkn to us.after sometime they have agreed to charge ,but they r charing too much n that also they will take it from the landlord not the tenent.they r charging 1500/- per flat monthy n 8000 per person the deposit,so we r four people so that counts for 32000/-.ew have already paid the landlord the deposit n rent is also good .so is it leagal what they r doing.
The teneant bodies ought to realise that it is impossible to maintain buildings with 1000 sq ft falts and tenants paying rs 100 a month.A bag of cement today costs rs.300.By all means protect the poor and down trodden tenants.The weaker class can be kept out of the ambit of the act by protecting tenants in flats below 500 sq ft..But you cannot protect rich tenants who are now wealthier than the landlords owning lavish cars and expensive gadgets ,paying electric bills of rs.4000 a month and continue paying rent of rs.100 a month for flats of 1000 to 2000 sq ft carpet area.Wake up Mumbai.How else are you going to make Mumbai a world class city?