MHADA flat transfer: the process, the transfer fees and the documents

When a MHADA flat needs a transfer

Many flats in Mumbai were allotted by MHADA, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, through its Mumbai Housing and Area Development Board (the Mumbai Board). Such a flat needs a transfer whenever it moves into a new name: after a sale, as a gift to a family member, or after the allottee's death. People also call it a MHADA name transfer or room transfer; it is the same service. The allottee is the person the Mumbai Board allotted the flat to, and the Board keeps a record of whose name each flat stands in.

The MHADA rules and regulations for transfer of a flat are the Estate Management, Sale, Transfer and Exchange of Tenements Regulations, 1981, and they say:

No allottee shall, during the currency of the tenancy under Regulation 20, transfer any tenement allotted to him except with the previous permission in writing of the Board and also of the housing society or the company, if such a society or company has already been formed and registered.

Each route has its own form, papers and time limit:

After a sale. The society may give its permission once five years have passed from allotment and the buyer has paid the Mumbai Board's dues. In Economically Weaker Section, Low and Middle Income Group schemes, the buyer may belong to any of those three groups. In High Income Group schemes, the buyer must be in that group too. The seller applies for sale permission on the form the Board's E-MITRA page lists as Form 5 (numbered 6A on the form itself). Once permission is granted, we confirm with the Estate Manager's office which application and charge put the flat in the buyer's name, and prepare that file. Our guide on whether you can sell a MHADA flat covers the five year rule in full.

To a family member, during the allottee's lifetime. The Regulations let the Mumbai Board's Chief Officer permit a transfer to another member of the allottee's family. That covers an allottee who is moving for work, has found other accommodation, or wishes to pass the flat on, provided the family member undertakes to abide by the Regulations. The Mumbai Board's document list names the family members this covers: the husband or wife, an unmarried son or daughter, a married son and his family, a widowed daughter and her unmarried children, and the father and mother.

After a death. The heir applies on the same Form 1. Our guide to MHADA transfer on death walks through who qualifies and the papers in detail.

How much are MHADA transfer fees and charges?

MHADA transfer fees, which the Mumbai Board's schedule calls transfer charges, are 45 rupees a square foot for LIG flats, 55 for MIG and 60 for HIG, each with a ceiling:

In rupees, that works out like this:

• ·A 250 sq ft LIG flat: 250 × 45 = 11,250 rupees.
• ·A 400 sq ft LIG flat: 400 × 45 = 18,000, so the cap applies and the charge is 15,000 rupees.
• ·A 420 sq ft MIG flat: 420 × 55 = 23,100 rupees.
• ·A 650 sq ft HIG flat: 650 × 60 = 39,000, so the charge is 35,000 rupees.

The schedule does not say whether the area is carpet or built up, and gives no separate rate for EWS flats, so we confirm with the Estate Manager's office which area and rate apply to your flat before you pay. The Mumbai Board's document list allows payment in cash or by demand draft or pay order of a nationalised bank. The receipt goes in with the application, and the Regulation 24 form also asks for a deposit to be paid with the charge.

For a sale, the Regulations allow the Mumbai Board to make its permission conditional on a share, up to fifty percent, of the unearned increase, meaning the rise in the flat's value. The society's own transfer fee is separate and is set by its bye laws.

Documents required for a MHADA transfer

The documents required for a MHADA transfer are the nine items on the Mumbai Board's Form 1 checklist, which the office ticks off as the file is received. For a residential flat it asks for:

1. 1The application in the Mumbai Board's prescribed format.
2. 2A registered gift deed from the original holder to the applicant, for a transfer during the holder's lifetime.
3. 3Where the original holder has died: a certified copy of the death certificate with the registered will, or, where there is no registered will, the heirship certificate issued by the court. Where the flat is to go to one or some of the heirs, registered release deeds from all the others in their favour.
4. 4An indemnity bond on 200 rupee stamp paper, in the format MHADA prescribes. This is the applicant's written promise to make good any loss to the Mumbai Board from the transfer.
5. 5The society's NOC in MHADA's prescribed format.
6. 6Certified copies of the receipts showing all arrears paid, and the current month's receipt, including ground rent and non agricultural assessment.
7. 7The allotment letter, and where the flat has changed hands before, the receipts for stamp duty paid on every earlier change. If it is lost, our guide to the MHADA allotment letter shows how to get a certified copy.
8. 8Two attested passport size photographs.
9. 9A self declaration in the prescribed format covering unauthorised construction and whether a society has been registered.

