Is redevelopment of housing societies in Mumbai set to become easier?

By Ashwini Priolker

Crumbling walls, cracked ceilings and damaged pillars is what the residents of Ashish Labh society in Andheri call their home. For the last 5 years, the residents have been trying to get their homes redeveloped. But the major hurdle in their path is the absence of conveyance which despite a court order the builder refused to give them, even after 30 years.

The residents are unable to get the deemed conveyance of their building as they also do not have an occupation certificate (OC). This has forced several of them to live in an unsafe building by risking their lives.

“Our building is around 30 years old. The court has directed the builder to give OC but despite that, he has neither given OC nor conveyance. Due to this, we are unable to redevelop our building which is now in damaged condition," says Shailesh Ghedia, Chairman, Labh Ashish Building.

But now there is good news for over 5,000 housing societies across Mumbai who are not been able to get deemed conveyance and hence not redevelop their old buildings.

The state government has decided to do away with the need for an OC to obtain deemed conveyance status for a building. Deemed conveyance status will make it easier for societies to approach developers for redevelopment.

“There are so many flat owners who have purchased the flats prior to 1990 at that time payment of stamp duty on the agreement was not compulsory. But now the rules have changed. These senior citizens who had then purchased the flats for Rs.1-3lakh are now expected to pay the stamp duty on the current market value because the agreement was not registered then. This is one of the major hurdles”, says Ramesh Prabhu, Chairman, Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association

Some of the other hurdles include Mumbai's archaic rent control and tenancy laws which discourage homeowners from going in for redevelopment. So until the state government clears away these hurdles, redevelopment activity in the financial capital may not pick up significantly anytime soon.