Panaji, July 1: The Goa Government has unveiled the ‘Mhajo Flat’ Scheme, a comprehensive initiative aimed at protecting the interests of thousands of flat owners, ensuring secure housing rights, facilitating the redevelopment of aging housing complexes, and resolving long-pending ownership issues faced by cooperative housing societies across the State.

The scheme addresses one of the most common problems faced by flat owners in Goa—the failure of builders and developers to execute conveyance deeds transferring ownership of land and buildings to individual flat owners or cooperative housing societies. In many cases, housing societies have either not been formed or, despite being registered, have not received legal conveyance of the property.

According to the Government, the absence of legal ownership prevents societies from managing common areas, undertaking redevelopment projects, obtaining statutory approvals, and accessing financial assistance. Many old residential complexes requiring urgent redevelopment have remained stalled due to the lack of clear title over the property.

To address these issues, the Government has proposed coordinated reforms involving the Cooperation, Revenue and Registration Departments through the umbrella ‘Mhajo Flat’ initiative.

As part of the scheme, amendments are proposed to the Goa Cooperative Societies Act, 2001 and the Indian Stamp Act (Goa Amendment), along with notifications under the Indian Stamp Act and the Registration Act.

The proposed amendments will facilitate the formation and registration of cooperative housing societies where they do not exist, introduce a statutory framework for unilateral deemed conveyance where builders fail to transfer ownership, and establish clear legal provisions for the redevelopment of old and structurally unsafe housing societies.

To encourage societies to obtain deemed conveyance, the Government has also proposed a one-time amnesty by substantially reducing the financial burden on societies. Under the proposal, stamp duty on deemed conveyance documents will be reduced to a nominal amount as prescribed in the Schedule, while the registration fee will be capped at ₹10,000.

The initiative also proposes amendments to Section 4 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, allowing multiple documents executed as part of a single redevelopment transaction to avoid repeated payment of full stamp duty. While the principal document will attract regular stamp duty, each subsequent document will require only ₹1,000 in stamp duty.

Further amendments to Article 5 and Article 48 of Schedule I-A will rationalise stamp duty on development agreements and powers of attorney. Where full conveyance stamp duty has already been paid on the first instrument between the same parties for the same property, any subsequent agreement or power of attorney will attract a concessional stamp duty of only ₹1,000.

The Government said the Mhajo Flat Scheme is intended to benefit housing complexes constructed before the implementation of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA).

Through these legislative and administrative reforms, the Government aims to provide legal ownership to flat owners, simplify redevelopment procedures, reduce financial burdens arising from multiple stamp duty payments, and create a transparent framework for the sustainable redevelopment of aging housing societies across Goa.