Stilt pangs: Floor owners in Rohtak fight over roof rights, lift facilities

Sunit Dhawan

Rohtak, May 23

Disputes among owners of different floors in multi-floor houses built on stilts are cropping up in Rohtak and nearby cities.

The common facilities like electricity meters, parking area and roof rights are usually the bone of contention among floor owners.

In violation of HSVP norms

The rooftop area has water tanks, dish antennas and control panels for the lift. Hence, the HSVP has made it accessible to all floor owners. However, owing to their greed to make extra bucks, some builders offer roof rights to the top-floor buyers in violation of the HSVP rules. Narender Sharma, property adviser

Inquiries made in this regard reveal that some builders offer exclusive rights to access the rooftop area to the top-floor buyers, and this leads to clashes.

“The rooftop area has water tanks, dish antennas and control panels for the lift. Hence, the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) has made it accessible to all floor owners,” points out Narender Sharma, a property adviser. “However, owing to their greed to make extra bucks, some builders offer roof rights to the top-floor buyers, in violation of the HSVP rules.”

Home buyers concede that apart from roof rights, disputes also crop up over common facilities like parking area, lift and passage, etc.

“Owners of the first floor in such houses often refuse to contribute for electricity bill and maintenance of lifts, maintaining that they do not require or use the lift,” states a retired bank officer whose family recently bought a floor in an HSVP sector of Rohtak.

Several floor owners even move the courts of law to get their disputes settled.

“The rights of floor owners are defined in the sale deeds, but there are many aspects that cannot be foreseen by builders as well as buyers,” reveals Rakesh Sapra, a Rohtak-based lawyer. “For instance, the owner of one of the floors in such a building got CCTV cameras installed at the main gate and parking area, citing security concerns. However, the owner of another floor accused him of infringing on his family’s privacy.”

He added that most of such cases are of civil nature, though criminal complaints are also lodged in some cases in which physical assault or damage to property takes place.