Mumbai : To protect the rights of property owners, the Maharashtra government has decided to provide them with cards with clear records of ownership rights. Under the new rules, flats and commercial unit owners will get property cards.
An official explained that no government department maintains ownership records of vertical properties. Moreover, municipal bodies have records for taxation purposes, but these are not ownership records.
“There is no such record for flats and one must prove their ownership of the property through a chain of documents, like the agreement with the builder or society records, which is a tedious process. The new law will ease jumbo procedures,” said the official.
At present, the state has 56 lakh property cards in urban areas and about 2.50 crore (7/12 extracts) rural land records. These are records of horizontal properties.
However, there are no such records for buildings, commercial units, and other structures that have been built on these land parcels, resulting in lack of clarity over the property ownership.
The aim of allotting a property card is to prevent fraud — for instance if a flat or commercial unit is being sold or mortgaged to multiple buyers or financial institutions, it will also ensure liquidity through easier transactions.
The land records department has sent a proposal to the government to formulate the Maharashtra Land Revenue Record of Rights and Registers for Apartments and Buildings rules under the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code (MLRC), 1966, and this is expected to be approved soon.
