Register rent agreement before August 22: Govt

The state government has fixed August 22 as the deadline for registering the rent agreements which were finalised before the Act was implemented.

This has been mandated by a recent amendment to the Tamil Nadu Regulation of Rights and Responsibilities of Landlords and Tenants Act, 2017.

After the Act came into effect on February 22, the government had given a 90-day window to register all the older agreements entered before the Act came into force.

The Tenancy Act mandates the landlord to register the tenancy agreement entered into between the landlord and tenant with Rent Authority, who would provide a registration number in 15 days. As mandated by the Act, Rent Authorities have been constituted in Chennai district.

The Act was brought in to protect the interest of tenants as well as to resolve any dispute between the tenants and landlords. The Act also has a clause allowing the Rent Court to levy a penalty on the landlord extending up to Rs 25,000, if the landlord re-let the premises within three years after vacating the earlier tenant by claiming personal occupation.

Even though the Rent Authorities and Rent Courts have been constituted in Chennai, the Act has evoked only lukewarm response thus far. Neither Chennai Collectorate nor the Housing and Urban Development Department is maintaining any centralised record pertaining to the number of agreements registered with Rent Authorities.

On the other hand, both tenants and landlords in the city remain oblivious to the Act and its mandates, as the department has failed to create awareness on the provisions of the Act.

“We have been staying in a rented house in Choolaimedu for nearly nine months and our owner is yet to register the tenancy. He does not know the procedure and even I came to know about the Act only recently,” M Vishnu, a resident said.