Builders can’t ask for parking charge

Forum rules in favour of buyer. Kanchan Chaudhari reports.

There is good news for flat buyers: builders are not entitled to charge money for providing a common amenity like parking space. In a recent ruling, the Mumbai Suburban District Consumer Forum has directed a builder, Dinshaw Trapinex Builders Pvt. Ltd, to either provide free parking space to one of its customers, or pay him Rs3 lakh in lieu of the same.

The forum held it was mandatory for the builder to provide vehicle parking space to the customer, Firoz Khan, who had purchased a flat admeasuring 77.9 square metres in Dheeraj Residency at Goregaon West.

The bench of forum president JL Deshpande and member DS Bidnurkar primarily took into consideration the provision of Regulation 36(2) of the Develop-ment Control Regulations for the city of Mumbai, which mandates that the builder/developer should provide free parking space for every tenement admeasuring 70 square metres or more.

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Khan had purchased the flat in June 2003. No parking space was allocated to him. Four years later, he approached the consumer forum after finding that the builder had been selling parking spaces to subsequent flat purchasers.