True Stories from Clients

We have listed below some real life true stories. We have changed the name and place to protect the identity. You also might have heard about properties being taken over by miscreants. When a property is not managed properly by the owner anything can happen.

Legal Course of Action for Problematic Tenant

Antony has an apartment which is located in a gated community with multi story apartment buildings. This is one of the apartment complexes in Chennai having large number of apartments with state of the art amenities. This apartment complex has few thousand apartment units. It is one of the most beautiful Residential Developments located in Chennai.

Antony bought this house in this gated community primarily to be a rental property. Since Antony was a non resident of Chennai and was living elsewhere he decided to hire a property management company to be his Property Manager. Antony did an online search and shortlisted our company for property management. He contacted us and checked out our terms and conditions and signed a contract with us for Property Management and related services.

Right before hiring a property manager the Land lord was also working on identifying a prospective tenant through his source. The source was none other than a traditional street Laundry Man or Dhobi. He is a part time realtor and lives in the area close to his property. One of his friends who owns an apartment nearby had found a tenant through this person and hence he trusted this source. These part time street Laundry Men are considered a good source since they are there in the locality all the time and are known to the locals.

The prospective tenant that the land lord chose was a young couple in the entertainments and media industry. Antony informed us that he has already finalized a tenant and needs Rental Agreement to be signed and requested our help to get the agreement signed as part of the service. 360 Property MS usually verifies tenants using their time tested standard background checks before signing any rental agreement. They have been doing this background check exercise for all the properties that they manage. Even though this tenant was identified by the Landlord, 360 Property MS did a simple check on their own. The Land lord was advised against confirming this tenant as our company would not approve this tenant based on company’s experience. However, the Land lord was ready to take the risk and gave a go ahead for the tenant that he had already finalized. 360 Property MS was reluctant initially but decided to proceed as they are already in a signed contract with this land Lord for Property Management Services.

The rental agreement was signed by the Tenant and the tenant moved into the apartment. Everything was going smooth for more than a year. Then suddenly the tenant started defaulting on apartment association monthly maintenance charges accusing that the community association was not providing all the services for the money that they collect. This was soon followed by delay of monthly rent payments. Due to this delay 360 Property MS had no choice but to follow up very aggressively for rent collection. The spouse was shocked and upset when she came to know about the payment default as she was also contributing to the family expenses. The tenant was falling way behind in monthly rent payments. This went on for several months and the deposit amount was close to getting exhausted. Tenant came up with new reasons and excuses for not paying the rent. Tenant said he will not pay the rent and also will not vacate and will file a case under The Tamil Nadu Regulation of Rights and Responsibilities of Landlords and Tenants Act 2017 accusing us for getting rental contract signed from him hiding much information regarding the property and the amenities.

Basically, to put it in few words the tenant did not have intention of paying the rent. His plan was to continue staying in the apartment and try to get some monetary compensation from the Land lord in case he has to leave. His idea was legal process will take a very long time and he can enjoy the house for a long time to come. Tenant insisted that that he will only deal with the Landlord directly knowing very well that the landlord did not live in Chennai and that we represent the land lord. Tenant asked us not to contact him and threatened to file a legal case against us also. The property management company was a hindrance for his plan. But, we clearly told that we are Land lord’s legal representatives and he has to deal with us only.

When 360 Property MS moved aggressively, the tenant shifted to another house temporarily but kept all his furniture etc., in the house. Tenant was under the impression that we will not be able to take action as his things are still there in the house and it will be property theft case. He wanted to make it as difficult as possible for the land lord.

At this stage 360 Property MS advised the Landlord to go for legal process immediately and also decided to file a complaint with the local Law enforcement. The landlord was reluctant at first. This will involve not only spending money and time but also loss of income from rental income from the property. But when all the options got exhausted there was no choice for the Land lord other than accepting our advice and following legal recourse.

Legal Course of Action for Problematic Tenant is not an easy process for us either. First, we hired an advocate to represent us legally. We filed a complaint with the law enforcement. The tenant was very dodgy. Tenant gave a counter reply to our case and accused the owner and 360 Property MS for wrong doing and collecting rent without any proper service. Tenant also mentioned in his complaint to the police that we had concealed many facts while signing the agreement. 360 Property MS had to send a company representative along with the lawyer whenever we had to go to the police station. To add to the problem, we had to wait several hours in the Police station as they do not honor the time committed to us for the case. Often our representative wait will go till midnight. This went on for few times a week for few months. We also found out that the tenant had influenced the person in Police department dealing with our case by “taking care” of him. This made it even worse for us.

