Defer rent collection if you can: State advice to owners

The state government on Friday issued an advisory to landlords/house-owners to defer their rent collection by three months in view of the current lockdown and avoid

The state government on Friday issued an advisory to landlords/house-owners to defer their rent collection by three months in view of the current lockdown and avoid evicting tenants over non-payment of rent during this period. The state, however, clarified that the advisory was issued as a majority of the trades were hit, but was not an order which would be binding on landlords.

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Sanjay Kumar, additional chief secretary (housing), who issued the advisory, maintained it was just an advisory to citizens and not a law.

Housing activists, however, are not impressed. “It will not give any relief to tenants, if any landlord insists on rent or evicts the tenants,” said advocate Vinod Sampat, who deals with property matters. Leo Tharmi Raikhan, who hails from Manipur and represents a group of north-eastern migrants in the city, said, “A majority of firms have not paid our salaries and we are finding it difficult buy groceries. In such a scenario, paying rent is impossible,” said Raikhan.

There are around one lakh people in the state from the north-east, a majority of whom live in rented flats and shared apartments in Kalina, Khar, Juhu and Mira Road.

Khushi Surendra Prasad, who runs a polyclinic at Colaba, said: “For the past two months, my polyclinic has been shut and there is no income.”

However, those who depend on rental incomes said they cannot abide by this advisory. “We depend on rents for survival and being a senior citizen, even I am hassled with various expenses. I can understand the problem of lockdown, but even we are facing issues,” said a 68-year-old senior citizen who has leased out his second home in at Andheri.

Meanwhile, former CM Devendra Fadnavis demanded the state should reduce the stamp duty and registration fees to give relief to the realty sector.