We own a property and my mother has let out a 300 sft ground floor portion to a tenant. The lease agreement began in 1994 for a period of 3 years. Subsequently, she entered into a fresh lease agreement with the same tenant in 1997 for another period of 3 years.
Since mid-1997 until 2004, the tenant was not maintaining the premises properly and she requested them many times in writing and in person to vacate the premises which the tenant did not heed to.
In 2009, she received and accepted rental arrears for the period 2004-2009.
My mother was in declining health and was unable to follow up with the tenant any longer. We were told that the tenant was mostly keeping the premises locked since the last couple of years and was in dis-use except for a couple of visits in a month. There was also considerable damage to the floor and front steps which looks like it has been recently repaired.
I was out of country till recently and 3 days ago, I went to have a look at the said premises. The place is now functional with employees working in it since the last 3 months.
On coming back home and checking the rental payment records that my mother maintained, I realized that no rent has been paid for 30 months now.
I took an appointment with an advocate known to my family...will be meeting him on Saturday, he's not available before that. Today, an hour ago, I received a registered post from the said tenant that I did not accept since my mother is not available at home and I did not want to accept it on her behalf.
The envelope probably contains cheques of all the rental arrears that the tenant has decided to send us since we recently visited the premises.
In all honesty, I require the premises for myself so that I will have a place to sit when I visit the building. Moreover, the tenant has been blatantly erratic with payments and used the place badly causing considerable damage which is now, fixed up.
I have copies of all the rental agreements and acknowledgements of all the correspondence my mother sent him asking him to repair/vacate the premises over the years.
Since I sent back his envelope as I did not get a chance to discuss with my lawyer, where do we stand now as owners? I don't want to communicate verbally with him until I talk to my lawyer first.
The premises is in Hyderabad, rent is less than 2000 rs a month and the building is about 25 years old. The lease agreements have very few clauses in them...nothing regarding termination.
Please advise.
Thanks.
