Sunday, April 06, 2008

Maharashtra real estate to be sold on carpet area

The builders are smarter. Now they will tell you the carpet area and also the common area and charge you accordingly. If my guess is right, the registration of the flat will amount to the flat area ? Now if the common area is not registered with the flat owners, who owns it ? does the developer hold the right to the common areas indefinitely ?

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Mumbai: Here’s some relief for flat-buyers baffled by built-up area, super built-up area, niche area and other such jargon. All sale and purchase of flats will soon be allowed only on the basis of carpet area.
The state on Friday introduced a Bill to amend the Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act (MOFA) such that all sale, purchase and transactions of flats will be made on the basis of carpet area alone. The bill was introduced in the legislative council and will be taken up for discussion and passing on Monday.
“The common man is not able to tell the difference between builtup, super built-up and all these other terms. Many builders take undue advantage of this,’’ explained principal secretary (housing), Swadhin Kshatriya. “It’s a good move towards bringing in transparency,’’ agreed Hiranandani group MD Niranjan Hiranandani.
Shreedhar Sharma, a legal consultant for housing societies and a member of the Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association which covers 2,600 housing societies in Mumbai and Thane, said that the government move would be much appreciated by flat-owners as several of them approached him with this problem.
“Buyers do not understand technical jargon like niche area and exit area and super-superbuilt-up area. Carpet area is measurable, and gives the buyer and accurate idea of the size as well as FSI,’’ said Sharma. When the sale of a flat is being discussed, almost 40-42% is currently shown in such terms, leading to a higher possibility of the final product not matching the buyer’s expectations, or of cheating, he said.
Meanwhile on Thursday, the state cabinet approved a Bill to set up a Housing Regulatory Commission in Maharashtra. The Bill will now be placed before the legislature next week. The Commission will have the powers of a civil court, and be headed by an expert from the housing field. The three-member commission will have a 21-member advisory committee.

AMNESTY SCHEME

The government is framing rules and regulations for an amnesty scheme to aid citizens who bought flats decades ago, but have not yet got it conveyed. “If people who bought flats 20 and 30 years ago try to get it conveyed now, they find that the current stamp duty rates are more than the cost of the flat when they bought it. The government will introduce an amnesty scheme to save them from this unnecessary hardship,’’ Kshatriya added.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I believe the common area would be registered to the housing society. Every apartment complex usually has a housing society in which each apartment owner is a shareholder. A separate corpus may be charged from the buyer to acquire a share in the housing society.