If a property let out on rent becomes uninhabitable due to an event of force majeure or the tenant is unable to reside due to occurrence of such event, the landlord shall not charge rent until the said premises is restored, according to a Bill adopted by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
The Bill, tabled by Minister for Housing S. Muthusamy, sought to amend the Tamil Nadu Regulation of Rights and Responsibilities of Landlords and Tenants Act, 2017 in the light of the Model Tenancy Act, 2021, that was approved by the Union government in June last year.
If the rented premises becomes uninhabitable and the landlord fails to carry out the required repairs to make it habitable or the said premises could not be made inhabitable, then, the security deposit and advance rent shall be refunded by the landlord to the tenant within a period of 15 days of the expiry of the notice period, after making due deduction of liability of the tenant, if any, it said.
“For the purposes of this section, “force majeure” means a situation of war, flood, drought, fire, cyclone, earthquake or any other calamity caused by nature, affecting the habitation of the tenant in the premises let out on rent,” it said. As for sub-letting, if agreed by the landlord and tenant upon entering into a supplementary agreement to the existing tenancy agreement, they shall jointly inform the rent authority about the sub-tenancy within two months from the execution of the agreement.
The Bill also amended the Act to say that a landlord or the property manager “may enter a premises let out on rent after serving a notice to the tenant, in writing or through electronic mode”. Earlier, the Act said that a landlord or the property manager “may enter a premises in accordance with written notice given to the tenant.”
The Bill also provided for new provisions in case the property manager acted against the instructions of the landlord. “Where the property manager acts, in contravention of the provisions of sub-section (1) or against the instructions of the landlord, the rent authority may, on an application made to it by the landlord or tenant in that behalf, remove the property manager or impose such costs on the property manager so as to compensate any loss incurred by the landlord or tenant due to such contravention.”
It also said the rent court (on an application made to it) can issue an order for the recovery of possession of the premises if the tenant “does not agree to pay the rent payable under section 8” and if the tenant “has carried out any structural change or erected any permanent structure in the premises let out on rent without the written consent of the landlord.”
