Respected Legal Experts, I am having one property in Kolkata which falls under jurisdiction of Sealdah High Court. One room measuring about 100 square feet was rented to one tenant who passed away in April 2023. He was originally from Jharkhand. He would reside all by himself although he had a wife and four sons. There was no documented rent agreement with him. Only his name was mentioned in the rent bill. The last bill he had paid was perhaps in December 2020. Now his widowed wife has suddenly arrived from Jharkhand with her sons and is demanding that I give her the legal possession of the room and issue a rent bill in her name since April 2023. Honestly, I do not want them residing in my property anymore. I just want to recover my property and rent arears. I want to recover my property for personal use. What legal actions should I take? What are her rights on this room? As per existing law for how long should I wait before starting legal procedure? All of their documents have Jharkhand address. They do not have any address proof bearing Kolkata address except old rent bill of expired tenant. Kindly advise accordingly. Prof. (Dr.) Saif Omar
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On demise of tenant his wife and children residing with him woukd be deemed tenants
2) in present case they were not residing with the deceased tenant
3) don’t give possession of room
4) let wife and children file suit for declaration that they are deemed tenants
On death of orgional tenant the tenancy too is inherited by his class-1 legal heir. Consult a competent lawyer and proceed for eviction of present legal heirs of origionsl tenant.
You need to file the suit against the legal heirs for recovery of the dues
- As per law. in the absence of a rent agreement , the tenancy will be considered as month to month basis , and the tenant is under obligation to pay the rent regularly every month
- Further, if the tenant is in arrears of rent for more than 3 months then the landlord can terminate his tenancy and to evict the tenant , and also can claim the arrears of rent legally.
- Further, if the said deceased tenant was in arrears of rent , then his said family members having no right to live in the tenanted premises.
- Hence, if his family is living in the said tenanted premises , then you can issue a legal notice for the termination of the tenancy , and ask her to pay the arrears of rent and to evict the premise.
- If no vacated , then file an eviction petition before the rent controller for evicting them and to claim arrears of rent.
The tenant has not paid the rental amount since 2020 and he died in the year 2023, whereas you never took any action to evict him for default in rental payment.
So any claim toward the arrears of rental payment may not be maintainable.
Even though the law says that the legal heirs can inherit the tenancy rights upon the death of the tenant, since no one resided with the tenant at the time of his death and the possession of property is with you after his death, you may refuse to allow his wife inside the house, let she file a suit for injunction and direction to allow her inside the house as tenant, you may challenge the same and also can inform court that the deceased tenant had not paid the rent for more than three years, hence let she pay the arrears of rent and enter into a fresh rental agreement.
You can consult your advocate and take a proper decision as per the circumstance prevailing at your end.
Dear Client,
Upon the demise of the tenant, his wife and children who were residing with him shall be considered as tenants.
However, in the current case, they were not residing with the deceased tenant.
Therefore, possession of the room should not be granted to them.
Instead, the wife and children should be allowed to file a suit seeking a declaration that they are deemed tenants.
