Flat owners will soon receive supplementary property cards.

By Abhay Shah, Realty Quarter

In the near future, all flat owners in the state will receive additional estate cards with details such as carpet area, amenity space and information on bank loans, along with their 7/12 extracts.

In a bid to verify fraudulent operations, the Maharashtra cabinet on August 28 approved the “vertical estate regulations” to generate a database of all apartments, buildings and business complexes. “The cabinet will now bring forward the proposal for suggestions and objections,” said a senior government official.

The Settlement Commissionerate and Directorate of Land Records had pushed the proposal to ensure that urban survey offices and rural belt collectorates have detailed records of all vertical properties — flats, buildings, and commercial complexes.

Maharashtra currently has nearly 56 lakh property cards in urban regions and about 2.5 crores 7/12 extracts in the rural sector with horizontal estate information.

“This will be a breakthrough project. The vertical estate laws, approved by the state cabinet, will assist to generate estate records for all apartments. This may be the country’s first-of-a-kind initiative,” said settlement commissioner and director of land records S Chockalingam.

“The proposal will provide firm ownership records for buyers and sellers as well as government agencies, which will also protect the rights of property owners,” he said.

Chockalingam said the “vertical ownership laws” would discourage property-related fraud, such as selling or mortgaging of one flat or business unit to various buyers or financial institutions. “Under the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code (MLRC), 1966, the commissionerate sent a proposal to the government to formulate the Maharashtra Land Revenue Record of Rights and Registers for Apartments and Buildings rules,” he said.

Department representatives said no government department currently has vertical property ownership records because the proof of ownership must be proven through a chain of documents, such as builders’ contracts or society records.

A senior official said, “With the new development, the current 7/12 extract estate cards will become the main ownership documents. In addition, an extra estate card will be issued. Both cards will be issued together.”

Upon approval of the regulations, the department will initiate pilot projects in urban and rural regions independently. “By visiting each individual building, the respective offices will have to perform a survey. It will be difficult initially as the whole method will be manual. Finally, we will work out a system for updating the information online,” he said.