MHADA lottery winners renting, selling off flats

The housing authority has been lax about conducting surprise visits to keep a check on the unlawful selling or renting of its flats by original allottees

MHADA lottery winners renting, selling off flats

The housing authority has been lax about conducting surprise visits to keep a check on the unlawful selling or renting of its flats by original allottees

The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) has announced that the sale of forms for its much-awaited lottery will start at the end of this month. The undisclosed fact, however, is that MHADA has conducted very few of its promised surprise visits over the past year, to ensure that the apartments were not sold off or rented by the winners to others, in violation of the MHADA rules. A source said, "The officials have been claiming that surprise visits or random checks are conducted at various MHADA colonies at regular intervals, to check if the original allottees are staying in the houses won by them.u00a0 But the fact is that strict action is almost never taken against defaulters."

Frequent offenders
According to the MHADA rulebook, a person who has been allotted a house cannot rent or sell it to anyone else for a period of five years. MHADA is supposed to take strict action against the individual who violated the rule.
A resident from the Higher Income Group (HIG) category in Lokhandwala, said, "In our society there are some people who have already sold their property at almost double the rate at which it was obtained. MHADA is not concerned to keep a check on this."

When asked if the society has lodged any formal complaint with the vigilance department or the Mumbai board of MHADA about apartments that have been sold or rented in their building, the resident said, "We have not made any complaint, simply because we don't want to get into any kind of trouble with the authorities."

A real estate agent from Lokhandwala said there are many buyers who approach them often, enquiring if anyone from the MHADA building is interesting in selling their flats. "The original rates of a 729-750 sqft apartment, which costs between Rs 44 and 47 lakh at the time of allotment by MHADA, shoots up to over Rs 1 crore, when sold to another party. This is in violation of the memorandum of understanding signed between MHADA and the lottery winner," said the agent.

This year's lottery
This year MHADA will start the sale of forms from April 27. The lottery draw for 4,034 flats will take place on May 31.u00a0 This year's applicants can fill their forms online.

The Other Side
Speaking to MiD DAY, Amarjeet Singh Manahas, the chairman of the Mumbai Board of MHADA, said, "Whenever the Mumbai Board gets a tip-off or a complaint that any original allottee has sold the flat won by him, or is in the process of selling it, we immediately forward the complaint to the vigilance department, which verifies the complaint and takes immediate action against the accused." Manahas further said, "Surprise visits will be conducted from time to time to check whether the original lottery winner is residing in the house won by him or not."