Mofa act carpet area bill amendments.
Querist :
Anonymous
(Querist) 29 August 2011
This query is : Resolved
Please let me know about the mofa act carpet area bill amendmentse
Raj Kumar Makkad
(Expert) 29 August 2011
The State of Maharashtra had introduced a bill to amend the Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act, 1963 with the ostensible purpose of forcing developers to sell flats on carpet area. However, the Act already has a clause on liabilities of the developer that makes it mandatory for him to sell flats on carpet area basis. Only, no government has enforced it till date.
Carpet area is the internal wall-to-wall area of the flat. The cost for common areas and facilities like staircases, lobby and lift is to be divided among all the flats in proportion to the carpet areas enjoyed by them. However in a bid to maximise their profits, most developers sell their flats as per super built-up whereby all such facilities are arbitrarily loaded, sometimes to the extent of 50 per cent. This means a flat buyer who pays for a 1500 sq ft flat, ends up with an actual area of only 1000 sq ft.
The proposed amendment states that developers should sell their flats on the basis of carpet area only and that he can separately charge for common areas and facilities in proportion to the carpet area of the flat. In short, the buyer will still get his flat on super built-up basis. However developers can no longer arbitrarily fleece the buyer, as they will have to specify what the actual carpet area is.
“The existing MOFA Act already has all these provisions. It also makes it compulsory for developers to mention the carpet area in the agreement with flat buyers. There is no need for this amendment, it is time that the government started enforcing what is already there,” said property lawyer Lakhamshi Rambhia. He added that sub-registrars should refuse to register agreements unless it is made on carpet basis.
In fact the existing provisions also states that any builder who does not abide by these conditions can be penalized and imprisoned for a maximum term for three years. According to Sanjay Dutt, director of transaction services at the property consultancy Cushman and Wakefield, developers can still continue to project misleading calculations of the common areas. “The BMC, which sanctions the building plans, should validate what is the carpet area and the area of common amenities that each flat is entitled to pay for. This way the whole calculation is not arbitrary. Also before sanctioning loans to them, banks should ask developers for a valid certificate issued by an architect that specifically mentions the carpet area as well as the super built-up area,” said Dutt.
prabhakar singh
(Expert) 30 August 2011
No more needed for such a detail answer.
