Hello sir
My building houses a post office on the ground floor. The five year lease with the post office in name of president of India had expired in 1989 and there after my father gave them notice of eviction but then they requested. The lease agreement had a clause for optional renewal for five years if intimated before 3 months of expiry.But six months after expiry of lease did Post office inform us for extension. The extension period was expired on 1993 and my father had again issued them letter to vacate but they said that another building was under construction and they would shift once ready. We then stopped accepting rent from them and asked them to atleast give us upgraded rent uptill they shift. Post office took time in forming committee and asked us to do significant changes in the structure only then could they give us upgraded rent but then we refused as it did not make sense to undertake so much investment while the rent was merely Rs.2,500 approx. Even after construction of their building about 1.2 km away where another post office started operating from 1995 onwards they did not vacate. They gave reasons as a post office was needed in our area. They put up tenders for obtaining land for post office in our area two times in 2003 and 2007 but got no response and they have stayed on. We had also issued them legal notices on two occasions but my father did not pursue case against them probably as he did not want to drag a government agency to court. Although he tried various methods which included writing letters almost every year to GPO, various ministers concerned with post office, even President of India since lease was in that name but there was no result.
My father expired few years ago and now I am handling the property and I intend to drag the Post office to court. When I went to meet Senior superintendent he said they according to Maharashtra rent control act they are now legal owners. They still send money order of 2,500 every month which we refuse while current market rent of that place would be minimum Rs. 60,000/- per month. He also told that vacating the premises was not possible but they would form a committee and increase the rent, even pay us the increment retrospectively but from previous experience I do not expect the increment to be significant. He said that if I go to court even if they loose they would appeal in high court and then supreme court and the matter would take a long 15-20 years. The post office is currently working in extremely bad condition with no repairs. Since they used to use water from residential connection of our building, so BMC cut off their supply, so they even do not have a water connection. We informed about this to post office and told them to get a new commercial connection but they did nothing and instead they blame the landlord for cutting the water supply. Due lack of water connection there is additional sewerage tax on the property taxes. While yearly rent that they try to give us is less than Rs. 30,000 the taxes for the area amount to Rs. 1,20,000/-. We did not pay the taxes to BMC gave a warrent of attachment and informed us that our property would be confiscated. We paid residential portion of taxes and have informed post office to pay their part but every time there is a delay from post office's side.
The building is now very old and we have to do repairs in a year and would eventually have to go for redevelopment within about 6 years. Regarding the structural repairs the post office says that as per their tenancy rights we would have to provide them with alternate accommodation at our cost while we carry out the repairs.
Please guide me, how strong is the case in court of law and what could be approximate duration should I ever look to settle with increase in rent or demand justice by filling a case against the post office ?