This was dragging unnecessarily and that was what the tenant wanted. The Police negotiators suggested a compromise and suggested that we give some compensation to the tenant and settle the matter. Our attorney also felt that is the right solution to bring it to a close to avoid waste of time and money. The tenant demand was very high. 360 Property MS did not agree to any of the demand and told that we are willing to go to step up legal process. But after negotiation a decent amount was agreed to be given as settlement to the tenant by the Landlord. This was adjusted with the deposit amount.

Rental property is very good for the rental property owners when everything goes well. But, when there is an unruly tenant we have to go through a lot of difficulties. This is very difficult for any land lord to handle. Imagine a land lord who lives away from from his property like many OCI/NRI’s do. They would have been totally helpless. Antony was partly lucky because he had signed an agreement with a Property Management company representing him. Yes, there was loss of income, loss of time and expenses made. But, in the end everything was settled.

360 Property Management Services handled the whole matter in a very professional way. The trouble that the company had to go through for this legal process because of this unusual unruly tenant was not worth it for the Property Management company. This was not only a very good experience for 360 Property Management but also many things were learnt during this whole process. These types of incidents are very rare. But, we have the experience to handle it well.

The Landlord told us that he could not have handled this kind of situation on his own. He now realizes the value of property management services and without the professional help he could have gone through even more stress.

Savitha is from Bangalore. Her family has few properties in Chennai. She got married and lives with her family in Japan for the last 8 years. They visit India every year. They have been managing the property using the help from their friends and relatives. The tenants who were there for last seven years have vacated and they needed help. However, since the people who helped them are not cooperating in the recent past they decided to take the help from property management companies. After deliberating for a long time they came to us. They asked lot of questions and finally decided to become our clients. They asked for discounts which we did not agree. Then they wanted to do some repair work (refurbishing). It was all minor requirements like fixing fans, bulbs, heaters and also some semi major wood work. We quoted a rate which was minimal one day labor charges for a handyman and few days work for carpenter. However, Savitha said the rates are high and told that when she comes to India she will supervise all this and do it herself and then give it to us for property management. She came to India for three weeks vacation with her children. She was able to complete all the work as she planned. But, if you look closer the story is different. She completed all the work. But at what cost. She came for holidays. But, she spent most of the time for organizing the repair work. She thought she got a good deal for all the work done. But, in reality the rates we quoted and what she was able to get were slightly higher. What she did not realize is she spent all the valuable time in India for organizing this. She has not calculated the time for her self for supervising the job. All she did during her stay was doing this. She did not take her children anywhere. She also got very exhausted and tired. We explained to her that if she had spent 15 or 20 % more as supervisory charges to us- she could have done the same job with out any hassles. Only then she realized the value of professional property management services.

Vaidehi is basically from Chennai but is living in United Kingdom (UK). Her father was in Government service and was living in different parts of the country. At the time of retirement they decided to purchase a property in Chennai. They bought a good apartment in anna nagar. This was 20 years back. She and her husband come to India every two years to Chennai and stay for three weeks. Her Mother died few years back. So her father moved to UK and was living with the daughter. They did not leave the apartment for rent. They just kept the house locked. Whenever they come to India they come and stay in the house. Every time they come they have a surprise. The house will be filled with dust. They spend two days just cleaning the house. Last year when they came they had an even bigger surprise. The bedroom cupboard was having even more dirt. When they went closer they realized that there were termites. The cupboard was about to fall. The apartment was in very bad shape because it was not maintained properly. They realized they need to do something about it. They were not able to request their relatives or friends to take care of the property. Then finally they decided to hire a property management company and they contacted us

Diwakar has a vacant plot in Porur, Chennai. When he bought this property it was like a farm land. Nothing was there in the surrounding areas. So he was under the impression that this property will take some time to appreciate. All neighboring plots became buildings or houses except this plot. After several years one of his friends called him and asked why he has sold this gold mine since price are expected to sky rocket. Diwakar was shocked to learn that a local rowdy who has political clout was running a tea shop there for many years !

