Immovable properties can now be transferred to blood relatives without any stamp duty.

All the immovable properties such as; land, house or flat can now be transferred to blood relatives or children’s without any stamp duty on registration. It is expected that this will be the major relief for millions of families who are living in Maharashtra, as now onwards they don’t have to pay 5% of the ready reckoner rate of the property as stamp duty.

Revenue minister Eknath Khadse, make the announcement by saying that, an affidavit on a Rs 100 stamp paper would be sufficient. He later changed his statement by stating that now government no longer deals in Rs 100 stamp paper for property matters, so you need to pay Rs. 500. While in other decisions he announced in the House on Wednesday, that those who own 500sq ft or smaller homes than this, now they do not have to pay the increased property tax and now government will allow them to twice the transfer of development rights to a landowner in lieu of land surrendered for a public amenity.

For the reply on a discussion on the budgetary allocation for urban development department, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis stated that the government is framing a new policy, as TDR will be indexed to the ready reckoner rate to, it will prevent them to earn a windfall from the use of TDR of one area in another. The main aim of decision is to increase the TDR as it was taken as the new Land Acquisition Act has increased compensation, whereas; the RR rate of the area where it is being utilized will apply, the more he added.

Khadse state that the decision to waive stamp duty on immoveable property being passed to heirs will cost the exchequer Rs 350 crore annually, as a construction amenity TDR or incentive TDR will be offered to a land-owner in addition to the regular TDR if he develops an amenity and hands it over to the local body. For land and other property, the ready reckoner rate has gone up considerably even if the owner does not sell them at that rate in the market.

For this we have received a large number of complaints from every part. They have been demanding to know that why should they need to pay a huge amount to government while transferring a property to their own blood relatives or children’s. Hence, Government of Maharashtra has decided to do away with the stamp duty,” he said.

When people take possession of their apartments in any multi-storey group housing project, an important issue they have to deal with is maintenance of common areas and facilities. Many developers want to retain their hold over the facilities because of the lakhs of rupees collected as monthly maintenance fee from the residents depending on the size and number of flats in a project.

But now this will end as the court has granted the apartment owners the right to form the .

A federation will ensure that AOA can campaign effectively for apartment owners to get a fair deal when it comes to maintenance charges, common areas and facilities.

“This is the first federation ever registered under Uttar Pradesh Apartment Act 2010 in Uttar Pradesh, and around 30 apartment owners associations (AOAs) have come under its umbrella. Formation of AOAs in other group housing projects will now be expedited and others can also form an apex body on the line of the Federation of AOA of Ghaziabad,” says Birendra Singh, owner of an apartment in the Exotica East Square group’s housing project and who has been fighting for over a year for registration of the AOA.

According to the UP Apartment Act 2010, a developer has to help apartment owners in their projects to form an AOA. Once the AOA is registered, the common areas and facilities shall be ‘deemed as transferred’ to it.

Now the Federation of AOA will look after the interests of the 60 AOAs registered in Ghaziabad and help in the setting up of other AOAs in group housing projects. Campaigners for the federation had filed a contempt petition in the Allahabad High Court on July 9, 2013, after the deputy registrar (firms, chits and societies) of Meerut refused to pay heed to the demands of many AOAs in Ghaziabad to register the apex body (federation). This, the campaigners alleged, was a violation of the Allahabad High Court judgment dated November 14, 2013, on registering AOAs. The court had said, “In our view, after the enforcement of the UP Apartment Act, 2010, no builder or promoter can resist or delay the formation of association of apartment owners under Section 14 of the Act. If the promoter does not get the association registered, the apartment owners can get such an association registered after a notice giving reasonable period to the promoter, say a month, and adopt model bye-laws, if they have not adopted earlier. In such case, the Registrar of Societies shall not refuse the registration of the association of the apartment owners.”

Upholding the plea, the Allahabad High Court, on July 21, 2014, ordered both the registrar and deputy registrar to comply with the November 14, 2013, directive within a month, failing which they would have to appear in person before the court and explain the reason for the violation. The court said, “Considering the public importance of the judgment dated November 14, 2013, in writ petition No 33826 of 2012, it is directed that OP No 2 (deputy registrar, firms societies and chits, Meerut, UP) shall file his affidavit stating therein as to how many applications for registration have been filed before assistant registrars of the districts of the state under the provisions of UP Apartments Act, 2010, for registration of respective association of apartment owners and how many such associations have been registered, in the light of order of writ-court dated November 14, 2013 in writ petition No 33826 of 2012.” Within a week of the July 21, 2014, order being passed, the federation was registered, says Alok Kumar, president of the Federation of AOA, Ghaziabad. Not only that, AOAs in more than 15 group housing projects have also been registered in just a few days. Besides that, many old RWAs in existence before the UP Apartment Act 2010, now want to be changed to AOAs to remain legally valid bodies of residents’ representative.

One of the most important financial decisions you will take in your life is purchasing a house and paying stamp duty is very common practice in purchase dealings. A buyer is responsible for the stamp duty. Always make sure that, in any case, stamp duty should not be bought in the name of a party/person not involved in the document.

What is stamp duty?

Similar to income tax, stamp duty is also a type of tax or duty collected by government for all the transactions made within the state by way of documents. Such documents include all Agreements, Bonds, Powers of Attorney and others. Stamp duty is payable under Section 3 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899. It has to be paid in complete amount and timely manner. In case of a delay a penalty is charged. Stamp duty is considered as one of the key sources of revenue for every state. After sales tax, stamp duty is the second largest source of revenue For the Maharashtra.

When is the stamp duty payable?

Stamp duty is payable in three situations:

• Before execution of the document

• On the day of execution of document

• On the next working day of executing such a document

Document execution means putting signature on the instrument by the person’s party to the document. Here instrument implies any document by which any right is created, transferred, limited, extended, extinguished or recorded.

Stamp of legality

A proper stamp duty payment done on a document makes it legal. Such document achieves evidentiary value and can be presented as evidence in a court of law if needed. Unstamped or not properly stamped documents cannot be considered as evidence. Generally, it is necessary to stamp all document executed in the state before signing of the document. To pay a stamp duty, one needs to buy a stamp paper, adhesive stamps and finish with rubber-stamping.

Who is liable to pay stamp duty?

Generally, a buyer is responsible for paying the stamp duty in purchase transactions. In the absence of any agreement to the contrary, the purchaser is responsible to pay stamp duty or in case of property exchange, both parties are required to abide stamp duty equally.

Validity of stamp duty

In the state of Maharashtra, from the date of purchase, stamp duty purchase is legal for the period of six month. So it is necessary to execute the document within a period of six month of any stamp duty purchase. This validity period may differ from state to state.