I’m a tenant, and I think I’m being ripped off my money. The scenario is, the rented apartment had an AC, which is very old and did not cool properly. After raising multiple complaints and not getting any help from the owner or the broker, I bought my own AC. Now since my room does not have a place to keep the compressor, I figure I could keep it my flatmates balcony. Which worked, the only thing is the pipe had to go from the wall between our rooms. Since my lease says I can do any structural damage, I put the hose around the wall outside.
After two to three months the society office calls me and since that’s not allowed and I should either take it out or put a grill on the window. Again the grill would be a permanent change, and I didn’t want to spend money on it, I asked the broker to talk to the owner to pay for it (who rudely said no chance they are doing that).
After two weeks of being behind the broker, he says you don’t worry society office must’ve just warned they won’t take any action and will forget about it so don’t do anything. Moreover, so I didn’t. After another month the issue went out of hand, and they wanted it out. The broker got involved again (when I had informed him this would happen). He started telling me can you remove it or come up with any alternative. We did, and we decided to put braces, which I was going to pay for.
The owner doesn’t like this and wanted a grill only (which she doesn’t want to pay for). Thinking I being taken advantage of I said no, not happening either give me an AC or put the grill. The broker in an attempt to diffuse tension said he would pay for it. Then he calls me after a few days. He says there’s no point of him paying for the grill for the owner (which btw is exactly what he expected me to do earlier). He then says he will get the old AC repaired, which is ok with me.
He told the society office it would out in a week. He didn’t give me the repaired AC till two weeks later on a Wednesday. I then had decided to get the new AC out on Sunday on which day I get a message from the owner saying we have been fined 5000₹ for the pipe. The pipe was taken out that day.
I did my part of informing the broker and trying to get it sorted. I even was willing to pay for an alternative. I did not sign or see any document for the society where it says I can’t put a pipe on the wall. It did not cause any damage to the property. Now tell me is there any legal right for them to fine me the 5000₹.
Oh and the owner is the chairman of the society board who between does not like me, and I think all of this is a ruse. Can you please tell me if there is anything that I can do.