Karnataka house owners may soon be barred from demanding more than two months rent as advance

Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka on Thursday said the state government was considering adopting the Centre’s Model Tenancy Act in order to end the relentless tenant-owner disputes and revitalise the rental housing sector.

The government's intention to adopt the Act comes a month after the Union Cabinet approved it for circulation to all the states.

“We are simplifying the current tenancy act,” Ashoka said. “Earlier, the government had a role in fixing the rent. However, we now propose that the rent should be fixed by both the parties -- owner and tenant -- and after reaching an agreement, they need to finalise it legally and upload it onto the government’s portal,” he explained.

Most house owners, especially in Bengaluru, ask tenants to cough up 5-10 months of rent as advance. If the new tenancy law is adopted, owners cannot collect more than two months’ rent as advance. The Act gives supremacy to the rental agreement and stipulates the formation of a Rent Authority to address disputes.

Also read: Owner-tenant practices set to change with new legislation

“In case of any dispute, the concerned officials will resolve it in under 60 days. We’re planning that the disputes should be settled within 60 days and even if anyone plans to postpone the hearing, there won't be more than three chances,” Ashoka said.

Wary of disputes, many owners keep their houses vacant without renting them.

“Currently, around 2-3 lakh houses are vacant in Bengaluru alone. We hope that once this Act is implemented, owners will get their tenants while the rents may also come down,” Ashoka said.

“This is just a proposal and we’re expecting feedback from the public before officially introducing this in the state,” he said.

Goodbye to regional commissioners?

The government has plans to abolish the post of all four regional commissioners, Ashoka said. This was one of the recommendations made by the Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission-II recently.

“I’ve been thinking of this for the last six months. The regional commissioners’ offices have become white elephants. We’ve been spending crores of money on them, and they don’t have much work to do,” Ashoka said, adding that each of these offices had over 125 staff and all four regional commissioners received only 250 petitions or appeals so far. “It’s nothing but a waste of resources.”