Purchase of “Roof Right “in private constructed floors from the landlord:
Fate of purchaser
Important Points to understand for such purchase
1. In case of purchase of Roof Right of first floor from the land lord, it amounts to purchasing entire space of ROOF on the first floor which can be constructed by the purchaser without any problem .Right to go on roof for the purpose of maintaining and supervising water tank ,cable wires, gas pipe ,electrical wires etc. ,ground floor /landlord can have approach to top of further constructed structure in case first floor owner constructs on roof by virtue of roof right.
This will be subject to legally permitted by law /corporation regulation to construct 2nd floor.
2. In case of purchase of ‘ROOF RIGHT’ by floor owner of 2nd floor legal situation doesn’t give much benefit to the purchaser for the following reasons:
a) In case prevailing law doesn’t permit to construct fourth floor without Lift or Parking on the ground, purchaser enjoys only visiting rights to roof like other floor owners. By purchasing roof right other floor owner cannot be deprived of their right to go on roof for the purposes of maintaining and supervising water tank, cable wires, gas pipe, electrical wires etc.
b) In case purchaser o roof right wish to construct upon roof as fourth floor, building has to be demolished with the consent of all floor owners and the question comes-who to bear the cost of construction? Its only possible if all willing to share cost of construction in order to help 2nd floor owner to enjoy fourth floor legally. This is the Grey Area.
Practice prevailing in the country:
a) Regarding flats allotted by DDA or any other Housing Authorities, top floor owner is given roof right along with top floor and it is permitted to be constructed. There is no issue of parking or lift because it is planned that way by the authorities
b) Regarding construction of land, as per prevailing law, ground, first and second floors were permitted by the corporation because the construction permission at the time of approval of blue print and other parameters, occupation certificate is given for three families to reside and sewerage water &electricity system, architectural norms are set according to that kind of inhabitation
c) With the time when building requires overhauling and landlords or floor punchers are preferring to reconstruct the building, Construction companies came ahead to offer their services of construction with no cost to landlord/floor owners but to get one floor in exchange of construction cost. In such situation all floor owners jointly offer their roof right which is as per law common to all permit the builder to construct fourth floor also and get one floor as construction cost. In such situation if top floor person is entitled to entire roof right and is not willing to give up and give to builder, the building can never be re-constructed, top floor roof right purchaser gets no benefit
Consequences of such roof right purchase
It is leading to lot of confrontation, frustrations and litigations with no solution unless someone has to understand roof right sale and purchase are just due to lust to have more loaf of share
Interesting example Noted in Mediation at Dwarka Court:
Among the two litigating parties, one is the owner of second floor with roof right in a built-up private house as per her documents registered by seller, the ground floor land owner.
First floor owner also has the right to enjoy roof for the purposes of water tank, gas pipeline, electricity wiring, cable wiring etc. and enjoying sun too.
By virtue of word written with Roof Right in the documents, second floor owner keeps roof locked and whenever first floor owner asks for access to roof, it causes litigation.
Roof is not open for construction on it due to corporation Rules-it can be constructed only if parking and lift is to be there for which building is to be demolished and re-constructed. Hence for all practical purposes Roof Right is of no avail.
Both the parties understood the reality, second floor owner feels cheated but not ready to compromise with the situation. An agreement was typed to share the roof and key be with both. But on the day, it was to be signed, second floor owner suffered High blood pressure and his wife had gone under depression. No mediation could be done as the situation is not acceptable to Roof Right owner
