The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Have space? Start a PG and make your pile

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 15, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Have space? Start a PG and make your pile

Sudipto Mondal

The booming job and education sectors in Bangalore have led to the mushrooming of paying guest accommodations.

Most PG accommodations are running without licence
It finds no mention in the list of trades allowed in residential areas in the CDP

Bangalore: The paying guest (PG) accommodation business is big in Bangalore but no one really has an idea about how much money is involved in this largely unregulated sphere of activity.

With the average number of tenants per accommodation being eight — a number which can sometimes swell to 25 — it more importantly remains a business that involves the lives of thousands of tenants, most of whom are women. Yet, PG accommodations have remained relatively free from the jurisdiction of the city’s civic body and other government agencies.

Strictly speaking, they are not rented or leased out properties; neither do they qualify as hostels. They are surely not serviced apartments, hotels or lodges. They have qualities that make them very similar to all of the above, yet they are just not the same.

The rules

Running a paying guest accommodation requires the owner to statutorily apply and obtain a Health Trade Licence under Schedule 10 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act 1976 from the jurisdictional Health Officer. The licence fee is Rs.3,000 and failure to comply with the requirement can lead to the premises being summarily closed or sealed.

Electricity and water are supposed to be supplied at commercial rates and while levying property taxes they are supposed to be treated as non-residential property. The previous BBMP Commissioner had even called for a survey to find out if kitchens in houses with PGs had commercial LPG cylinders.

The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) last week requested owners to voluntarily declare the nature of the residence and pay water charges as applicable to commercial premises or face strict penal action from October 1.

However, enforceability of the rules is a dicey issue for the authorities.

The loopholes

Despite the Health Trade Licence rider, PG accommodations find no mention in the list of trades allowed in residential areas in the BDA’s Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) which regulates land use in the city. However, there is a mention of “Hostels, including working women and men’s hostels,” in the list.

“There is practically no difference between a hostel and a paying guest accommodation; it is just a difference in names… they are to be treated as the same,” argued Devaki Umesh, Health Officer for Bangalore West Zone.

However, almost all the revenue and health officers that this reporter spoke to insisted that there is a difference between them but were not sure what it is.

And most of them claimed that there are no laws, as yet, to govern PG accommodations.

According to a senior official working for the Health Department of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, there are thousands of properties which house PGs and yet pass themselves off as residential property. Revealing the surprising ease with which owners can retain the tag of residential property, the official said: “All an owner needs to do is avoid putting up boards announcing the nature of the residence.”

The official added that despite this the authorities can book the violators; but negligence coupled with ignorance within the departments about the rules governing PG accommodation throws a spanner in the works.

BBMP Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) D.L. Chandrashekar admitted that the most PGs are running without licences and that it was translating into loss of revenue to the civic body.

He said he had asked his subordinates to identify such PG accommodations and bring them in the tax net.

Pramila Nesargi, chairperson of Karnataka Women’s Commission, who is vociferous in her criticism of the way most PG owners conduct their business, said that it was an issue of safeguarding the interests of the tenant, who in most cases happens to be a student, a woman or someone who cannot afford to rent a house in the city.

She said in the case of rented or leased out property the owner of the house cannot deprive the tenant of basic amenities such as water and electricity and the tenant could go to court to have these amenities restored.

“The basic problem is there are no agreements between the tenants and the owners. This means that the tenant can be thrown out without a notice at any time of the day,” she pointed out.

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