Nalini has a bungalow in Anna Nagar Chennai. Her relative helped her to rent it out to a wealthy widow with two children. This widow belonged to a reputed family. She had given six months rent as advance while renting the house. She paid just one month rent. After that she stopped paying the rent. Whenever she was given pressure she would say she did not like the Bungalow and wants to move out soon and the rent can be adjusted. It was found out she was well connected and also “Mistress” to a ruling party minister. Months and years passed. Nothing could be done. Nalini became helples and now is even afraid she may lose her property.

Arunagiri lives in Hong Kong and is an NRI. He has lived in and around Chennai and wanted to invest in a property. Recently he bought a property in a High Rise Apartment complex that has over 1500 apartments with all high end amenities in Chennai. When the time for hand over came – he visited Chennai personally to take charge. In the mean time he also spoke to several Property Managers to manage the property and short listed one. He came to Chennai and engaged a Contractor for carpenter work through a known source and to take care of all the interior furnishing of his new house. He spent all his 3 weeks of vacation just finalizing the carpenter and follow up on the work. The carpenter contractor started the work and the work was going on fine. Arunagiri had to leave for Hong Kong. The work was not completed on time. There was no one to take care of the property and follow up on the carpenters. He got very tensed. He contacted us and requested us to follow up on the wood work. We had told him that we do these services only for our PM clients and expressed our inability. He tried to monitor the contractor from Hong Kong. But there was no progress. He contacted us again and became our client. We took a look at the property and started following up on the contractor. However, the contractor backed out saying that he needs more money to complete the job. Arunagiri was ready for that also. But the contractor was not able to bring in carpenters to complete the job. The time was passing and no work was done. Arunagiri fired the contractor and then requested us to complete the work using our team. We usually do not get into these type of work since the work is not much but at the same time we need to pay the carpenters for the time. We had to find a new set of carpenters to finish the job. The job was tough because we had to spend more time on purchasing the same quality and color finish of the wood used. It took almost three weeks for us to finish. Our team did a good job. Arunagiri was very thankful to us for jumping in and completing the unfinished job work. His initial though was to save money and that is why he delayed in engaging a property manager and also found his own contractor. He also spent most of holiday time to stay and follow up the work and supervise. The end result was finally achieved. But he had to go through lot of stress due to that. He also spent 1 1/2 times more than the original budget. Vacation time that he gets every year was gone. Now he feels that he should have given all the responsibilities to a professional company who does this in the first place.

Ketan engaged a property management company in Chennai for his 3 bhk apartment as he moved to Europe. The first year had lot of developments. It took 4 months to find a tenant for the PM company. The tenant was good family and they started paying the rent promptly. Everything went well. The 2nd year renewal came for the property management company. He was hesitating to renew. He thought, “Why should I pay the PM company additionally. The rent is coming properly and the tenant is going to stay there for a while. If at all need arises then we can rehire the PM company”. But, still he renewed for the 2nd year. When the 3rd year renewal came he said this is it. We will not renew for sure. So, he informed the PM company and did not renew. Everything went well for another six months. The tenant got a transfer and he gave notice to vacate. Ketan was helpless. He went back to the PM and wanted to renew. The PM company was not interested. So he contacted his close relatives and asked them to take care of the vacation formalities etc., The relatives did spend lot of time and helped him out. The house was lying idle and locked. He wanted help in maintaining the property and renting it out. But, the relatives very clearly said it was a one time help and requested not to depend on them. Ketan was not only not able to rent out the property – the house was locked without maintenance for more than 18 months till he came to India for a short visit. He had two weeks vacation. He spent more than fifty percent of the time in cleaning the house. He realized the value of professional property management companies. He tried to save some money but ended up spending more money and also valuable time.

