Rented office locked by anonymous/relative?
Type your question here. Do noDear Sir,
We have a rented office room in Kolkata. This was originally rented by my father around 30 years back.
My father started one business with my mother and his younger brother ( my uncle) as two partners of the firm.
My father then allowed his rented office room to that company and this room then became the registered office room and address of the company.
Subsequently the company suffered a lot of losses (courtesy my uncle who whitewashed the working capital of the company).
My father started another business in my name but could never release my mother from the partnership of that earlier firm.
My uncle resisted when my father tried to lock that office. My fathers logic was that rented office room was originally taken in his name, my uncle's logic was that this room is used by the company and so mu father cannot put lock onto the room.
Case went on for years and the decision that was given is that 'status-qua' needs to be maintained on that property. This is the story of 2008-2010.
After my father's death in 2011, we contacted the landlord of the rented office room. He asked us to write a letter to him requesting transfer of name from my father to jointly myself and my mother, which we did. Thereafter we have been paying the rent and have the rent receipts in my and my mothers name.
However we did not go to the office room for many years.
Early this year we went there and so that it is under lock and key but we did not have the key obviously.
So we broke open the office room in the presence of the landlord.
But couple of months later, we got an anonymous call saying that he is already INSIDE the office room.
I later went there to discover that our locks were changed and another lock has been put over there.
We want to dispose off this office by transferring the rent-ship for Rs. 4 Lakhs approx to another party ( as discussed with my landlord), but the party can take this only if it is cleared of all the problems.
My landlord is aware of all this.
Also the condition of the office is very poor and one mortar fell down injuring some persons.
If this happens again can anybody hold us responsible.
I do not who has put this lock but we suspect our uncle again to have put this lock – it may or may not be the case. My uncle is not pursuing that earlier company nor my mother.
What we should do to this. Please please guide us. What risks do we have. What we should do with the office. Will there be any offense if we break-open the lock again. What precautions to be taken. Do we contact the police or inform them and then break the lock. We want to avoid court or any further cases as we have already fought cases for 2.5 years almost.
If you need further details do let me know. Please HELP !