Mortgage clause in building rules to be extended

Rule manipulations rampant in city, resulting in loss of revenue to GHMC

The Telangana government may soon issue orders extending the mortgage clause in the common building rules to structures built in over 100 square metres of plot area.

So far, only structures over 200 square metres of plot area in case of municipal corporations and over 300 square metres in other municipalities and nagar panchayats have come under the clause.

A draft GO was prepared extending the clause after GHMC has written to the government seeking to amend the provisions to control illegal constructions in the city. The draft GO awaits nod from the Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development K.T. Rama Rao, who may also take a decision whether to extend the clause to all structures, or only to those exceeding 100 square metres, sources said.

As per the common building rules, the building owner is required to hand over 10 per cent of the built-up area to the municipal authorities by way of a notarised affidavit.

Issue of building permissions would be based on compliance to this rule, and the mortgaged property will be released only after the authorities are satisfied that the building rules are totally complied with.

However, individual buildings in plots up to 200 square metres with respect to municipal corporations and 300 square metres with respect to other municipalities or nagar panchayats, both not exceeding height up to seven metres (ground plus one floor) are exempted from the rule. Officials say that this has given way to many irregularities in construction, with property owners seeking to circumvent the mortgage clause by applying for more than one building permission in undivided plots exceeding 200 square metres.

“Such manipulations are rampant in the city. There was an instance where a group of buildings were constructed for an educational institution in a large area, which were shown as separate buildings in less than 200 square metres each for building permissions. As there was no application of mortgage clause, building stipulations too were violated freely, with four to five floors raised in place of ground plus one,” said Chief City Planner S.Devender Reddy.

Recognising that such violations had been resulting in huge loss of revenue for the urban civic body, GHMC officials have addressed a letter to the government more than a year ago, seeking extension of the mortgage clause.