How to Register a Rental Agreement in Gurgaon such that the Law is in Your Favour?
A rental agreement is anyways, a legal document. It is your responsibility as a tenant/owner to take proper precautions and measures while drafting it. After all, this is the document that can help you protect from any unwanted situations. As opposed to this, there are a number of individuals who simply use the clauses from the sample documents and get it registered.
Now, when the actual problem or issue encircles them, they feel trapped, and they cannot even seek any type of legal help. Let’s talk about Gurgaon, the city that is constantly widening its developmental capabilities. The metro in Gurgaon has made it easy for the people working and studying in other parts of Delhi and Noida to reside in Gurgaon at a cheaper rent. However, the lack of awareness regarding the proper format of the rental agreement is what keeps them away from enjoying the rights the constitution of India provides to them.
If you are someone who has recently moved into Gurgaon and are striving to rent a property or a landlord looking for tenant, then you should read this guide till the end to use the law in your favour.
What are the Top Mistakes that you Should Avoid While Registering a Rental Agreement in Gurgaon?
You will find many guides on the Internet that tell you what you should do. However, it is equally important for you to understand what you should not do when it comes to creating a draft for the rental agreement in Gurgaon. Below are some of the top mistakes that tenants and owners make while registering a rental agreement:
- Not Mentioning the Duration for the Rental Agreement
Any type of legal document has its own limits. When we are talking about a rental property, there should be a stipulated timeframe for which a landlord might want to rent his property. The absence of the rental period in the agreement can cause serious implications for both the tenant and the landlord.
In such circumstances, the landlord can terminate the contract at any period of time and not pay the security deposit. The tenant may not have any place to reside due to the sudden eviction. Usually, the owner does not have any liability to give a reason for the eviction. Hence, as a precautionary measure, the tenant must discuss the lock-in period before moving in and mention it in the rental agreement.
When the lock-in period is not mentioned, the owners cannot have the right to increase the rental property, and the tenant can decide to stay in for as long or as little as he wants.
- Not Mentioning the Notice Period and the Termination Scenario
A healthy relationship between the tenant and an owner begins when they talk about the end of their relationship, meaning, they need to mutually decide the nature of the termination process. Usually, a rental agreement cannot be terminated after the end of the lock-in period. It gets auto-renewed. However, if the owner and the tenant do not wish to continue with the agreement, they can mutually agree on terminating the contract.
An absence of this clause can cause a loss to an owner. He may have put several resources to look for a tenant for his property. If the tenant moves out only within a couple of months, the owner has to start his quest for a tenant from scratch and go through the entire rental agreement registration procedure. On the other hand, a landlord can impose his decision on the tenant to vacate the rental property at any moment of time.
Hence, it is crucial to decide the notice period and the ideal form of agreement termination, which will serve the best interest of the tenant and the owner.
- Not Mentioning the Security Deposit Clause
Usually, a tenant gets his security deposit back when he vacates the flat. However, there are some unwanted scenarios that an owner has to face, wherein he may not provide the security deposit back to the tenant. Such scenarios include the damage to the rental property, breach of agreement, involvement of the tenant in illegal activities, etc. Without mentioning the security deposit clause, the owner becomes powerless to hold the rent.
Besides this, when the tenant does not pay the rent on time and evicts the flat after the exhaustion of the security deposit, the owner may have to bear the loss. Hence, you must include the security deposit clause in your rental agreement.
- Not Mentioning the Liability to Pay for Maintenance and Other Costs
One of the top reasons for the increasing number of conflicts between an owner and a tenant arises due to the payment of charges other than the rent and security deposit. Ideally, the onus is upon the owner to pay for any type of repair, maintenance, or paintwork in the rental property, as the tenant is residing in the flat for a limited time. However, an owner can make a tenant pay in case they do not have the clause in writing.
Besides this, even if two parties consider the ideal scenario, an owner may be in a puddle when the tenant does any serious damage to the rental property. In this case, the owner has every right to ask the tenant to pay for the loss caused to his property. The same has to be mentioned in the rental agreement to avoid any conflicts in the later stage.
- Not Mentioning the Rental Property Rules in the Rental Agreement
A homeowner may not want his tenant to cook and eat non-vegetarian within the premises. Moreover, he may even have a problem with the abuse of alcohol on his property. Hence, it is always a good idea to have everything in writing. When the dos and don’ts are put on the stamp paper, the owner possesses the right to terminate the contract when he observes that the tenant is breaching the agreement.
If the property rules are not mentioned in the agreement, the tenant may take the property for granted, and the owner may not have any proof regarding the agreed terms. Besides this, the owner may intervene and interfere in the rental property, which is against the ideal scenario in the rental norms. Hence, having such property rules that work in favour of both parties can give them peace of mind.
- Not Mentioning the Increase in the Rent
You, as a tenant, may have ensured that your owner would not increase the rent of the rental property during the lock-in period. However, if you don’t have it in writing, you are at risk. Your owner may all of a sudden ask you for a revised rent. When you do not agree to the increased rent, he may ask you to vacate the flat without any prior notice, on the grounds that you abide by the rules set by him.
Hence, you should have a space in the rental agreement for the rental clause, which clearly states whether an owner can increase the rent during the lock-in period or not.
- Not Mentioning the Shared Facilities and Appliances
When a tenant moves in, it is the responsibility for the owner to offer him a comfortable stay. However, he cannot offer more than he has promised during the time of renting his property. For example, the owner may have promised to provide parking to the tenant. By parking area, he must have looked at the two-wheeler. However, after staying in for a while, the tenant gets a car and may not have the required space and can ask the owner for him to provide the space as promised.
Such cases of confusion often give rise to conflicts. There are high chances of conflicts when the owner stays in the same building as that of the tenant. Hence, both parties should ensure utmost clarity in terms of the usage of the rental area and the utilities present in the premises.
- Not Registering the Rental Property
As per the Constitution of India and the jurisdiction of Gurgaon, it is mandatory to register a rental agreement. Only in cases when the lock-in period is less than the period of 11 months, you are exempted from the registration process. However, even in such cases, you need to have the rental agreement created on the stamp paper of a value equal to that of 2% of the total rent in a year and deposit.
The government has been taking conscious efforts in identifying tenants who are staying illegally in the rental properties. In this case, the legal sit may put the owner behind the bars for not paying the tax for the revenue he generates.
All-in-all, you should not only refer to the sample copies that are present on the Internet. A little professional help can take you a long way. In case you are stuck with the registration of the rental agreement, you can directly contact NoBroker to help you through with utmost ease.