Why Occupancy Certificate Is Important When Buying New House?

An OC is a compulsory legal document that must be attained before you start living in your home. Officially, you are not authorised to occupy your home without an OC and the local civic bodies can initiate serious action against you

The lifelong aim of most of the couples is the thoughts of buying their own home and after patiently waiting for almost more than a year; you finally register the property and get the possession of your new flat. But what if your flat is declared unauthorised by the respective authorities? This thought could turn into reality any time if you don’t have an Occupancy Certificate (OC). Therefore, in order to understand the importance of an occupancy certificate, let’s understand the meaning in a simpler way:

What is an Occupancy Certificate (OC)?

Occupancy Certificate is also known as completion certificate or the pass certificate. It certifies that the construction of the building has complied with the approved plans as well as with existing laws and building codes. After the completion of the construction, the certificate is issued by local civic bodies or the building proposal department. In simple terms, the absence of an OC means that the flat may not have been constructed as per approved plan, and the risk of the demolition of unauthorised structure could be higher.

How important is the OC?

An OC is a compulsory legal document that must be attained before you start living in your home. Officially, you are not authorised to occupy your home without an OC and the local civic bodies can initiate serious action against you. In 2014, a well-known Campa Cola compound in Worli, Mumbai were declared unauthorised as they do not have this Occupancy Certificate. The residents were forced to evacuate their flats.

This is just one instance, and if you are not careful about obtaining an OC, you may face the below repercussions:

• Owning a house without an OC is considered as illegal and local municipal authorities can ask you to leave the property.
• It is mandatory for applying for services like water connection, sanitary connection, and electricity supply connection.
• To sanction home loans, most of the banks demand an OC.
• You may face problems to find a buyer in case if you wish to sell your home in the future.
• If you don’t have an OC, it may be very difficult to get Khata Certificate.
• In order to claim Income Tax benefits on your home loan, your employer can ask you to submit OC along with the home loan statement.

Be aware of your rights

• If you are a new flat owner, try to get an Occupancy Certificate from your builder before you occupy the flat. In case, your builder refuses to provide you with an OC, you can issue a legal notice against the builder demanding him to hand over the OC within a month from the date of issue of your notice.
• In case, your builder does not respond, you can approach consumer forums and file a petition asking the OC.
• There are some canny builders who can misguide gullible customers by offering the receipt of the OC. But you should only accept the actual OC because the receipt of the certificate may be dated.

Knowing these rights are better than to face a Campa-Cola-like situation in the near future!

We hope you find this article informative. Kindly share your views on this topic.