The registration of deeds for apartments resumes here with the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) recommending the city’s sub-registrar’s office for registration of deeds for two such projects after verifying their authenticity.
There was a deadlock of deed registration for apartments since May 2022, which was imposed by the Orissa high court taking into view a petition, which has brought attention to gross violation being attempted in the activities bypassing the set frame of rules and regulation.
The petition, filed by Bhubaneswar resident Bimalendu Pradhan, highlighted that deed registration is done without following the norms. It stated that deeds are being executed for projects, which do not have valid occupancy certificate, fire certificate and other necessary documents.
Taking the gravity of the issue into serious consideration, the high court had then asked the inspector general of revenue to execute the deeds of only of those projects, which have valid documents and executed following due norms. “Since many of the projects do not possess the valid documents, the registration of deeds couldn’t take off at the sub-registrar office for almost two years, but now BDA being the competent authority has passed two such authentic projects,” Pradhan said.
It can be noted here that with the enforcement of Odisha Apartment (Ownership and Management) Act 2022, the BDA in Bhubaneswar has become the competent authority for verifying the projects and recommend the same to the sub-registrar office for deed registration.
Earlier, the project proponents reached out directly to the sub-registrar office, which at many times allegedly register the deeds without verifying the valid documents of the projects, however now this will be done at the BDA secretary level, who is the competent authority under the Act.
“Being the competent authority, we are granting the association of allottee’s certificate under the new rule. This has made things transparent in verifying the documents of the projects and we are sending them to the sub-registrar,” BDA secretary (in-charge) Biswaranjan Rath said.
Homebuyers, too, welcomed the BDA move and asked for raising greater awareness of the Act among people. “There are many rules and regulations which are not known to people for which they often fall in the traps of frauds,” Garima Dash, a prospective homebuyer said.She added that the authorities should disseminate the information through social media and other such platforms. “They could also create a helpdesk at their office level. It is important for the people to be aware of the norms,” Dash, a corporate employee, said.
