I had a licensee who never paid the license fees (aka rent)t. We had a Leave and license agreement in place and he was supposed to pay me 10 months rent upfront. After executing the license, he said that he would give me money in short time. I got busy with my job. On seeing him not pay, I started pursuading him. Then he gave me a cheque which I deposited in my account and had to move abroad for a few months.
On my return I figured out that the cheque had bounced. I could not log a complaint as the time limit had expires. However I took a statement from his bank for the causes of cheque bounce. Then I started chasing him to vacate as Leave and license had clear term that non payment overdue for more than 15 days automatically cancels the license.
Somehow after a lot of pursuation he committed to paying and vacating. On a day he was shifting his belongings when I went there. I incidentally had our license agreement with me. I made some noise and gathered people and got him to sign on the same lease that his cheque was returned and he gave me back peaceful possession. Since it happened too fast and wanted things in writting, I missed entering details about rent is due.
Now this guy vacated but still not paid the rent. Neither did he pay the light and water bills. On top of it he is now threatening me that he will file a false rape case against me for raping his sister, that too vide SMS. Another day he messaged me that he has filed case of extorting balance rent against me (no case was registered in reality)
I intially though of letting go the rent as loss. But looking at his drama, I intend to file a case on him. I need advices to prepare before i visit a local lawyer. My querries are
1. Can I file a case for recovering the rent say by requesting to raise a lien on his a/c. I know his a/c as I have retained copy of bounced cheque.
2. Is there anyway the case can boomrang on me?
3. What should I do to protect myself should he actually start filing wrong cases against me with police.
4. I had done basic background check on him. However he had provided all false information and numbers which misled me to believe in him. I have no proof of this with me. However in our agreement he had mentioned that he was working for a banglore based company and in reality he never did. Will this fact be of any advantage?
5. He is not traceable. I had gone to his permenant address to find that his fed up mother had quit his hometown out of grief he had brough her.
6. Lastly, I am too busy and hence need to know practially how much time would the case go on in court.
Many thanks for listening to my story with patience and thanks in advance for your invaluable advice.
