YOUR ADVOCATE
This week Your Advocate is Barrister Tanjib-ul Alam, Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He is the head of the chamber of a renowned law firm, namely, 'Tanjib-ul Alam and Associates ',which has expertise mainly in commercial law, corporate law, admiralty, employment and labor law, land law, banking law, constitutional law, telecom law, energy law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property Rights and in conducting litigations before courts of different hierarchies.
Query
“Please advise me what measures can one take if a tenant does not pay rent to the landlord according to agreement?
Does the landlord can disconnect his electricity, gas and water supply connection?
Best regards
Dr. Zakir.”
Response
The law that governs the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants is the Premises Rent Control Act, 1991 (“the Act”). Under the Act, the earlier law relating to premises rent control has been repealed with the aim to implement a tighter control on the landlords and inhibit them from increasing rent or evicting tenants at their will. Current law tends to favour the interest of tenants with very limited recourse to the landlord. Under the Act the landlords have very limited right to evict a tenant as provided in section 18 of the Act, which provides as long as a tenant pays his rent regularly and complies with the terms and conditions of renting premises, he cannot be evicted except in the following in five situations where (1) the tenant has done any act contrary to the provisions of clause m), clause c) or clause p) of section 108 of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882; (2) in the absence of any contract to the contrary, the tenant has, without the consent of the landlord in writing, sublet the premises in whole or in part; (3) the tenant has been guilty of any such conduct as is a nuisance or an annoyance to occupiers of adjoining or neighboring premises; (4) the tenant has been using the premises or part thereof or allowing the premises or part thereon to be used for economic purposes; or (5) the premises are bona fide required by the landlord either for purposes of building or rebuilding the premises or for his own occupation or for the occupation of any person for whose benefit the premises are held, or where the landlord can show any cause which may be deemed satisfactory by court. However, if any tenant pays rent regularly and complies with the terms of the rental agreement in such an event he will get the protection from being evicted.
It would appear from the above, if any tenant fails or refuses to pay rent in accordance with the terms of the rental agreement, in such an event in view of the provisions of the act, the first measure any landlord may take is to terminate the rental agreement by issuing notice to the defaulting tenant. Secondly, the landlord may issue an eviction notice to the defaulting tenant outlining the defaults committed by the said tenant particularly the period from which rent has been outstanding and allow certain period to vacate the premises as stipulated in the rental agreement, if any. In the absence of any rental agreement the landlord will have to allow the tenant 15 days period to vacate the premise. The termination of the rental agreement and the eviction notice can be issued in one single letter.
In the event the defaulting tenant forcefully occupies the premise without paying rent, the landlord will have to file an eviction suit in order to evict the defaulting tenant from the premises and recovering the arrear rent. The landlord will have to file the suit before the Senior Assistant Judge (Small Cause Court) for recovery of possession, arrear rent and compensation from the defaulting tenant.
As for the second query, the provisions of the Premises Rent Control Act, 1991 do not permit the landlord to disconnect water, gas and electricity connection under any circumstances. The landlord has no other alternative but to file an eviction suit if any defaulting tenant forcefully occupies any premises despite receiving eviction notice from the landlord.
For detailed query contact: [email protected]
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