Paying without staying is a burden, say students in PGs

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:  20.06.2020

Students staying in paying guest (PG) accommodations in the city are being forced to shell out almost the entire rent amount even though they have been away in their hometowns for the last two months. This may not have been a problem but for the pandemic that is taking a financial toll on their families.

Arvind, 22, a student at a city university, said he left his PG on April 14 and has since paid Rs 7,000 for the months of April and May. “For June, the owner agreed to reduce the rent to Rs 6,000 after repeated requests. But that is still a lot considering we are neither living there nor using any amenities like water, electricity or WiFi,” Arvind, who is from Kerala, said. His mother has taken a 50% salary cut and his father is earning 30% less than usual owing to the health crisis.

Arvind says the PG owner even threatened the students saying he’d shift all their stuff into one room and not give anything back till they paid rent. “We don’t even know when the university will reopen and when we will return,” he said.

Another student, Kapil, 21, who is also in his hometown in Kerala, thinks PG owners need to be more empathetic. “ We were told to vacate the rooms if payment was a concern. They don’t understand that this is an uncertain situation. If our universities and colleges decided to reopen on short notice, it’d be a nightmare to hunt for another accommodation,” he said.

Sandhya, 21, says shifting PGs at such times won’t be easy either for owners or for tenants. “Reducing rent for a few months would help everyone,” she added.

(Names of students changed on request)

Full report: toi.in

TIMES VIEW

The humane thing for landlords to do would be to charge a nominal fee from their paying guests as a sort of reservation charge on the occupied rooms. It's not the same as an opportunity cost, because, in the current environment, they are unlikely to find new tenants, and will most likely not receive any rent at all if they lose their current occupants. But it appears most PG owners are just being avaricious. It’s quite clear that people are in unprecedented difficulty because of the pandemic, but to ignore that and insist on full rent shows a lack of empathy.

‘PANDEMIC HAS HIT EVERYONE’

Ramakrishnappa, a PG owner, said he has heard many such complaints and gave a discount to students living in his PG. ''I have never forced anyone to vacate the PG, but the pandemic has hit us all. Even I have a family to look after,” he said.