Nestaway Technologies a startup which rent homes, is not able to pay back the security deposits to the tenants, despite the fact that due to the coronavirus pandemic company has vacated the premises and have returned to their hometowns. Many of the occupants have moved consumer courts against the Bengaluru-based startup, alleging the company of fraud and extortion because of the non-payment of their security deposit which was refundable.

Even after several weeks after vacating the premise the company was not able to refund their money. The company is also being alleged of imposing hidden charges to recover the entire security deposits. Most of the tenants who have not received the security deposit are now taking the issue to social media and are organising themselves on messaging apps like Telegram.

Nestaway has also failed to send invoices for rent payments for the months of May and June for many tenants who had left the premises in March and Nestaway also imposed additional utility charges for May and June. According to the Nestaway spokesperson the company has seen a rise in number of people leaving the premises in last 3-4 months. According to him the startup claimed that 3,000 cases where the security deposit was pending have been solved.

The company denied the allegation being turned on them and said that the company is only charging tenants for the damage caused to their property which were found in inspections carried out by the company. Also, many tenants who are claiming to have moved-out of the property but were found to be still staying in the property.

The company was Co-founded in 2015 by Amerandra Sahu, Deepak Dhar, Jagadev and Smruti Parida. Nestaway provides rental homes ranging from 1BHKs to 4BHKs with two options, shared living spaces in apartments targeted mostly at bachelors and villas as full houses aimed at families.

The covid-19 has forced the company to go in a damage control mode by putting its a halt on the expansion plans of the startup. As students and young working professionals returned home during the lockdown there have been a drastic drop in demand and physical occupancy in co-living facilities across cities which has a drastic effect on the startup.