Owners using ‘basement’ clause to evict tenants

As a rule,the basement has to be converted into habitable use before using it commercially such as running a bar,discotheque,restaurant or office. Otherwise the basements provided in all the buildings can only be used as a warehouse or a godown for storage purposes.

To get a basement converted into habitable use,one has to pay Rs 300 per square feet and as part of penalty for misusing it,the owner and the tenant has to share the penalty of Rs 500 per square feet from the date of misuse. In these cases,the disputing parties refuse to pay up the penalty and ultimately,after a long drawn process,the Estate Office gets the premises evicted.

Assistant Estate Officer,Rahul Gupta said,“For us,a violator is a violator,irrespective of whether he is an owner or a tenant and we have to do our work of getting rid of the building violations.”

According to sources,most of the commercial properties located in prime sectors are on rent and the owners had rented out these properties many years ago. However,most of these tenants who are paying peanuts as rent for these huge properties,refuse to vacate the premises.

Almost 85 per cent of these properties have become disputed properties and the owners and the tenants are at loggerheads over it. Out of these prime sectors,Sector 17 has the maximum cases. The owner:tenant ratio is as high as 5:95 percent.

In other sectors such as Sector 26,34 and 35,the owner:tenant ratio is 20:80 percent.

Senior officials admit that the lacunae is definitely there as a provision,nevertheless,it is making the job easy for the estate office.