Getting my Apartment Registered in Bangalore

I bought an (resale) apartment from an individual who had not taken possession of the flat from the builder (The Confident Group ) and had a loan going.

The builder was my point of contact for this purchase and I had absolutely no interaction with the seller. In fact, the senior executive from The Confident Group, refused to share the seller contact details.

The builder helped me in getting the housing loan through Axis bank and ensured that all the documents related to the apartment were handed over to the bank executive for verification.

The builder demanded that I pay Rs.30,000/ in cash. This, I was told, would be used to grease the palms of the brokers and lawyers attached to the sub-registrar’s office. I was strictly against giving a bribe to get my work done. I categorically refused to give any extra money for which I will not get a receipt. The executive told me to get the registration done on my own and that The Confident Group would not be able to handle this.

Note, I never received an email about the cash payment information from The Confident Group.  It was only communicated over the phone. My emails on this topic too were ignored.

I contacted few people who had recently purchased apartments, and all said that they had to give some hefty amount in cash to the builder for registration and khata. I also contacted  the organization, Ipaidabribe.com. Their comment was, “It is illegal to undervalue the property, but because of the Land Mafia in Bangalore, even though you want to be honest, it is impossible to go with the actual value i.e government value. You will have to pay the buyer extra. And, the extra cash you have asked to keep is to bribe the sub-registrar. Friends, we need to come up with something to stop this land mafia killing our people.”(http://ipaidabribe.com/bribe-central/registration-apartment-0 )

A day before the registration, I contacted  Mr. Raghunandan, who was travelling. He told me not to buckle and get the registration done. His golden words still reverberate in my ears, “Bribe takers are really cowards”. And, indeed they are!

(Mr. T R Raghunandan, IAS, is a member of the State Planning Board – Karnataka and also initiated forums to tackle corruption. Sri  Raghunandan has served as Secretary of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj for Karnataka and as Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Panchayat Raj, before retiring voluntarily in 2009. He is a consultant on fiscal decentralization and local governance to international development agencies such as the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).)

Raghu linked me to Pritam who, too, had refused to bribe for registering his apartment. Pritam, was very helpful. He diligently explained the process of registration and motivated me not to give in to anti-social pressure.  He also shared the “India Against Corruption” badges.

I went to the Sub-Registrar’s office, with my daughter. We wore the “India Against Corruption” badge.   (The scene is like any other government office – hoards of people some chewing paan, and many with the “menial” look, ready to drop at the feet of the unbuttoned paan chewing loafers that acted like their messiah.)

My daughter and I were looked at with much curiosity. I guess, that’s because they saw a school girl and a professionally attired lady flaunting “India Against Corruption” badge barging in directly to the Sub-Registrar’s office sans a broker or a male companion.

It is very easy to get your apartment registered, and you do not have to part with your hard-earned money either.

This is how I acquired a 1244 sq ft of place in my name, and it did not even take 30 minutes:

•         I directly contacted the sub-registrar and asked him the procedure to get the property registered.
•          He asked for the sales deed, encumbrance certificate, tax paid receipts, and the khata. I had the print out of all these docs.  This was the 1^st step. Getting the papers verified.
•        The sales deed, and the other forms were signed by me and the seller. 
•      Witness signature was also acquired.
•          I gave the bank drafts for the registration and stamp duty.
•          I paid Rs.360/ only towards scanning charges.

No, I did not have to run from one table to another with folded hands.  All I had to run for before I went to the government office was to:

·         Get the documents in order. Get print-outs and Xerox.

·         Get the drafts towards registration and stampduty.

·        Call up people to understand the process.

What flummoxed me is, The Confident Group is a member of CREDAI, and they also have a registration department that handles the registration and the khata-related work.  However, they ask for cash payment from their customer.  I can’t help but wonder, how eloquently they are fooling their customers and also indulging and promoting corruption.

I would like to reiterate, we are responsible for the sharks at government offices - If you are clean and do not have anything to hide, why be scared!

I have another task on hand - to get the khata for my apartment and transferring the electricity meter to my name.

Stay tuned for more updates !