Crystal Tower was not the only black sheep among buildings in the city where tenants have occupied without the mandatory occupation certificate. In Mumbai there are more than 10,000 buildings which do not have an occupation certificate. Housing experts state the same figure for buildings without an OC in Mumbai Metropolitan Region. The reasons for no OC, is being attributed to lack of compliance on behalf of the builders. Builders partially agree to compliances and then go on to blame residents who take possession before OC and carry out changes.
Ramesh Prabhu, Chairman, Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association said, "The reason is that developer do not comply with the all the rules laid down in IOD. This leads to a problem, and hence they do not go for OC to the BMC."
As per rules, says Prabhu, it is only after OC is received that someone can occupy a flat, however, there are umpteen number of examples where people reside even without an OC for the building.
According to Prabhu in cases of buildings where there isn't an OC in place, the BMC charges them double the charge for water, while in Thane, apart from water, there is a penalty on tax too.
However, developers claim that there are manyfold reasons for this widespread common trend. Anand Gupta, Chairman of the Infrastructure Committee of the Builders Association of India, said, "There are times, that a builder gives a home buyer fit out possession, the buyer carries out changes, the builder then cannot go for OC, as the changes also impact the permission. Also many residents of the building come and start residing even without OC, there are many developers who then ask, the home buyer to pay the taxes so that OC is granted. Many developers shy away from taking this burden on them, thus also OC gets delayed."
According to Prabhu, if a developer doesn't have an OC for the building, then the common perception is that there are some illegalities in the building construction.
