Independent floors: 4 builders get notice

Independent floors: 4 builders get notice

GURGAON: The enforcement wing of the department of town and country planning has issued a show-cause notice to four developers in the city for violating norms under zoning regulations and licences issued before 2009 by selling independent floors.

The show-cause notice has been issued to four major builders - Malibu Towne, Mayfield Gardens, Ardee City and Unitech Ltd. According to the district town planner (enforcement) office, the builders had been issued a notice in May-June last year to "apply for completion certificates in their projects and submit pending fees in retrospective effect".

However, according to the DTP (enforcement), the builders failed to comply despite getting time for the same. "Since there was no policy to confirm sale of independent floors prior to July 2009, the licences issued had mentioned clearly that no builder should horizontally or vertically divide a plot being sold in their projects. However, they not only sold independent floors as violation of the licence issued but also got completion certificates on single names for each plot while there were three occupants on each," said Dilbagh Singh, DTP (enforcement).

In July 2009 the state had issued a policy making registration of independent floors legal. However, since this was a compoundable offence, the department had asked the defaulting builders to pay a compounding rate and get floor-wise completion. "The builders were asked to pay a one-time compounding rate of Rs 1,000 per sq-ft per floor. However, the builders failed to comply," added Singh.

When asked how these properties might have been registered, Singh said the department concerned with property registrations never confirmed with the DTP office about the norms under which builders were issued licences.

"Unitech has always been in compliance with the regulations and guidelines stipulated by the statutory bodies. We haven't received the mentioned notice yet," said a Unitech official. SS Group (Mayfield Gardens) and Ardee City could not be reached despite repeated attempts.