Tenant and Owner

You have said that the brother and sister of your tenant areadvocates. Please note that no one is above the law. Send a notice to the tenant to vacate the house on the grounds of your bonafide personal requirement of the building as well as for default in payment of rent. Thereafter you need to file an eviction suit in the local civil court. Be sure that you will get the relief there.

File a RCOP  for eviction for your genuine necessity and under wilful default and approach the court properly by asking ecpedite trial by showing your genuine requirement.You will get justice sir.

dear Sir, Thanks a lot for your advice and information. Can you tell me what RCOP means ? 

I am currently asking my old friends for advice and one elderly person told me that

I cannot approach court first, but has to go through Rent Controller and if the issue is not solved by rent controller, only then i have to go to court. Is that correct ? To go to Rent controller should I go through advocate or can i approach in person. Where can i know where the rent controller office is in chennai ?

Many says that it is a civil case and it can take more time, more than 2 years for judgement.  

I even approached the tenant for a compromise and for the same they are talking unparlimentary words to me. ( I have even recorded their talking in my cell phone if that could be of future use for proof ).   Now that in chennai all advocates are protesting makes things more time consuming.

An application for eviction filed under the Tamil Nadu Buildings (Lease & Rent Control) Act before the Rent Controller is in abbreviated form as RCOP ( Rent Control Original Petition), which is nothing but rent control proceedings. In Tamil Nadu District Munsif Court is Rent Controller in Tamil Nadu. It is like civil case and you definitely need a lawyer to conduct the case. To be frank it takes more than 2 years then appeal/revision proceedings are there to drag on the matter.  You in case a senior citizen you can demand for speedy disposal of your application.  Delay has become part and parcel of judiciary.

Thanks sir for your replies.

In the mean time, till I get my own house i have to live in a rented house.  ( since after retirement i dont have regular income and i was only thinking of moving to my own house. )

apart from this RCOP petition  shall i also make a special petition for compensation, as the costs i spend for the same ( like paying my own rent ). Is there also room in the law to make such compensation petition ?

you are a typical building owner who is named as landlord in the legal parlance.  you have to file a rent Control petition before a Rent Control Court for evicting your tenant.  There is no other way.

Dear Advocate,

I am staying in Solapur district with my grandfather since 15 years at place behind a masjid land of grampanchayat without paying any charges or tax, can i claim for legal ownership or it is possible to purchase same land from grampanchayat? kindly email me on  sayyadsameer@gmail.com

Sameer Sayyad

Mr. Hariram,

When did you gave the flat to occupants and did you enter in to any legal agreement with them in regard to period etc. From you details it appears you have rented out the place and so the crooked occupants will create a legal hassle for you and will nmot vacate the premises. If you were an educated person with little knowlade of laws this situation would not have arised. According to me now only option is to file a suit for eviction and in future never use the word Rent in the receipt or agreement that you enter in to. In fact you should have given the premises on Leave & License basis duly registered but you failed to do that and now have to face the music.

No one is above the law.

Send the notice and thereafter file eviction suit in the local civil court stating your urgent needs i.e,we need the house genuely for my retirement and health treatment purposes. 

Dear Mr Subramaniam :

Tens of thousands of senior citizens in TN (Lakhs in India) suffer like you do !. It is said India is a welfare state and the 'poor tenants' are protected from the 'rich property owners' ! Nothing can be more unlawful and  fraudulant than the rent control law. How can the government rob Peter to Pay Paul ?

Good News is that Supreme Court in its recent judgements is tilting the scales evenly by prescribing a 5 year min tenancy and also directing evaluation of relative hardships of tenants and property owners in determining bonafide of requirement.

Law makers just dont care as a huge majority of low rent benficiaries and exploiters have  vested interests in trade and commerce with deep access to corrupt lawmakers. A draft of a new law is pending for 10 years and more.

Nevertheless, Property Owners can now turn the tables : Use another weapon gifted to the tenants by the law . They can also file a petition for fixation of Fair Rent.

As ROCP proceedings will take a longer time, it will be prudent to file a fair rent fixation petition before the same Rent Controller, may be combined with an eviction  petition, backed by proof of market value of property (Guideline, transaction value and even a chartered engineer certified value as advised by lawer). The fair rent fixation is based on market value @ 8-9% PA on current market value repeat current market value.

The fair rent fixed will be binding from date of filing the petition. The fair rent eligible is around 8-9% PA of CURRENT MARKET VALUE. So you are sure to get a huge relief. The tenant can be expected to vacate no sooner he receives a notice.This takes hardly 6-9 months to decide as there are no arguments or adjournments but only well documented calculations by a Licensed Valuer.

Please consult a seasoned rent control lawer. B Wishes <srangarajan49@gmail.com>

Hi Hariram

May i ask you the status of your issue? My father is undergoing same issue as yours. Have initiated RCOP 3 months back with almost 5 hearings happened. Still tenant has not yet appeared in court for any of the hearing.

Dear advocates

Do we have any other option for such crooked tenants. He is living happily having committed mistake while my father is upset waiting for justice in every hearings.

Better you file for the use of the building for your children or grand children.  The delay in courts will last such a long period that you may not be able to achive the fruits of litigation.