Cheated by builder? You will get back stamp duty

If you think you have been cheated by your builder, here’s some good news from the government.

In what may come as a relief to home buyers, the state has decided to amend the Mumbai Stamp Act, 1958.

The amended Act will now ensure that buyers, who want to cancel the agreement made with their builders for the purchase of flats, will get their stamp duties refunded.

“If a builder has suppressed certain facts about the land or construction is illegal or the size of the flat is less than what was promised, the buyer can choose to cancel the purchase agreement,” said Ramesh Kumar, secretary, Relief and Rehabilitation Department.

“In this case, he shouldn’t lose out on the stamp duty paid for the deal,” added Kumar.

The department mooted the amendment to Section 48 of the Act to make way for some relief to house buyers.

Earlier, the stamp duty could be refunded only if the builder refused to hand over the flat to the buyer.

Stamp duty is a tax collected by the state government on different documents executed in the state. As per the Act, there are 63 such documents and one of them is property sales agreement. At present, the maximum slab for stamp duty is five per cent for all properties valued over Rs 5 lakh.

The department has also decided to amend Section 36 (a) of schedule 1 of the Act, which refers to stamp duty on leave and license agreements.

The stamp duty on leave and licence agreements in Mumbai and its suburbs has been reduced to bring it on par with cities like Thane and Pune.