Tenants cannot avoid paying increased rent on the ground of rent agreement not being registered
Tenants cannot avoid paying increased rent on the ground of rent agreement not being registered – The Economic Times
Synopsis
Tenants cannot refuse to pay increased rent simply because their 11-month rent agreement is unregistered. Courts have consistently ruled that rent escalation clauses are enforceable even without registration, as long as they were part of the original agreement. While unregistered agreements may have limitations as evidence, the contractual obligation to pay enhanced rent remains valid.
In India generally residential rent agreements are made for a term of 11 months. The reason for this is any rent agreement which is longer than a year requires compulsory registration as per Registration Act, 1908.
However, if there is a rent escalation (increased rent) clause already put in place in an unregistered rent agreement for 11 months then this rent escalation clause is legally enforceable. Even though the rent escalation clause (increased rent) in an unregistered rent agreement is enforceable by law, but the unregistered rent agreement itself might not be admissible in court as evidence in some ca…
Khorakiwala says: “Tenants generally cannot avoid paying the increased rent merely on the ground that the rent agreement was not registered.”
Unregistered rent agreements might not be admissible in court as evidence
Bishnoi from CMS INDUSLAW says that whether a rent agreement is registered or not mainly affects how the document can be used as evidence in court.
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