DDA’s 2014 scheme flats hit lock-in hurdle

There seems to be no end to troubles of the allottees of the Delhi Development Authority’s housing scheme 2014.

Five months after it removed the five-year lock-in clause — which prohibited allottees from selling their flats for the initial five years — the DDA is unable to execute the conveyance deed (giving freehold rights to allottees) of flats due to the clause.

Now, the land-owning agency has asked its legal department to find a solution to the lingering problem.

The DDA realised the problem when it started executing the conveyance deed of flats after it removed the five-year lock-in clause in December 2018.

While the clause has been removed, allottees can’t get their properties registered with the sub-registrar of the Delhi government due to the technical problem caused by the five-year clause.

The lock-in clause was introduced in 2014 to ensure only genuine buyers applied in the housing scheme. Under the clause, the land-owning agency had signed ‘agreement for sale’ with the allottees at the time of giving possession against payment of the 90% of the total cost of the flat. The balance 10% was to be paid after five years at the time of execution of conveyance deed.

Girish Singh, one of the allottees who got a flat in Dwarka, had approached the DDA to execute the conveyance deed in March this year. “I had paid the stamp duty on the 90% amount at the time of taking possession and done the balance 10% payment as well. There is no clarity from the DDA on when they will execute the conveyance deed,” Singh said.

According to a senior DDA official aware of the issue, “The allottees had paid the stamp duty on the 90% of the amount, which they paid initially, but their ‘agreement for sale’ was not registered with the Delhi government. Now we are executing the conveyance deed for the flat on the balance 10% amount. But the property can’t be registered on the conveyance deed, as it is for just 10% of the total cost of the flat. This has created a huge problem and we are trying to find a solution to it.”

“A property can’t be registered based on ‘agreement for sale’. The conveyance deed is needed for it,” said a revenue official with the Delhi government.

A senior DDA official admitted, “The Delhi government had informed us in 2016 that ‘agreement for sale’ can’t be registered.” The DDA is now exploring a possibility that the two documents — ‘agreement for sale’ and conveyance deed — are merged.

“If we execute the conveyance deed on the entire amount, then people will have to pay the stamp duty on the entire amount (cost of the flat) once again. We want that allottees should be charged stamp duty only on the balance payment while the property gets registered. We have sought help from our legal department. Once we find a possible solution to the problem, we will then approach the Delhi government,” the senior DDA official said.

The DDA has not taken up the matter with the government’s revenue department so far.

Allottees are upset that they are made to suffer for no fault of theirs. Vaibhav Puggal, resident of DDA’s housing complex in Sector 35 in Rohini and one of the allottees, said, “Due to the clause, we couldn’t sell our property. We have taken loan against it, and now there is a new problem. Why should we suffer? The DDA should have explored the legal issues before introducing the clause.