Tenants beware: Property recovery agents in town

Tenants beware: property recovery agents in town
Ashwini Shrivastava
New Delhi, Mar 23: Tenants who thought grabbing
rented property was easy now have to give it a second thought.
Troubled landlords are now increasingly calling the
dreaded and controversial loan recovery agents who claim to
recover rented-out property "by hook or by crook", to their
aid.
The emerging trend, which clearly involves taking law
into one's own hands, has boosted businesses of these "service
providers", who obviously do not refrain from using "slight
muscle power" to crack tough nuts.
"At least five to ten cases come to us every month.
Landlords ask us to get their property vacant at our charges,"
says Pankaj Singh, who owns one such recovery agency.
While the 'agents' start with trying to persuade the
concerned tenants, they also do not hesitate to use 'slight
muscle power' to dislodge the more obstinate ones, he says.
"Our employees, in group of 10, reach the concerned
tenants and ask them to vacate the property politely. If they
show rigidity we use slight muscle power," says Singh, who
charges any thing between Rs 20,000-80,000 or more depending
upon the size and locality of the property.
"People easily succumb to our request as they know
they are wrong," he adds.
The problem actually stems from the fact that there
have been reported cases of tenants usurping owners' property.
In typical cases, they pay rent for two-three months
and then try to occupy the property, say owners.
"I had never thought we were so vulnerable to tenants.
After paying rent for almost two years, my tenants refused to
pay further. He even threatened me with dire consequences,"
says Aditya Katiyar (name changed), owner of a PR agency. "Thanks to the recovery agents who helped me in
getting my property evicted," says Aditya.
The service providers guarantee total anonymity to the
owners and consider their job as "legal."
"We take care of clients privacy and were mostly
approached by high-profile people," says Pankaj, adding,"I
don't feel there is anything illegal in it. After all we are
doing this to help them."
It is not that only owners at the national capital are
relying on unscruplous tenants but NRIs and the ones living in
other cities also find them useful.
"One Ravi Kurumbaiah rented our commercial property
in Bangalore and conspired to grab it. Moreover, he initiated
frivolous litigation charges against me", says Padmamalini
Rao, an NRI, who rented her space in posh area on lease.
Being a wealthy businessman Kurumbaiah, was able to
take undue advantage of his "political and administrative"
contacts, Rao says.
"After almost nine years of fighting a legal and
administrative battle, I have decided to engage property
recovery agents to bail me out of the situation," she adds.
Though, there are laws which grant security against
such incidences, more needs to be done for effective results,
experts feel.
On its part, police deny the presence of such agents
and ask people to approach it rather than resorting to
recovery agents.
"Whenever people with such cases of property grabbing
and coercion approach us, we immediately act on it. I suggest
people not to take help of these recovery agents and instead
report their grievance to police," says Rajan Bhagat, Public
Relation Officer, Delhi Police.
"Law doesn't permit any person to traumatise or harm
others. If a tenant reports such extortion, we shall take
necessary legal action on them (agents)," Bhagat adds.