A shop, other commercial unit or non residential plot adds a certified copy of the Gumasta licence, the Shops and Establishments certificate.

The Regulation 24 application that comes with Form 1 asks for three more things. These are a gazetted officer's certificate of the applicant's relationship to the original holder, the NOC of the original holder or the other family members, and the transfer charge receipt. The Mumbai Board's separate document list adds affidavits of the applicant's annual income and that the applicant, their spouse and unmarried children hold no other land or tenement in Mumbai. The form notes that the competent officer may ask for further papers where a case needs them.

For a sale, the seller's sale permission form has a shorter checklist. It asks for the dues receipts, the allotment letter with the stamp duty receipts for any earlier changes, and a declaration on 100 rupee stamp paper that the flat is not mortgaged to any lender and no case about it is pending in any court.

We build this file against the Mumbai Board's own checklist. Send us the flat on WhatsApp and we will tell you what is missing, free.

The MHADA transfer procedure, step by step

The MHADA transfer procedure has five steps, from the society's NOC to the Mumbai Board's decision:

1. 1Line up the society's NOC. Every route needs it, in MHADA's format, or an affidavit where no society exists.
2. 2For a sale, the seller applies for sale permission. The notified limit is 15 working days.
3. 3Clear the Mumbai Board's dues and keep the receipts. Both checklists ask for them. A no dues certificate is a separate service, with a limit of 19 working days, if you want one on paper; our guide to MHADA NOCs online lists it with the others.
4. 4Collect the form and file it within 15 days. The Mumbai Board's application forms say the completed file must reach the Estate Manager within 15 days of the form being issued, so gather the papers first. Pay the transfer charge and any deposit, and attach the receipt.
5. 5The Mumbai Board decides under a notified limit of 23 office working days. Once approved, the flat is recorded in the new name.

The designated officer is the Estate Manager for your division, with divisions that include Borivali, Malad, Goregaon, Bandra, Kurla, Ghatkopar and Mulund. If the service is refused or not delivered in time, the Right to Public Services law gives you two appeals. Under the Mumbai Board's table in MHADA's notification of 13 July 2015, the first goes to the Executive Engineer and the second to the Joint Chief Officer. Our guide to the MHADA office in Bandra lists which Estate Manager handles each area.

MHADA's citizen portal says that from 1 April 2019 new E-MITRA registrations and services moved to the state's Aaple Sarkar portal, so check there whether your service can be applied for online. The Mumbai Board's paper forms remain on its E-MITRA page, and their checklists show what the office looks for.

The MHADA transfer letter or transfer order

The MHADA transfer letter, also called the transfer order, is the Mumbai Board's decision recording the flat in the new name. None of the Board's published forms show its format, so keep whatever the Estate Manager's office issues on approval with your allotment letter. The Board's own sale and transfer checklists ask for the allotment letter and the papers of every earlier change, so the next buyer, bank or heir will ask for it too.

Bought a MHADA flat earlier without a transfer?

A MHADA flat bought earlier without the Mumbai Board's permission can be brought onto the Board's record through its regularisation service. It is meant for flats that changed hands years ago by a registered purchase deed without the record being updated. Regularisation is a separate notified service with the same limit of 23 office working days. It is applied for under Regulation 25, on the regularisation form numbered 2, which the Mumbai Board publishes together with Form 1.

The regularisation checklist follows Form 1, with the registered purchase deed in place of the gift deed or will, and an income certificate for High Income Group flats only. The Regulation 25 application also asks for the original holder's NOC. A premium is charged, with 10 percent of it paid as a deposit along with the application. The form leaves the premium figure to be filled in, so we ask the Estate Manager's office for it before you plan the cost.

If your building is an old cessed building under the Mumbai Building Repair and Reconstruction Board, the flat is a repair board tenement with its own forms, so check which Board your building belongs to before you start.

We will handle the transfer for you

Shree Giriraj Real Estate has worked in Mumbai property since 1996, from its Borivali West office since 2005, as a MahaRERA registered agent (A51800005726). As your MHADA transfer agent, our MHADA paperwork service finds the right form for your case and builds the file against the Mumbai Board's own checklist. We work out the charge for your flat, line up the society's NOC and follow the application until the flat stands in the new name, for MHADA flats anywhere in Mumbai. Tell us the flat and how it is changing hands on WhatsApp, and we will tell you what the file needs and what it will cost, free, usually the same day.