An AC in a rented flat: who pays, who drills, who keeps it

Updated September 10, 2026 · Claude AC · 3 sources cited

An eleven-month lease and a forty-five degree May do not combine well. Millions of Indian tenants face the same sequence every year: the flat has no AC, the landlord will not fit one, the summer will not wait — and the decision to buy a machine that will have to be unbolted, patched over and carried to the next address is made in a hurry, without asking who is allowed to authorise what. The technical questions are easy. The permission and the exit are where money is lost.

You need up to three permissions, not one

An air conditioner in a rented flat touches three separate authorities, and tenants routinely obtain only the first.

• The owner. Drilling a core hole through an external wall, bolting a bracket to the facade and running a drain are alterations to someone else’s property. Verbal consent is worth very little at the moment the deposit is being settled; a line in the agreement or a dated message costs nothing.
• The society or RWA. Many housing societies regulate what may be fixed to the external elevation, where an outdoor unit may sit, and — most often litigated — where its condensate is allowed to drip. A unit that drains onto a neighbour’s window box generates a complaint long before it generates comfort. Where and how the outdoor unit should be mounted is covered in our guide to outdoor unit placement.
• The electrical supply. Older flats often lack a 16 A point in the bedroom, and adding one is wiring work on the owner’s installation. Running a split off a light circuit or an extension board is the failure mode behind a large share of the incidents in our guide to the wiring behind the AC.

What the Model Tenancy Act actually settles

The Model Tenancy Act, 2021 is a template circulated by the Union government for states to adopt, amend or ignore; it is not automatically the law where you live, and it applies prospectively where it has been notified. Most tenancies in India still run on a state rent act plus whatever the written agreement says. That said, the model text is a fair statement of what a reasonable arrangement looks like, and three of its provisions bear directly on an air conditioner.

First, the security deposit is capped at two months’ rent for residential premises and six for non-residential, refundable on handover after deduction of the tenant’s liabilities. Second, it separates repair duties: structural repairs and whitewashing sit with the landlord, while routine items — drain cleaning, geyser and kitchen fixture repairs — sit with the tenant. Third, it provides a remedy when either side stalls: if the landlord does not carry out repairs he owes, the tenant may have them done and deduct the cost from subsequent rent; if the tenant fails to do his, the landlord may do them and deduct from the deposit.

Applied to a fitted air conditioner, that logic is straightforward. A machine the owner installed is the owner’s asset, and keeping it working is his repair obligation, not yours. Filter cleaning — the routine, monthly, five-minute job — is fair to expect from whoever is enjoying the cooling.

Ownership decides everything else

Refrigerant deserves one line of its own, because it is the recurring dispute. Refrigerant is not consumed; a sealed circuit that needs gas has a leak, and a leak is a fault in the machine. On an owner-fitted unit, that is a repair to his asset. Our guide to gas refilling in India explains why the annual top-up is a symptom rather than a service.

The electricity question, which is the biggest number

An AC will typically be the largest single line in your summer consumption, and how it is billed to you matters more than the rent difference between two flats. Three arrangements are common, and only one is clean:

• Your own meter and connection. The bill is yours, at the residential slab, with whatever time-of-day structure your discom applies. Nothing to argue about.
• A sub-meter read by the landlord. Workable, provided the rate per unit is written into the agreement and you photograph the reading on the day you move in and the day you leave. Ask what rate he is charging, and compare it with the tariff on his own bill.
• A flat monthly amount « for electricity ». This has no relationship to what you use, and it is the arrangement in which a heavy AC summer becomes a dispute in July. Convert it to a metered basis before you sign.

Whatever the arrangement, run the sums yourself before assuming the machine is affordable: rated power, hours per day, days per month, your slab rate. The method is in our guide to what an AC adds to an Indian electricity bill, and where your discom has moved to time-of-day tariffs the hour you run it starts to matter as well.

Buying your own: choose for the exit, not only the summer

If you are financing the machine yourself in someone else’s flat, form factor is a tenancy decision as much as a comfort one. A window unit needs one opening, fits in an afternoon, comes out in an hour and travels to the next address with almost nothing to make good — which is why it remains rational in rented housing long after it stopped being fashionable; the trade-offs are set out in our comparison of window and split machines. A split gives you quiet and efficiency, and charges you a core hole, a bracket, a piped route, and an uninstall-plus-reinstall bill at every move, with a gas top-up whenever the line is opened. Price that future move into today’s decision using our guide to shifting an AC. If your stay is short and certain, renting the machine outright may beat both.

Clauses worth putting in the agreement

• Written consent to install, naming the wall, the outdoor unit location and the drain route.
• Who owns the machine, in one sentence, with the model and serial number if it is the owner’s.
• The repair split: what is routine, what is a fault, and who pays for gas, PCB and compressor.
• The electricity basis — own meter, sub-meter with a stated rate per unit, and the opening reading.
• Make-good at exit: whether the core hole must be sealed and the bracket removed, or whether the fittings stay.
• The deposit amount and the refund window, both in figures.

Frequently asked questions

Can my landlord refuse to let me install an AC?

Yes. Drilling through an external wall and fixing a bracket to the facade are alterations to his property, and unless your agreement grants you the right, consent is his to withhold. The society may also have rules on the elevation that neither of you can override. Ask early, in writing, and expect conditions on placement and drainage rather than a flat refusal.

Who pays for gas refilling in a rented flat?

Whoever owns the machine. On an owner-fitted AC the need for gas means a leak in his asset, which is a repair, not a consumable. On a machine you bought, it is yours — and worth pursuing under warranty if the unit is young, since a leaking flare joint is usually an installation defect.

Can the landlord charge me any rate he likes for electricity?

Sub-metered arrangements should reflect the tariff he is actually billed, and the safeguard is documentation rather than argument: get the rate per unit into the agreement, photograph the meter at both ends of the tenancy, and compare it against his discom bill. A flat monthly figure unrelated to consumption is the arrangement to renegotiate before signing.

Does the Model Tenancy Act apply to my tenancy?

Only if your state or union territory has notified its own version of it, and generally only to tenancies entered into afterwards. Elsewhere, the state rent act and your written agreement govern. Treat the model text as a reasonable benchmark for what a fair repair and deposit split looks like, not as a right you can invoke by default.

Should I buy a window AC or a split for a rented flat?

If you expect to move within a year or two, a window unit usually wins on total cost once installation, removal, reinstallation and make-good are counted. If your stay is longer and the owner is agreeable, a split is quieter and more efficient. Size it correctly either way — our tonnage guide matters more than the brand.

Read next

• Hot and cold ACs: what heating mode is worth in an Indian winter
• When to buy an air conditioner in India: the calendar that sets the price
• Heatwave warnings in India: what the IMD colours mean and what to do
• Window AC or split AC: the choice Indian rooms actually face
• Getting rid of an old AC: exchange offers, scrap dealers and the e-waste rules

All India guides →