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Tuesday 19 May 2015

PURCHASE OF APARTMENT


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
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 commercial 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.

De-merits 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 the 4 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 BBMP or BDA or any other concerned Town Planning Authority 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.

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 document which establishes ownership title of the apartment in favour of the purchaser. While making the Registration of Sale Deed, certain factors need to be verified, such as: Operative words of the Sale Deed; Consideration passing details; Devolution of the Property conveyed; Flow of title of the Property to the Vendor; Indemnity Clauses, etc. .

Further, the property which you intend the purchase is to be properly conveyed to you along with undivided share of land, besides Super built-up area.  Generally, in the Apartment land owners will be more than one person, in such cases, they have to be represented by the Developer being the Registered General Power of Attorney holder for the Developer’s share of land; and in case of Owner’s share of land, basing on the Sharing Agreement, they cannot convey the flat individually and instead all the owners jointly only can convey the property because it being undivided share of land and right of ownership of ingress and egress to be conveyed effectively.  Further, the Sharing Agreement is just an agreement and it cannot convey any ownership rights. 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. The Apartment Owners’ Association can be formed either under the Karnataka Apartment Owners’ Association Act or Karnataka Societies Act.

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.

More,
Whitefield    

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