In cities like Mumbai, land is very scarce but the demand for housing is growing continuously. Moreover, some of the buildings in Mumbai and in other cities, have outlived their useful life and pose a risk to the lives of the residents. In order to cater to the increased demand for housing, with the added objective of replacing the old buildings, the government has been promoting and regulating the redevelopment of existing properties.

Traditionally, the housing society approaches a builder and enters into an agreement with it, for redevelopment of the building. The builder’s liability is to give the flats to the flat owners, as per the agreement and he is free to dispose of the additional flats to anyone, including the members, at negotiated prices. In case the redevelopment work is undertaken by the society itself, with the supervision of its members, it is known as self-redevelopment.

Eligibility criteria for self-redevelopment

Only registered cooperative housing societies of Maharashtra, are eligible to avail of the benefits offered under this GR. So, any residents’ welfare association, is not eligible to avail of the benefits of such self-redevelopment. This benefit is available only for buildings which have completed 30 years. The land on which the building is situated, may either be government land or private land. So, as long as the building of the society is older than 30 years, it does not make any difference as to who owns the land, for the purpose of self-redevelopment. In case the housing society owns more than one building of different ages, the society opt for self-redevelopment only for the building which has competed 30 years.

Redevelopment of any property requires approval from many departments and government authorities, which can be very time-consuming. Some of the approvals are interlinked.

In order to avoid delays, arising as a result of the various departments handling the applications, the GR introduced a single-window system for making applications and granting of approvals. This will help reduce the time and cost for the redevelopment.

In order to avoid delays in granting of approvals and arm twisting by officials, the GR stipulates that approvals for applications for self-redevelopment, should be granted within six months from the date of submission of the application. Moreover, to qualify for the benefits available under the GR and for faster execution, the redevelopment of the building has to be completed within three years from the date of the approval.

The housing society has to appoint a contractor, for carrying out the redevelopment of the building, from a panel of contractors maintained by the approving authority. For empanelment, the contractors have to submit balance sheets for the last three years. This requirement will ensure that no fly-by-night contractor gets to carry out the work of redevelopment under this scheme.

The contractor can be removed, if the committee constituted for monitoring the progress of the project reports undue delay by the contractor, in execution of the project. In such a situation, the contractor can also be black-listed, to make him ineligible for any other project. This requirement will work as a deterrent and ensure that the contractors are sincere, in the execution of the projects undertaken.