Flat Buyer’s Guide - Chapter 3 Legal Documents

Recent Belleza Blue case in Pune (2^nd Campa Cola like case in Maharashtra) where high court has asked the residents to vacate the illegally constructed 3 floors of the building, is quite a shock to all the flat buyers. 

I am working with one of the very few trust worthy real estate companies in India from past 6 years and thus thought of coming up with this guide for buyers of residential apartments.

I hope to cover all the necessary points / information so that technical or legal terms used in the real estate filed do not sound Greek to a lay flat buyer and he is not lost while speaking with the builder. **While doing so I have tried to furnish as accurate information as possible to best of my knowledge but e & oe (errors & omissions expected).

Index
Chapter	Synopsis
1. Basic concepts & definitions	Carpet, Built-up, Saleable etc areas & more
2. Units & Measurements	Sq. ft., Sq. Mtrs., Guntha, Acres, hectares etc & more
3. Legal Documents	Title & Search Report, NA, 7/12, PR, Blue Print, CC, Index – II, OC, POA etc
4. Material & Specifications	Tiles, Doors, Windows, Painting etc
5. Home Loan	Eligibility, EMI, Tenure, Loan Transfer etc
6. Government Duties & Taxes	Stamp Duty & registration, TDS, ST, VAT etc
7. Miscellaneous	RERA, Flat Inspection, Project Reviews etc

Chapter 3: Legal Documents

This chapter lists few of the key legal documents related with home buying and the quick checks that could be carried out by a lay person to understand its legality. It is always advisable to contact a reputed lawyer to verify these documents; especially if you are not going for a bank loan from a reputed bank. If you are going for a bank loan from reputed banks then the legal team of these banks is supposed to have taken care of these aspects.

1.      Title & Search Report: A report from an advocate about the clear & marketable ownership of the plot / land of the project in favor of builder. It generally covers almost all of the following points:

a.      Detailed address of the project site

b.      Description of the roads / plots projects etc surrounding the said site

c.       Documents checked by the advocate

d.      Detailed history of the transfer of the said property from original (1^st) owner to the present owner (and it has to be the builder).

e.      Final opinion of the advocate about the legality of the property and whether builder is a legal owner of the said land (so in turn he can legally construct on the plot given he has all other relevant documents)

f.       Cross verify name of the builder and the detailed project address with that on the brochure / advertisement / website.

2.     Non-agriculture (NA) Order/ अकृषिक परवाना:

a.      NA order confirms that the said plot has not been reserved for the agricultural use and could be used for residential / industrial purpose.

NA Order

b.      Now Maharashtra government has authorized corporation level officers to sanction NA orders so that the process is faster than before when sate government used to issue these orders.

c.      Cross verify name of the builder and the detailed project address with that on the brochure / advertisement / website.

3.     7/12 or 7 by 12 or 7*12 Extract / ७/१२ चा उतारा:

a.      Applicable in rural areas or the areas in the out skirts of the city for which Urban Land Clearance (ULC – permission from state government to allow particular land for urban usage) has not been received from the government.

b.      Comprises of the extracts from revenue department of the data collected in two different forms – Form no. 7 and form no. 12 and hence the name.

c.       It may run into several pages and may contain all but not limited to following information:

o   Detailed address

o   Land area

o   Names of old & present owners

o   Information on any loans & mortgages on the land

o   Purpose for which the land is reserved – agricultural / non agricultural.

o   If agricultural then whether irrigated or rain fed, crops taken each year, name of the cultivator.

7 / 12 Extract

d.     Please verify present owner’s name, land area and address is same as that informed by the builder.

e.      You may get 7/12 extract online for Maharashtra on: Online 7 / 12 Extract

4.     Property (PR) Card / मालमत्ता पत्रक:

a.      What 7/12 extract is for the rural area, the PR card is for the urban / city area.

b.      It contains land area, address, owner names etc

PR Card

c.      Please verify present owner’s name, land area and address is same as that informed by the builder.

d.      You may get PR card online for Mumbai & Pune on: Online PR Card for Pune  & Online PR Card for Mumbai

5.      Blue Print / Sanctioned Plan: We have already discussed about this in brief in Chapter 1: Basic concepts & definitions. 

Here is some detailed information:

On broad terms, sanctioned plan could be classified in to 2 sets of drawings:

a.      Layout sanction: In this, corporation / gram panchayat approves the overall layout of the project i.e. positions & sizes of various buildings, amenity spaces, common areas etc as planned on a particular plot.

b.      Building Sanction: In this, corporation / gram panchayat approves the positions & sizes of the individual flats in a particular building of the project.

c.       A project might have varied no of blue prints depending upon its size and the variations in building / flat sizes.

d.      As a customer, you may just check a blue print which has a overall project layout and a blue print for your particular building & floor.

e.     Cross verify drawings of a project layout and 2D plan of your flat as shown in the sanctioned plans.

f.        One should also verify the room dimension in the brochure and in the blue print. Most probably blue prints will have dimension in mtrs. While the brochure will have them in ft. Kindly referrer chapter 2: Units & Measurements for the conversion.

g.      If it is a big project then it is quite normal that builder keeps on revising the plans several times when the project is still under construction to accommodate present market conditions.  Logically & legally these changes should hamper only unsold flats & should not change any promised amenity(ies).

h.      It is always advisable to at least get the blue print of your building (even though builder promises to keep one copy in society office once established) and even though builder charges you for this copy.

6.     Commencement Certificate (CC)/ बांधकाम चालू करण्याचा परवाना / दाखला:

a.      It is basically an authorization letter from government authorities to builder to start the construction as per the sanctioned plan.

b.      It may run in to 2 or more pages but you should be focusing on the 1^st half of 1^st page.

CC along with blue print

c.      Make sure that CC no and dates on corporation stamp & architect’s true copy stamp (if any) on blue print match with that on the commencement certificate.

d.      There will be a different CC for every revised plan. Make sure that the plan & CC received by you is the latest one.

7.     Index – II/ सूची - २:

This is the most important and practically the only document needed once you have received the possession of your flat.

It is basically a summary or a gist of the entire agreement and thus your deal with the given builder.

Index II contains following information:

Index - II

Please verify all the above information with that communicated to you by the builder.

8.     Occupancy Certificate (OC)/Completion Certificate/ भोगवटा पत्र:

Government issues OC to the builder for a particular building, once the construction is complete and after verifying that the construction is as per the sanctioned plan and that all the necessary permissions like fire fighting, water, drainage, lift etc are in place.

OC proves that the said building is fit to be occupied by the residents.

Thus builder getting the OC (and not just the completion certificate from his architect) is at most important (it’s easy to get a deemed conveyance if your building has OC)

OC

It is possible, legal and necessary to get the part occupancy certificate for the completed building(s) if the project is very big and will take few more years to complete.

Please verify the CC no. & date in the OC with that mentioned in your agreement. If it’s different please get the new CC & sanctioned plans and cross verify them with your flat.

Please verify if your flat no. is listed in the OC.

9.     Power Of Attorney (POA) / कुल मुखत्यार (कु. मु.):

a.      Your builder must have given his POA to someone to sign the agreement on his behalf.

b.      If you are not present or not going to be present for signing your own agreements due to some prior commitments like moving out on work assignment, then please give your POA to someone whom you can trust blindly (your parents, in laws, sibling etc)

c.       You need to register the POA in a registration office. A notarize POA is not accepted these days.

d.      Your lawyer will surely have a draft of a POA. It is always a good practice to add in a draft, a particular flat no. for which such a POA is being registered.

10. Conveyance Deed/ अभिहस्तांतर:

a.      It is an agreement between the builder and the society by which he passes the ownership of the land on which the said project is constructed to the society.

b.      In absence of this, if your entire building collapses because of natural calamity or because of any other reason, then your builder, being the legal owner of the land can start a fresh construction and sale on that land and you lose any claim on the property.

c.       Thus make sure that after your possession or at least just before builder completes the entire project and leaves, he has formed the co-operative housing society and has registered a conveyance deed in favor of the society.

  

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