Amendment proposed to Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963

The Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is pushing for the passage of an amendment to The Maharashtra Ownership Flats (Regulation of the promotion of construction, sale, management and transfer) Act, 1963 in the Maharastra State Legislative Assembly.

If the proposed amendment comes through, it will become mandatory for builders to sell the flats at carpet areas. Errant builders may face imprisonment of up to 3 years.

This proposal was earlier announced by the CM in the draft housing policy in November 2006.

The CM also took into account the fact that most buyers are not aware of the differences between terms such as carpet area, built-up area and super built-up areas of a flat.

An amendment is introduced to Section 3 (2) of The Maharashtra Ownership Flats (Regulation of the promotion of construction, sale, management and transfer) Act and placed it before the House on Friday.

According to the proposed amendment, flats can be sold only on the basis of Carpet Area and the builder/promoter can charge for the common areas and facilities in proportion to the carpet area of the flat.

Removing any ambiguity, it has been clarified that the flat will include the area of the balcony of such flat.

Any violation of this act can mean a three year imprisonment to the builder/promoter, proposed to be as per section 13 (A) of the Act.