The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Soaring rent, a heart-rending phenomenon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 02, 2007
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Soaring rent, a heart-rending phenomenon

City Bureau

It is easier for MNC employees coming to Chennai on transfer to find accommodation

— File photo: N. Sridharan

Time to Move: With rentals shooting up in Chennai, finding affordable accommodation has become a struggle for many middle-class residents.

CHENNAI: Soaring rent is increasingly putting many localities in the city out of reach of its middle class residents. More than property values, rental value can fluctuate according to location, quality of accommodation and access to facilities.

Groups of newly-arrived professionals, particularly those working in multi-national companies and IT firms, are often the only ones who can afford accommodation in areas such as Velachery, Adyar, Besant Nagar and Tiruvanmiyur. “Five years ago, the rent in Adyar was Rs. 5,000 for a double-bedroom accommodation. Now, with foreign companies setting up shop in these areas, middle class people find it difficult to find houses for rent,” says Natchathra Mary of Nivedhan Trust who faced problems in finding accommodation.

Single-bedroom accommodation on the third floor of an apartment complex in Vannanthurai near Besant Nagar now costs Rs. 8,000 a month as against Rs.4,000 two years ago. The apartment does not even have a lift, but it gets snapped up hours after a tenant vacates. “People are not complaining because they think it is normal for rents to go up,” Ms. Mary says.

C. Paul Barnabas, district president of Tamilnadu Consumer Protection Organisation, says it is easier to find accommodation for people coming into Chennai to work for big companies. “Even if rent is high they do not hesitate as they get paid fat salaries. It is the middle-class residents in the city who suffer. Though they are willing to talk they will not make a formal complaint,” he says. The problem is compounded because many house-owners do not have the practice of issuing receipts for rents received, he adds.

Unwritten rules

It is an unwritten rule that a person must pay 10 months’ rent as advance towards taking up a rental accommodation. At the end of the period of occupation, the house-owner will decide if any amount needs to be deducted towards maintenance, painting and repairs. This advance, though, has not gone up simultaneously with rentals. Often people continue to take an advance of Rs.50,000 or Rs. 60,000, though the rent may be Rs. 7,000 or Rs. 8,000.

There is another rule that house owners do not bother informing tenants often – an increase in the rent by 10 per cent every year. This rule is applied inflexibly to ‘less-desirable’ tenants such as the unmarried or those living alone. Tenants that share a good rapport with landlords can negotiate this clause away or settle for smaller increments.

These rules are frequently not covered by written agreements. Legal recourse is available to fix fair rent or prevent eviction. With cases typically taking two years to find conclusion, this is not an option for many.

The recent property re-assessment has also provided house owners an excuse for increasing rent. The owner of a four-storeyed building in Triplicane increased the monthly rent by Rs.500 after he received a property tax demand of Rs.1.78 lakh, including arrears after re-assessment. “We now have to pay Rs.5,250 for a 450 square feet flat. None of the tenants protested because rentals are up everywhere,” said A. Anusha, a tenant.

Parking woes

Residential rentals in thickly populated localities such as Triplicane, Royapettah, Chintadripet, T. Nagar and Saidapet are high because they are close to hubs of commercial activity. Many old buildings have been demolished to make way for flats that resemble pigeonhole units.

“Despite the lack of parking space and narrow approach corridors, these are preferred by many middle class families because they cannot afford spacious apartments,” said R. Pandian, a broker in Royapettah. Even these small units are rented out at about Rs. 6,000 per month.

Tenants need to check on various aspects before deciding on an apartment. In Kasturba Nagar, Adyar, in an apartment a prospective tenant was told that he would have to park his car on the road. The rent was Rs. 10,000 for a double bedroom flat. He was told that there was no fear of his vehicle being stolen as a watchman patrolled the area every night.

In another flat in Kalakshetra Colony where the rent quoted was Rs.14,000 the building had no marked slots for cars. What it meant was those coming home late at night had to get up early and park their car outside so that others could take out their cars.

Suburban boom

With the space crunch inside the city, the number of property transactions in the suburban areas has doubled . While rentals in the western suburbs are lower than in the city, several areas in the fringes of the city have witnessed a steady increase in the rental charges over the past few years.

Residents of Avadi and Ambattur point out that rental charges have almost doubled in little more than two years. A resident of Ambattur B. Rajendra Prasad said that though Ambattur lacked basic amenities, people choose the area for its proximity to the city and lower costs of living.

An average rent quoted for a 700 sq.ft. apartment in Ambattur is about Rs.3,500. It is higher along arterial roads and rental for individual houses of same space would be more.

Residents have to compromise on travel time and petrol in exchange for economical housing in the suburbs. S.V.Chalapathy, a resident of Korattur, said he shifted to Korattur from interior Ambattur despite higher rent as he lost time commuting on the heavily congested Chennai-Tiruvallur High Road. In Korattur, renting a 800 sq.ft. flat would cost upwards of Rs.4,500, including maintenance fee.

Rent fixation

The law provides for fixation of fair rent and protection of tenants from unlawful eviction. Several cases have come to court in connection with the Tamil Nadu Buildings Lease and Rent Control Act, 1960, in the city.

The Act also protects tenants against unlawful termination of access to basic amenities such as water or sewage connection. It, however, allows eviction for wilful default, acts of nuisance , denial of title or keeping premises unused above specified periods of time on the part of the tenant.

The landowner can also remove tenants for his own use occupation, requirement of premises for additional accommodation, repair, demolition or reconstruction purposes.

In case the tenant feels that rent is being increased unfairly, he can approach the court with a request for fixation of rent.

In case there is no written agreement, statutory tenants can still approach the court, provided the building is more than five years old.

However, legal experts say that the Act requires amendment in tune with latest developments.

The law is predominantly in favour of the tenant. Cases take more than two years to be disposed of.

(With inputs from J.Malarvizhi, K.Lakshmi, Kannal Achuthan and R.Sujatha)

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail