Guiding Principles for Property Management
People
with different culture, taste and habits living in separate dwelling units
situate within a compound
is not new to the country as it was prevalent in the past under the name and
style as Vatara houses wherein small dwelling units were constructed within a
compound for occupation and use by different families as their residence.
Vatara
houses were constructed in horizontal or in L shape rows with single storey
structures unlike the present day multiple storey vertical apartments.
Apartment
culture, though of recent origin, has gained tremendous acceptance by the
people in a very short time. Generally, it is seen that in apartments, people
of different back- grounds, origin and culture live in good harmony and
brotherhood. Shalimar Apartment, built in early seventies was probably the
first Apartment that was constructed in Bangalore. Apartment culture further
gained acceptance in early eighties when several apartments were built in
Malleshwaram and other places. Since-then construction of apartments is in full
swing in Bangalore and a large number of reputed builders and Promoters are
busily engaged in the development of jlifferent Apartment Projects in and round
Bangalore to meet the ever increasing demand for commer- cial and residential
apartments.
Merits of apartments
Apartments
have certain advantages in comparison with the independent houses. The first
and foremost advantage the purchaser of an apartment will enjoy is that he need
not have to worry about the issues like obtaining plan sanctions, finding a
building contractor, supervising the construction work, obtaining basic amenities
such as water, power, sewerage facilities for the building and so on which is
taken care of by the Developer. The purchaser of apartment need not have to
worry for any civic problems which he may encounter after his occupation of the
apartment, since these problems are tackled by the Apartment Owners
Associationl Builder for which a nominal charges are levied.
The
next advantage an apartment owner gets would be the social harmony he would get
due to community living. A sort of bondage is developed amongst the residents
of apartments.
Further,
for the exclusive use of apartment owners/occupants almost all the apartments
now-a-days, do have facilities like gym, health-club, recreational center,
sports club, swimming pool, private security system within the premises for
which again a nominal fee is charged.
Demerits of Apartments
Even
though living in apartments do have many advantages, they are not totally free
from disadvantages. A Person who lives in an apartment generally is deprived of
his privacy. Further, the apartment owner is prevented from carrying out any
major addition, alteration or modification to his apartment to suit his needs.
All such repairs, alterations and modifications are to be carried out with
least inconvenience to other apartment owners and any damage or loss caused to
the other apartment owners are to be compensated. The amount collected by the
Apartment Owners Association to meet the expenses for general maintenance and
upkeep may be more than what a person would have spent had he owned an
independent house and could be much more than what is required for such
maintenance. There is every likelihood of such a common fund being misused by
the office bearers of the Association or over which there could be some
misunderstanding amongst the apartment owners leading to unsavoury situation.
Apartments
would fetch a much lower price compared to an independent house during its
second sale. Further, any dilapidated single apartment would fetch no buyers
since the land on which such apartment is built is owned by all the apartment
owners and the seller does not have the exclusive ownership right over the land
on which such apartment is situate. On the contrary, a dilapidated independent house would generally get prospective buyers irrespective of the condition of
the structure since new structures could be put on such sites after demolishing
the existing ones and the seller of such a dilapidated house will transfer his
right, title and ownership of the land as well.
How to proceed?
As
in the case of purchase of any other property, verification of ownership title
is one of the pre-requisites for purchase of an apartment also. Though the
builder of apartments provides legal opinion given by his advocate regarding
subsistence of marketable and valid title of the vendors, it is always better
that the intending purchaser of an apartment gets the title report of the
property scrutinized from an advocate of his choice having vast knowledge and
experience in property dealings. The legal scrutiny report shall contain
detailed information regarding the origin, flow of title, present status of the
owner, validity of the OPA, Joint Venture, if any, entered into between the
owner and the Developer.
Another
very important aspect which requires consideration is to ascertain whether the
approval for construction of apartments and the plan has been obtained form the
competent authority and to find out whether commencement and completion
certificates have been issued by such an authority.
Location
of the building is another important aspect which one has to consider before
purchasing an apartment. This is mainly because any building which has no
proper access to main roads with insufficient public transport and other civic
amenities such as water, electricity supply, proper, sanitation, parks, market
place, hospitals, schools, etc. would put the purchaser of flat to a great
hardship and inconvenience.
Apart
from all these, the previous history and record of the Builder is necessary to
be verified for which purpose, it is always advisable to visit some of the4
projects executed by the builder in advance.
Powers of the Sanctioning Authority
For
grant of approval for building construction and the plans, different
authorities are delegated with this power under different statutes. While, the
village Panchayats are empowered to give license for construction of building
consisting of ground and first floor, the City Municipal Corporation can
approve plans for ground plus three upper floors. The BMP or BDA can approve
building plans of land for construction of multistoried buildings apart from
constructing an independent house. In the case of high rise buildings
consisting of more than four floors, No Objection Certificates form BWSSB,
BESCOM, Fire force authority, BSNL, Airport Authority of India and Karnataka
State Pollution Control Board are to be compulsorily obtained.
It
must be kept in mind that anyone who violates the building bye-laws and zonal
regulations would expose himself to the risk of demolition of such structure
any time in the future.
Conveyance/Sale Deed
Normally,
before purchase of an apartment, a sale agreement is executed by the Owner,
[represented by the OPA Holder where there exists a OPA holder] and the
Builder, agreeing to sell an undivided share in the land in favour of the
intending purchaser. While at the same time, a construction agreement is also
executed by the Builder in favour of the intending purchaser agreeing to
construct an apartment for him. Once construction of apartment is complete, a
sale deed is executed jointly by the vendor of the land and the
builder/Promoter in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Joint
Development Agreement, if any, in favour of the purchaser. The sale deed
specifically recites the duties and responsibilities of the buyer and the
seller. As regards sale consideration, it is arrived at upon consideration of
the various aspects such as location, specification of the work, carpet area and
percentage of Carpet area to Super Built up Area and as agreed to between the
parties.
Undivided Share of Land
Undivided
share is the percentage of share conveyed in the total land along with the
apartment to the purchaser. This percentage depends upon the built up area of
an apartment and the actual extent of land upon which the apartments are
constructed. As the built up area increase the undivided share over the land
also increases.
Super Built-Up Area
Super
built up area is the saleable area generally applicable to apartments. Super
built up area consists of actual flat area plus proportionate common areas like
staircase cum verandah, balcony, lift area and other common areas etc.
Since
the price of an apartment depends upon the super built up area, it is advisable
for the purchaser to have some knowledge about Carpet area, plinth area and
super built up area before purchase of an apartment. Generally super built up
area should not be more than 25% of the carpet area.
Purchaser shall bear registration
expenses
It
is obligatory on the part of the purchaser to bear the expenses incurred
towards stamp duty, registration charges and other incidental expenses to be
incurred in connection with the registra- tion of the apartment. Infact, the
Builders are collecting Sales tax, service tax, statutory deposits for Bescom
and BWSSB.
Registered sale deed
Registered
sale deed is the primary document which establishes ownership title of the
apartment in favour of the purchaser. Relying on the sale deed the concerned
Revenue authorities issue other supporting documents of title such as Khatha
Endorsement, Khatha Extract and the Tax paid receipts.
Registration under Apartment Owners'
association
After
completion of construction and handing over of the apartments to the
purchasers, the owners of such apartments are required to form an association
for the general well-being of the owners or residents of the apartments and for
maintenance of common areas. Upon formation of such an association, the builder
is duty bound to hand over originals of all the relevant title deeds, detailed
drawings of electrical, water and sanitary lines to enable the Association to
utilize the same for the common good whenever required.
A word of caution
Do
not go by glossy advertisements and tall claims of the builder. There are
several instances wherein the apartments purchased by a few are inflicted with
certain latent defects which remain unattended to by the builder when once the
sale transaction is complete pushing the purchaser to suffer both in terms of
comfort and finance. There are many reputed builders available in the market
with impressive track records. Choose anyone of them and have a peaceful
enjoyment of your apartment.
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