Kalyani is from USA. Her children are all well settled and live in United States. Kalyani has been living in US for the last thirty years. They speak Kannada. But, they have connections in Tamilnadu India. Her husband had bought some property in Coimbatore in the eighties. One of their friends had suggested to buy this property. Kalyani husband invested in this 5 ground land. They just left it to appreciate. They even forgot about it. Kalyani husband’s cousin was having all the original documents. Kalyani and family rarely traveled to India since all their family members are in the United States. Few years back – the cousin had come to visit his daughter’s family in US. At that time he gave all the documents to his Kalyani and her husband. Her husband decided to sell that property and give it his wife for future. Following year Kalyani husband died due to some illness. The cousin also died the year later. Kalyani did not know what to do with the property. She did not know how to transfer the property to her name as she is the legal heir of her husband. She requested her children to do the needful. But, the son and daughter have been very busy with their work and life and they did not know how to proceed. They were out of touch with the Indian system. They asked their friends to help. The friends did some ground work. But there was no result. So, Kalyani decided to travel to India to sort it out. She came to Coimbatore. She contacted her friends and relatives and tried to get the name transferred in her name. There were practical problems. She does not know Tamil and she did not know how to handle government departments in India. She made several visits to the Tashildar office. But in vain. She contacted some brokers. Brokers started fleecing her. She spent lot of money but nothing happened. She spent more than one lakh. Three months passed. The brokers were demanding another one Lakh. Finally, she got very vexed and frustrated and went back to United states without doing anything. This happened last year. Then she was trying to find out solutions and asked local friends to help. One of them suggested to try Property Management companies in Coimbatore. Since she had a very bad experience in India dealing with this issue – she was very skeptical. But she decided to try it out. Someone referred her to us (360 Property Management). She decided to trust this company since it was referred by a good friend. She contacted us. We heard the whole story and told her that we will do one step at a time and help her out. First after getting all the details we got her patta. Then we got the property transferred in her name. But, since she did not have back up documents it took nearly four months. Progress at every stage was explained to Kalyani. Charges were collected in stages. The documents were finally handed over to her with all issues sorted out. She was very happy with it. She wanted to sell the property and approached us for selling. We arranged for sale and sold the property 6 months later. She is now very happy that she trusted us and made the decision. She has been referring us to all her friends and relatives ever since.

Muthu had bought a new house. He was one of the first to buy this apartment which is part of a gated community. This was an investment house for him. He was hoping he they can find a suitable tenant for the same using local real estate brokers. He was also planning to use the help of his relatives. He is an NRI and he wanted to sort out all things during his three week visit to India. All he was able to do was to registration and get possession of the house. He wanted to save some money by trying to find a tenant by himself. He advertised and waited for the right tenant. He got few inquiries but nothing materialized. His relatives also were not able to help him as they were busy in their own work. He contacted a Property Management company to assist him. But he was very skeptical on how a professional company can take care of his property. What if they misuse the property? This went on for some time and he did not take any decision. Two years passed. Other apartments were filled one by one. The owners came and occupied. Some let it out for rent. Muthu’s house was the only one that was vacant from the beginning. Finally, one of his friends recommended property managers to him. He hired them and got his rented to a good tenant in two months time. He has lost almost two years of rental income.

Prabhu is an NRI and currently lives in Scotland. He is a software engineer and has been an NRI for the last 15 years from Europe He had a good earning and he saved a lot. He invested in a farm land near Chennai which is now OMR. The land is very close to Shollinganallur. When he bought the land it was very cheap and there was nothing there with less development. He had bought 6 grounds of empty land. He had registered the land in his name. However, he did not fence it or mark it properly. He had requested few friends and relatives to do it. But they were not able to help him out. Whenever, he visits India he will want to this – but due to lack of time he will not able to complete it. Surrounding areas have started to develop. Finally, he decided to take professional help and and contacted us. He wanted to take patta and then mark the property and do proper fencing. We visited the site after confirming ownership details. We had quoted a very nominal rate for getting the work done. He was very surprised at the cost and was not willing to engage us and said it is exorbitant. He wanted us to reduce the rate. We refused to lower the rate as it was very fair. For us it is only service charge for these kind of service. Since, he also wanted the property to be monitored we considered taking this property in our service. But, since he was not acceptable to the rate it was dropped. This was few years back. The surrounding areas are all now well developed. The property is now worth several crores. Since it is left open and not cared for it has become the local garbage disposal place. The property owner Prabhu is not aware of this !

