Whose house is it anyway? Odisha’s rental housing market caught in a legal grey zone

The relationship between tenants and landlords is often overlooked. TOI looks at the challenges faced by both parties, while discussing laws protecting themBHUBANESWAR: Mayank Singh, a software engineer from Hyderabad, was excited at the prospect of living alone when he got a job in Bhubaneswar recently.

Having lived with family all his life, Singh was looking forward to an independent life, one that was free of restrictions, when he rented a house in Niladri Vihar.

But his excitement was short-lived. “I was unaware of the time restrictions imposed by my landlord, which conflicted with my late working hours. I ultimately had to vacate the house and rent a flat in Barang, which is located 16km away from my office in the Infocity area,” Singh said.Similarly, Priyanka Majhi, a nurse at AIIMS Bhubaneswar, faced difficulties in finding affordable housing near her workplace. Initially, she found a 4BHK house close to the hospital at a steep rent of Rs 40,000. Consequently, she had to relocate to Patrapada in a 2BHK flat but she faced a range of restrictions there which were imposed by her landlord. “Being a single woman working in shifts, the restrictions make it challenging for me,” Majhi said.

On the other hand, landlords also face their share of challenges. Vikram Jena, a landlord in Bomikhal, had to seek police assistance to evict tenants who refused to vacate his property. “The tenants, mostly bachelors, caused significant damage to my property over two years. Despite giving them an ultimatum, they refused to leave and I had to involve the police,” Jena said.In the vibrant state of Odisha, an often overlooked side of the real estate market is grappling with the challenges that affect both tenants and landlords.

Despite the enactment of several legislations aimed at safeguarding the interests of both parties, the rental housing market in Odisha remains largely unregulated and fraught with issues. This is primarily due to a lack of awareness and the absence of effective implementation of the existing laws.The Model Tenancy Act of 2021 was introduced with the intention of creating a balanced framework for the rental housing market across India.

It includes provisions such as mandatory written agreements, caps on security deposits and clear grounds for eviction. However, in Odisha, the govt has yet to adopt a by-law under this Act, leaving both tenants and landlords in a precarious situation.The commercial rental sector, especially the resurging co-working spaces in the city, is also not spared from the issues escalating between operators of such spaces and the takers.

Though tenants of these co-working office spaces often encounter a range of bizarre conditions put up by the operators, including restriction on the entry of children, visitors, eating practice and more. “We moved to one such co-working space in the Infocity area a year back.

The rent is comparatively very high from where we had moved. This, coupled with the restrictions, are making our day-to-day operations very difficult.

We have less parking space, forcing many of our employees to park outside the office building on the road. The operator used to serve us legal notices every time there was even a day delay in making the monthly rent payment, which is most bizarre. We really have never heard of such a thing,” a man said.Historically, the Orissa House Rent Control Act of 1967 was enacted to govern the relationship between tenants and landlords.

However, due to a lack of awareness and enforcement, the Act was never properly implemented and eventually nullified in 1981. The introduction of the Model Tenancy Act in 2021 was a step towards addressing these issues, but without a state-specific by-law, its impact remains limited.When asked, a senior official of the housing and urban development department said that framing of a by-law under the tenancy Act is under active consideration.

“The govt is deliberating at a higher level to frame by-laws under the Model Tenancy Act. We will take all stakeholders’ inputs and put it into implementation,” he added.Real estate expert Bimalendu Pradhan highlights the absence of a proper rent authority in Odisha, which is crucial for resolving disputes between tenants and landlords. “The practice of rent agreement has been recently adopted but the lack of awareness among people and stakeholders is a significant barrier to the effective implementation of these laws,” he added.“The challenges faced by tenants and landlords in Odisha’s rental housing market underscore the need for increased awareness and effective implementation of existing laws,” Pradhan said.