Home Buyers to Pay Extra For Late Property Registration

Bangalore: Home buyers in the financial capital Mumbai, have to be more careful when planning to buy a house. Yes! Buyers who have only paid stamp duty and not the registration charges so far, have to pay extra amount based on current property rates.

 “The proposal contravenes a resolution issued by the state revenue department on April 12, 2012. The resolution says that if an agreement is not registered after the payment of stamp duty and comes up for conveyance later, the duty paid earlier would be taken into account,” said Ramesh Prabhu, chairman, Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association, reports Times of India.

“Since stamp duty rates have increased in recent years, this resolution gave relief to a lot of housing societies in getting deemed conveyance of property. What is the rationale of demanding additional stamp duty to convey flats in the names of people who have already paid the duty?”

 “The agreement for sale cannot be treated as a conveyance for the purpose of Registration Act and so is not compulsorily registrable under clauses (b) to sub-section (1) of section 17 of the Registration Act,” said the court in the order.

According to experts, a property buyer has the right to decide the principal document among various other documents like sale deed and affidavit, under BSA’s section 4. “The principal document, on which he pays stamp duty, is proof of the transaction, even if the document is not registered. Also, it can be used for conveying the property,” said Rajesh Mehta, city-based Raha Realtors. “In light of the two high court orders, the government is erring by asking flat owners to pay additional stamp duty for conveying the property,” added Mehta, reports TOI.

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