Tenants, landlord battle over C1 report

Strap: Landlord of Marine Lines building slaps eviction notices, claiming it needs to be razed; residents say their probe finds a different story Since May 2023, tenants in a building at Marine Lines have been the target of repeated eviction notices from their landlord, which warn them that the structure has been classified as C1 that means it is dilapidated and beyond repair and requires to be demolished and reconstructed

Strap: Landlord of Marine Lines building slaps eviction notices, claiming it needs to be razed; residents say their probe finds a different story

Mumbai, India – Jan 09, 2024: Residents of Kalyan Bhavan building, at Kalbadevi, in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, Jan 09, 2024. (Photo by Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo)

Since May 2023, tenants in a building at Marine Lines have been the target of repeated eviction notices from their landlord, which warn them that the structure has been classified as C1 that means it is dilapidated and beyond repair and requires to be demolished and reconstructed.

But the residents’ own investigation has given them a reason to believe the C1 notice does not hold water, and that the building can make do only with repairs.

“Our case is yet another example of officials and landlords colluding to mark old buildings as C1 to extract money out of redevelopment, as many MLAs argued in the assembly session in Nagpur in December,” said Ravi Mulchandani, son of Jagdish, a tenant with a wholesale saree shop in the building.

A month after the first notice was served, the tenants in Kalyan Bhavan met the landlord.

“We sensed something was fishy. He flatly denied giving us alternative accommodation and told us he would reconstruct the building with funds from tenants, which is against rules,” Mulchandani said.

Later, they sent him a letter rejecting the C1 notice and asking for a structural audit report.

The families then conducted a structural audit in July, which confirmed their suspicion that the building fell in C2A category - needing partial demolition and major structural repairs.

“All of us shared the audit cost which came to around ₹60,000,” another resident said.

The tenants then stumbled upon the report of a previous structural audit carried out by the landlord.

“Through RTI responses and multiple appeals, we found out that the landlord had submitted the report of an earlier audit in February to BMC, which marked the building as C2A. He withdrew the report in March and submitted another one in May grading the building C1,” Mulchandani said.

Another tenant, Sunil Agarwal, said the landlord kept on pasting notices in the corridors of the building regarding the C1 condition, asking us to vacate. His father had the office of his factory making components for railway coaches and wagons and a separate textile factory in the building before they shut down. The office is still in use by his family for other businesses.

At the ground-plus-four-storey structure, almost 80 years old, there are 47 tenants – 42 commercial offices/shops and five residents – on the pagdi system. They intend to go ahead with the building’s redevelopment collectively as a co-operative society.

They are well within their rights to do so since the landlord failed to submit a redevelopment proposal to Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) with 51% tenant consent within the mandatory six months of the first C1 notice served in May.

Till the redevelopment, the tenants asked for the appointment of a MHADA-approved architect to oversee repairs of the building, in accordance with the C2A report.

This too ran into roadblocks. The residents further found out that the property tax and repair cess of their building, to be taken from the rent they pay, had not been paid to MHADA by the landlord. The pending dues have accumulated to ₹43,08,414 and ₹31,63,695 respectively.

MHADA did appoint an architect but removed her in December 2023 despite the architect submitting estimates for repairs and a propping plan.

“Another architect was appointed by MHADA, who submitted repair estimates and propping work had begun in the building. But even that has been stuck since the last week of December,” Mulchandani said.

The landlord has filed a writ petition in the Bombay high court and made Jagdish and his wife Anita respondents claiming that they are the representatives of the tenants and have bolstered them to remain in the building despite it being in a dangerous condition.

An official from MHADA said, “The high court has ordered that the repairs be done from the repair cess, with the tenants paying for any excess amount. Regarding the different reports about the structure’s stability, a technical advisory committee has been appointed to look into it.”

The landlord, identified as Satinder Pal Singh Ahuja, could not be contacted for his comments despite several attempts.