Rental Agreement Dispute

3 years ago

Hi. On Sep 2019, 4 of our friends rented a double bedroom flat in Thane through a broker. The agreement was done for 11 months for a rent of Rs. 26,000 and a security deposit of Rs. 1,25,000. Also, 11 blank cheques were submitted to the owner in case of rent payment failure, but the same was not mentioned in agreement. Also, as the owner insisted on making the agreement with only one person, one of our friends had done the agreement with him. But eventually in Jan 2020, the friend, who made the agreement, had left due to her job transfer to another city. The agreement was valid till Aug 24, 2020 and has a lock-in period of 3 months. A prior notice of 1 month should be given before vacating the flat. So, we have decided and informed the owner about flat vacating on 25 Aug 2020 as the agreement expired and all of us are in our hometowns due to work from home. We have vacated and handed over the keys on 29 Aug 2020. Ideally, as agreement has expired we do not need to give any prior notice but we have given 1 month notice and accepted when the owner told that he will cut 1 month rent from security deposit. So, we should have received our deposit by 25 Sep 2020. But as the owner informed us that he has some financial issues and will give back our deposit by 15 Oct 2020, we waited with patience. After waiting till 15 Oct, the owner has informed us the net amount which he will be giving back which is Rs. 61000. The deductions, as informed by him, were - Sep 2020 rent Rs. 26,000 + Flush not working Rs. 2,000 + AC remote not working Rs. 1,000 + Re-painting charges of flat Rs. 35,000 = Rs. 64,000. Flat re-painting was never mentioned in agreement and also, newly painted flat was not handed over. When we confronted him with the same, he was like "Okay. If you are going by the agreement. Then you have violated clause 8 which is transfer of tenancy not possible. So by that I can deny giving you back any deposit", because after our agreement friend had vacated the flat we were dealing with flat related talks to him. But when he started complaining that all of us can't talk to him, as we were not in agreement, we asked our agreement friend to talk and she's the one who was contacting him for return of security deposit. So, that can't be a violation and also if it is, he should be mentioning the point forehand. Now, he's denying the return of the security deposit. Please advise on what can be done against him.