Your
Advocate
Q:
I am an Asstt. Professor of a Govt. college in Dhaka. I live with my
family of four members and a maid servant in a two-bed- room apartment
of a building owned by a retired Customs Inspector. My wife also is
working for a Bank in Dhaka. We are somehow jointly running our family
here in Dhaka and I have in particular additional recurring expenditures
to be made against my parents and one of my college-going sisters living
outside Dhaka. So with our small earnings monetary constraint so much
occupy our minds and thoughts so that life sometimes seems to have no
other meaning but to earn our bread and butter. All the middle and lower
middle class families, as I understand, more or less share the similar
reality of life in Bangladesh.
Our intolerably
repressive world of house-rent and the often unbearable acts, behaviour
and attitudes of the landlords have made life more miserable. Attitudinally
most of the landlords, sometimes even their servants and employees are
yet not shaped up in terms of their true rights and positions. Landlords
in many cases, tend to demonstrate a kind of authoritative attitude
towards the tenants irrespective of tenants educational, social or other
status as against him. Demanding advance for as many months as is wished;
increasing house rent every year in total disregard of the increment
received by a govt. servant or other service-holders every year; controlling
the meters and putting restraint on water supply and stopping water
and power lines in case of outbreak of altercations for any reason;
unnoticed starting of construction, repair or beautification works on
the roof or upstairs causing unbearable noise, dust and annoyance; asking
the tenant at will to leave the house within a month in disregard of
the suffering and huge expenses of shifting to be taken by a family
of modest income. This seems to a bit of feudal sentiment still lingering
with those who somehow become owner of a house particularly in Dhaka.
I have heard in our neighbouring state particularly in Calcutta the
situation is balanced by law rather weighed in favour of the tenant.
I am facing much of this soul searing problem
With the backdrop
of facts, I feel like asking you few questions with the hope you will
kindly reply. The questions are a) can a landlord ask at will his/her
tenant to leave the house ? b) can he/she ask advance equal to the rent
of six months or so? c) can a landlord control water or gas or electricity
meters? d) can he/she cut off the line to create pressure upon the tenant?
e) can a landlord ask the tenant to leave the house at will or on false
excuses? can the landlord create any nuisance by unnoticed start of
construction/repair etc. works to the annoyance of the tenant? Can he/she
control or cut of water and/or electricity line to create pressure upon
the tenant?
Thank you in anticipation.
-Quazi Sarwar Jahan Dhaka.
Your
Advocate: I don't know how much of your mental disquiet may
be ameliorated by reference to law but I can assure you that I have
realised your state of mind and squarely share the sufferings you and
innumerable others of our country are undergoing every passing day.
You have asked a
number of questions calling for elaborate legal discourse which does
not conform the short space of newspaper columns. For the sake of brevity
let me address your problem in a boiled form.
The world of landlord
and tenant is not a feel-good world in our country. The humiliation
and harassment you have articulated is a suffering-in-common and so
well shared by all that the law makers had to introduce a new law entitled-
Premises Rent Control Act,1991, in suppression of the earlier Premises
Rent Control Ordinance with a view to bringing about a balance in the
conflicting interest of landlord and tenant particularly in our urban
life. The present law prohibits demanding an advance more than the amount
of rent payable for one month without the prior permission of the Rent
Controller. Asking to leave the house at will was never permissible
under law. In the old as well as new law landlords can only ask the
tenant to leave the premises when bona fide requirements like construction,
reconstruction, personal use or for the use of any real beneficiary
of the house arise.
As for controlling
meters and cutting of water, electricity etc. lines as a device of creating
pressure upon the tenant, I must say, it does not come within the legal
scale of conduct far less civilised scale. I, as a lawyer and a conscious
citizen still unaware of any law which permits such a control and application
of meters and switch as you have indicated. These practices as I understand,
have been developed by the urban house- owners to retain undue control
over their tenants.
Finally, the question
of starting construction or other works without any courtesy to inform
the tenant and thus showing feudal attitude to the detriment of comfort
and other civic rights of the tenant. This is unfortunate. There is
no law approving such conduct of the housemasters. This is a 'nuisance''
against which relief can well be sought in the appropriate court of
law.
Your
Advocate M. Moazzam Husain is a lawyer of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
His professional interests include civil law, criminal law and constitutional
law.
Corresponding
with the Law Desk
Please send your mails, queries, and opinions to: Law Desk, The
Daily Star 19 Karwan Bazar, Dhaka-1215; telephone 8124944,8124955,fax
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