Rent defaulters of CHB small flats to face the music

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Chandigarh, January 18

Coming down heavily on rent defaulters, the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) has decided to cancel the allotment of more than 13,000 allottees of small flats.

Nearly 12,132 occupants of small flats in eight rehabilitation colonies have failed to pay their outstanding rent to the tune of more than Rs43.91 crore up to December 31, 2021. They were allotted small flats at Dhanas, Sector 38 (West), Sector 49, Sector 56, Ram Darbar, Mauli Jagran, Maloya and the Industrial Area several years ago.

Similarly, nearly 1,329 occupants of small flats under the Affordable Rental Housing Scheme (ARHS) at Maloya have also failed to pay their rent of more than Rs3.04 crore up to December 31 last year.

The CHB had time and again sent recovery notices to the defaulters to pay their rent or be ready to face cancellation proceedings against their units.

In 2019, the CHB had cancelled the allotment of nearly 250 allottees for the violation.

Despite several notices issued to the defaulters, they failed to pay their rent, said Yashpal Garg, Chief Executive Officer, CHB. He said now cancellation proceedings would be initiated against the defaulters and their allotments would be cancelled. Due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, strict action against the rent defaulters was kept on hold, but now no further relaxation would be given to them, he added.

To make the city slum-free, the UT Administration had allotted the small flats to slum dwellers under the slum rehabilitation scheme in different parts of the city. Allottees of the one-room EWS flats are charged Rs800 to Rs1,000 per month as ground rent, which is increased by 20 per cent after five years of allotment.

Under the Chandigarh Small Flat (Amendment) Scheme 2020, if allottees do not pay the rent, they are liable to pay a penalty of 12 per cent per annum. If paid on time, the yearly collection of rent will be around Rs20 crore. While the CHB keeps 5 per cent of the recoveries as administrative cost, the rest is deposited with the Administration.