Supreme court judgement regarding car parking

you can get judgement from the website . www.indiankanoon.com

Thanks for your reply, but all the judgements are related to years after i purchased and got my stilt parking registered. My question is, what happens to the stilt parking purchased and registered prior to the judgement? The Supreme Court has passed this judgement in 2010, but is silent on the stilt parking prucahsed prior to the judgement?

Hello

this is indeed a very helpful forum to understand finer nuances of law.

I am staying in a rented accomodation. Last month the RWA claimed that they have sold the open parking and my cars can not be parked as my owner has not purchased it.Is this legal in purview of the SC judgement which outlaws selling of open parking by builder ? Do note that this "selling" was done by the RWA secretary  and not builder per se

If you find that the legalese is very difficult to understand, you may also post in bighelpers.org which deals with these kind of advises.

When nothing is stated in the applicable laws about a certain thing and the Supreme Court gives a judgment on it, it becomes the law.

Sometimes the legislatures also pass new laws which will have the effect of amending the existing law or amend the existing law itself. In such cases, most often the new law itself will state whether it will have retrospective effect or not.

Now since judgment was by the Supreme Court itself, only the same court can answer your question. But are you having any problem at present? Are you parking your car at the same place. Your Society also must be concerned with this question, as they may have to settle disputes. The Society can approach the Federation and request them to take up the matter with the Supreme Court.

To Mr. Manish

Only a court can decide this matter. There are two questions here. (1) Whether you can claim two parking lots, because you have two flats. If two flats in a Society are in the name of one and the same person. he or she will have one vote only at General Meetings. On the same basis the Society can say that the same rule will apply in the matter of allotting parking slots also.

@Sriram

Is the parking space clearly mentioned in the registration documents?

Is the area included in the registration calculations?

Please also see the taxes you are paying currently and the floor area for calculation of taxes.

If the answer to all the questions is yes, then the space is yours. However, if you sale your flat today, you will lose the parking space and the registration will be for a smaller space. That space will revert to the association.

@Manish

You did not mention whether the association is collecting "service charges" for one flat or two flats. That will settle or decide whether the number of owners or the number of flats is the unit for calculations. As a single owner you are using less water, less common power and less of common facilities. If they are charging you as one unit, then they are right to provide you with one parking space. Otherwise...

i get charged as service charge on my both flats, also i get charged rs 80/- as parking charges in one flats bill and Rs. 500 in other flats bill

That simply means you are being counted as two distinct customers. If you would have been considered as one customer, you would have been asked to pay some fixed cost plus some proportional cost that would have been less than the cost for two persons.

They are treating you as two or one individuals depending on their income. That is not allowed. Perhaps some proper lawyer can comment.

@ Mr Manish

Where is your Society? Is it in Maharashtra? Is it a Co-operative Housing Society?

@ Mr. chami

If answers to my questions to Mr. Manish are "yes" then you are wrong.  In a Co-operative Housing Society all are members and not customers. Under the Maharashtra Co-operative Housing Societies Act, 1960 one member can have only one vote irrespective of the number of flats or number of shares  he may have.

Under the bye-laws a Flat is a unit for the purpose of charges. Some of the charges are based on the area of the flat. Some others are equally divided. In the former case it makes no difference whether a member has one flat only or has more than one flat. In the latter case as two flats are two units, a member having two flats will have to pay twice the amount.

Allotment of parking lots are on a member basis. A second parking lot can be allotted to any member only if available after the needs of all members requiring only one parking lot are satisfied and it will be on a year to year basis. It is the general body which fixes the parking charges. Nothing is stated regarding charging more for a second parking lot.

If the building is not in Maharashtra the laws and bye-laws may be different.

I am staying in a flat in Chennai. After purchasing the flat I had left Chennai for a job abroad. During my absence promoters allotted me a parking space between four pillars such that parking becomes a difficult exercise even for a small car. Since I was not having a car in India at that time, problem did not affect me. Later association members have sold the open space around my parking space also to some members . Now the parking the car is almost out of question. Now I have purchased a car. I may be relocating to Chennai. My informal discussions with the office bearers has no effect. what is the remedy, legal or otherwise.

