Hello experts,
I was staying in a hostel for about the past 1.5 yrs. I had no written rental agreement with the owners, and I used to pay them rent at the end of the month, every month. I got a receipt from them for this as 'Administrative Charges' rather than as 'Rent'. Also, there was no deposit amount. Around the middle of last month, they asked me to vacate within a weeks time. Though this was a major inconvenience for me and caused me a lot of mental tension and in addition I had to unnecessarily take leave from my office to do this, I managed to find another place and shift there. Now they are repeatedly calling me and asking me to pay the full month's rent for last month. I am not inclined to do this in view of the following reasons:
1) The huge inconvenience and mental tension they have caused me.
2) I have not stayed there for the whole month last month, and have also paid part of the rent for last month to the new place I have moved to, so I cannot pay double rent.
3) Also, about 8-9 months back, I was asked to shift my room to a new room. This new room did not have facilities like cable TV and internet which were there in my old room and also was smaller in size, but the rent amount was not reduced, so for the past 8-9 months I have been overpaying them.
4) I don't have any written agreement with them, so there are no clearly laid out terms and conditions.
Now they are threatening that they will file a police complaint. Please advise on what course of action I should take. I don't mind paying them a token amount for last month but in my view it is not justified to pay them the full amount in view of the above mentioned reasons.
Thanks!
