Hyderabad: Buyers paying for the fault of sellers

Hyderabad: The property buyers are made to shell out more money in the form of 'open space tax', leaving the burden on the buyers of plots for the mistake of the sellers, who have to specify 10 per cent open space in the venture.

The buyers who have purchased plots in ventures where mandatory 10 per cent open space is not left are asked to pay a fee of 14 per cent of the market value of the plot. This provision is leaving the buyers to shell out huge money as they had taken up plots without seeing whether or not the seller has specified open space in the venture. The problem is more for a plot which is sold and purchased several times and the last person who is holding the property is made to pay the tax.

According to the officials there are 14,000 illegal ventures in the State including 3,982 in urban areas and 11,000 in rural areas. There are close to 15 lakh plots which are against the rules. As per the decision taken up by the government only those plots would be registered which are regularised under the Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS) by the government. Apart from the regularisation fee the authorities are also collecting 'pro rata open space charges' for the plots in the venture where 10 per cent of the open space is not left.

K Tirupati, a resident of Alair had a purchased road side plot admeasuring 315 sq yards. The market valuation of the plot was Rs 5,000 per sq yard and now Tirupat have to pay more than Rs 1 lakh for his plot including LRS fee and also the 14 per cent open space tax. He said that he had no idea of the rule and the realtor also did not talk of the rule. When he asked the realtor, he was told that the price of the plot was decreased keeping in mind the non-allocation of open space.

At some places the people who have made agreement with the realtors are cancelling them and waiting for the LRS deadline because this would ensure the realtor would be paying the open space tax if there is no specified open space in the venture.