This is a plea to the legal community to help me get out of this messy situation.
This refers to the two unfortunate experiences I had with two landlords who's apartment I had rented in the years ranging from Oct 2011 - Aug 2012 and Sep 2012 - Jan 2013.
My first bad experience was during Oct 2011 - Aug 2012:
I paid a monthly rent of Rs. 7,500/- per month through PDCs for the entire 11-month duration and had to deposit Rs.35,000/- with the landlord. The payment was collected by the landlord's recovery guy from my doorstep every month. It was on 2 or 3 occasions that I had to pay them in cash instead of asking them to deposit the post dated cheque as my salary got delayed and my bank account had insufficient funds. The landlord kept these cheques with him. Also, there was no proof ever given by the landlord of receipt of money either through cheques or the cash that I gave him.
At the end of my tenure when I enquired about the deposit, he denied paying the deposit saying that I've not paid him the rent for 2-3 months as my PDCs are still with him. These were the same PDCs against which I paid him cash. He denied that and asked for my bank statement. I denied to do it as it was difficult to prove the money withdrawn from my bank account was towards the payment of rent, even though it was of the same amount. The landlord was not a decent person and so I was not sure if he would resort to force/physical fight and my wife and I did not want to get into that trouble. I did call him after I moved to another rented apartment but he refused to remember me saying "idea nahi hai who I am". He still owes me Rs. 35,000/- as my deposit money.
My second bad experience was during Sep 2011 - Jan 2013:
This is in continuation to the above mentioned experience. This time my landlord was a lady who never returned my deposit money of Rs. 50,000/-. This was the money I raised after breaking my LIC policy. We got this rented apartment through the builder's person who was in touch with the owner. It was after 3 months of moving in, I learnt from my office that I'm being transferred to Vadodara (Gujarat). I gave one month's notice to the landlady through a phone call as well as through the builder's person but she got furious and disconnected the call after saying what she wanted to and never listened or understood my circumstances. Whenever I used to call her, she either used to hang up or not answer or if she ever answered, she spoke with me very rudely and kept saying that I did not do the right thing and hung up the phone. Eventually, I gave up as she never understood that my intention of leaving the house was beyond my control as I got transferred by my company.
In this case too, I had given PDCs to the landlady. I had even paid one month's rent amount to the builder's person who acted as a mediator but never accepted that he is a "broker". She withdrew the money from Sep to Feb 2014 (even though we vacated her house in Jan 2013), after which I got the remaining cheques cancelled. Moreover, whenever I went to the builder's person he never handed the copy of the "registered" legal agreement to me. He always made excuses to avoid me. Eventually, he told me that he tore and trashed the agreement papers as I was about to relocate to Vadodara. After relocating to Vadodara, I never called up the landlady as she would never answer my calls. I did manage to speak with the builder's person to recover my deposit money from the landlady and he started making excuses of putting monetary claims over me so that the landlady doesn't have to return my deposit. He falsely claimed that I did not pay my electricity dues, for which I have a proof. Moreover, I have also emailed the receipt to him but he still denies of not receiving it. Secondly, he mentioned that we have damaged the glass of the french window and for that I have to pay up before I could get my deposit money. I had handed over the keys when vacating the house to the neighbor as it was late evening and the builder's office was closed. They never told me about this breakage until I called them up asking for my deposit money. I have not broken or damaged anything in her house during my stay. The builder's person used to insist me to travel from Vadodara and check the situation of the broken window, which was not possible for me. Even if someone else has broken it, he can easily blame me for it.
Finally, I stand to lose Rs. 35,000 + Rs. 50,000 = Rs. 85,000/- , which is my hard earned money, if I could never recover it. It's very painful. I know I made a lot of stupid mistakes. Will these mistakes be so costly? Unfortunately, I could never actively follow-up or go to any other recourse due to my wife's ill-health all this while. She has been suffering from a psychiatric disorder for more than past 3 years and is now under treatment. I could not pay attention to recovery of dues and have suffered a lot both mentally and financially.
Is there any help available who can help me recover my deposit amount. I've been very hopeless till I came across your website and with that I have some hope that I can get some help and direction.
Thanks in advance to anyone who could help me.
