Soon, flat owners to get property cards from govt

The Maharashtra government has decided to provide property cards to flat owners that will grant them ownership title of their property. The decision was taken in

The Maharashtra government has decided to provide property cards to flat owners that will grant them ownership title of their property. The decision was taken in the state cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The cabinet has approved rules that will allow the state to provide ownership rights of vertical properties.

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With this, Maharashtra is said to be the first state in the country to introduce this system. Revenue officials believe that other states will soon start to follow.

So far, the state issues property cards for urban areas and 7/11 extracts for rural areas that define the ownership rights of an individual or multiple people. However, there is no document available that proves ownership of the person who owns a flat in the building being constructed on a particular plot.

“To remove this deficiency, the state revenue department decided to bring the ‘Maharashtra Land Revenue Record of Rights and Registers for Apartments and Buildings Rules,’ under the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code (MLRC), 1966, which enables the state to provide a property card for flat ownership,” said a senior official from the state revenue department.

“The property card will have details such as ownership title, size of the flat, which can be obtained by applying with the concerned authorities such as collector office in cities and tehsildar in rural areas by the society or an individual,” he said, adding, “For new construction, the developer has to obtain property card for each flats.”

Maharashtra has around 56 lakh property cards in urban areas and around 2.5 crore 7/12 extracts (rural land records). There is no record of the vertical properties like flats or commercial complexes that are constructed on these plots.

This move will also prevent property related frauds, said another revenue official. He further stated that the property card will also help local bodies to charge taxes to flat owners. “With the property card for flats in place, the local bodies will have a clear idea about ownership and size of each flat, based on which they can determine taxes and charge people accordingly,” he added.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has already decided to charge property tax to individual flat owners from the next financial year. Under the current system, the property tax is levied collectively for a building. It has already issued notices to 15,000 of the 95,000 housing societies and commercial establishments in the city, seeking details of the properties of their individual members.