Kishore lives in Mauritius for the last 24 years and is a NRI. He had gone on a government project. The project kept extending. He started liking the country and settled there. He got married and took his wife there. He has a family property in Chennai. This is a 3 bedroom house in Chetput. His parents were living there. His father passed away in 2005. His mother passed away in 2006. He is the only son. When he came for the last rites for the mother he stayed for few months and found a tenant for the house. The tenant was working in a private firm and the family was very decent. The rent was ₹ 10,000 and the advance was ₹ one lakh. The rent was below market value at that time – but since the tenant was good he Okayed it. The tenant was paying the rent on time. Kishore visited India in 2010 for few weeks and left for Mauritius. After that the tenant slowly started paying the rent late. After few months he even stopped paying the rent. Kishore spoke in telephone and told him he is concerned. But the tenant said he has some financial issues and will settle it soon. This went on and there was no solution. Now, it is almost five years since the last rent was paid. He contacted many of his relatives to help. The relatives went and spoke to the tenant. But the tenant was not cooperating and said he will settle it soon. He also continued to stay there.

The property is worth several crores of Rupees. Kishore was due to retire in a few years. He always wanted to come and settle in Chennai in his house after retirement. But he is not able to vacate the tenant from his property and is in deep mental stress. He has put a case against the tenant and waiting for justice.

Vinay had an old house in Chennai. This is where he grew and went to school. He and the entire family migrated to Canada. The house was vacant for long time. Then few years back they decided to go for joint venture and use this for building builder floor apartments. There were six apartments and they got three. The building came out well and in two and half years it was fully finished. The apartments were handed over. Their idea was to rent it out and keep one home for their use. They tried renting out the property. The area was a nice area and in nice part of the city and close to everything. But, for them there was a practical problem. They had given the keys to one close relative to take care of this. The relative also showed lot of interest and wanted to help. But, as days went by the work slowly increased. They had to show the property to prospective tenants. This was not only chewing their time but also they had to spend from their pocket. So they slowed down the process. The apartment complex which has 6 apartments – three families moved in. Their 3 apartments have lying vacant from the time it is ready to occupy. They decided to get professional help and approached property management company. They were fine with everything. But, they were not comfortable on paying the Property Management fees. They thought it was on the higher side. They kept on dragging with out taking a decision. It is now more than a year and still they have not made the decision. What they did not realize was – they have lost rental income for a year now. Vinay also visited India and stayed for 2 months in Chennai and wanted to rent out the property himself. But, he was not successful. He also did not enjoy his visit to India because he could not go out anywhere since he had to show houses to prospective tenants. He realized that he has wasted precious time and he finally decided to hire us as property managers. He has been referring people to us ever since.

Gautham is from Chennai and moved to Australia in the 90s. He is settled very well in the country he has worked most of his adult life. He wanted to make some good investments in Chennai and his plan was to retire in a nice sophisticated community. He purchased high end villa in kelambakkam with all super facilities. His immediate family has house in KK Nagar. That is where he grew. Due to the distance none from the family visit this newly purchased place. There was no one to maintain the house. The builders were supporting for two years and then it was owner responsibility. Gautham and family visited Chennai after three years. They were shocked to see the state of the house. It was full of dirt and looked like a very old house in the inside. He spent around half lakh to restore the house to its original condition. By the time he finished the work his 3 week holiday got over. Now, he realizes that some kind of professional help is needed if the family is not supportive.

Prabhakar inherited an apartment in a 6 apartment building in posh Adyar. This was his grand father property. The family decided to demolish the old house and build an apartment building and give one apartment to each family member. Prabhakar lives in United states. He did not know how to manage the property from US. He tried requesting his family and friends. But he was not comfortable. Hence he decided to shop around for property mangers. He found one property manager and they assisted in getting a tenant for him and the property was managed well. Rent was coming properly and all dues were paid on time. Two years later when the property managers sent an invoice for next year property management service. Prabhakar thought everything is going fine – why should we unnecessarily pay for managing the property. The tenant also has given indication that he will stay another three years. So he discontinued the property manager service. Everything went well. The tenant found a new apartment at competitive price close by and gave notice. The owner involved the family members in cleaning up the house and checking inventory. The relatives were not willing to take responsibility and he felt helpless. Somehow the tenant was settle. He started looking for new tenants online. People were willing to rent but there were no one to show the house or coordinate. The family members avoided because they had some differences during settlement. One year passed. He realized the mistake and hired a new property manager service. Wise decision. However, he spent his valuable time in tension, worry and frustration. Lesson learnt in a hard way.

True Stories

Legal Course of Action for Problematic Tenant

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