Is your Association registered under the Tamilnadu Ownership Flats Act, 1994 and the Rules, 1997? Was the Builder competent to sell parking space as per plans and proposals approved by competent authorities?  If your Association was registered as above, it will be deemed owner of all common areas including the car park areas. But whether they can sell the slots will depend on the above laws. If the Association is not registered under the above Act, they cannot sell at all.

Even if the Association can sell, the procedure has to be transparent and fair to all the members. They will have to pass a resolution in a duly convened General Body Meeting and all members will have to be given equal opportunity to bid.

You can approach the civil court having jurisdiction and file a complaint against the Association and the members to whom the parking lots have been sold or allotted. You can apply for an interim injunction against the Association and the members,  especially because the right of passage to your parking lot has been blocked.

1. In the builder-tenant agreement it is clearly mentioned that the builder will sell the parking space at Rs.700 per sq.ft for the stilt parking.

2. However in the flat agreement nothing is mentioned about the stilt parking

3. Based on the builder tenant agreement and the letter from the builder on his letter head about the area of stilt for which I had made the payment, through an Advocate, I got the stilt parking registered (paid stamp duty and registration amount) after paying a penalty to the registrars office for not having got the stilt parking registered within the stipulated time.

4.  Currently the society is charging the stilt parking charges equally amongst all the members, though we have been saying from the beginning that individual stilt owners are ready to pay the property tax for the stilts owned by them.The Society is not ready to bifurcate the stilt property charges and they are not ready to give a letter saying that the stilt parking registration and stamp duty has been paid. I visited the municipality office in Thane (where I reside) and spoke to the ward officer, he informed me that stilt parking property tax can be paid by the individual stilt parking owner, but to do this I need a No Objection Certificate from the Society, which the Society is not ready to give.

@Mr. Sriram

You have reappeared after a long gap. In an earlier response you had mentioned that the Supreme Court judgments were dated after you acquired the parking space. Were you able to get the judgments? I am not able to get them. If you could get those judgments what were reasons given for the judgment that parking lots could not be sold?

A judgment may be applicable to the particular case before the court. Whether they will be applicable for similar cases or whether the cases are similar can be ascertained only if one reads the judgment.

A properly executed and registered deed between two parties is not sufficient to confirm the ownership of the buyer. Even before executing a deed the buyer should ascertain the title of the seller to the property, whether he has the necessary sanctions and approvals from competent authorities, what is the user for which approvals were given etc.

It was said that once upon a time a person sold the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The sale deed was perfect in all respects. It was also registered. The problem was that it did not occur to the buyer that he should ascertain and confirm the ownership of the Tower by the seller. No one has sold the Gateway of India yet, to the best of my knowledge.

As regards your flat, the builder would have submitted plans to the Municipality and other concerned agencies and got approvals. You can see your flat in the approved plan and the user also would have been stated as "residence".

Have you seen a similar plan of the stilted area where your parking lot is situated? Has your car parking slot been clearly marked in the drawing and also stated as "Car Parking". Generally in a transfer deed the property being transferred would have been described giving such details as its dimensions, boundaries etc.

Is property tax being levied on your parking space? If so does your Society give you a separate bill for the Property tax in addition to the parking fees? How much is the property tax? Is your parking slot and the parking slots of others identifiable by any distinctive mark or numbers? Municipality will generally give a tax calculation table to the Society. You ask the Society to give you a copy of the tax calculation table. If the Society doesn't give, you can get it direct from the Municipality through RTI. Find out whether your parking lot and other parking lots have been mentioned in their table.

You say you purchased the parking lot at Rs.700/- per sq.ft. What about the other parking slots? Were they purchased by other members? Were there unsold parking lots? Who purchased them? Were they transferred to the Society? Did the Society pay for parking lots transferred to them, if so, how much? Does the conveyance deed specifically mention the parking slots?

I suspect that the builder has taken you for a ride.