This comes as a great relief for both home owners and tenants who reside in Mumbai after a police circular stating that no NOC is required from the local police station to obtain or let a property on rent in the city. All the landlord has to do is send the agreement copy to the local police station through registered post.
Prior to this, landlords and tenants would have to visit the local police station in person to inform the cops about the agreement and submit a copy of the same. This also led to malpractices by brokers like charging extra fees to help landlords or tenants acquire NOC. Not just this, but also the people would end up spending the entire day at the police station in acquiring the NOC. Apart from this, another aspect has been that police offers would often ask for a reward for assisting them in obtaining the NOC.
DCP Dhananjay Kulkarni said that this step has been taken to help citizens come forward and submit data about the tenants. He stated, “Once we receive an agreement, we will issue an acknowledgment receipt and it would be sufficient enough to show to the society office bearers that the agreement has reached to the police. If any data / information is found wrong, the landlord will be held responsible.”
So what happens if someone submits wrongful information? To this DCP Dhananjay Kulkarni stated, “Once the documents reach us, they will be kept as record in the police station concerned, and if anything goes wrong, the property owner will be held responsible. I don’t think any owner would deliberately provide wrong information.”
“As far as the NOC issued by the police for the record of the society is concerned, the acknowledgment of the registered post should be good enough for the society to believe that the police have been informed.”
As of now, the common man can breathe easy as another bureaucratic process has been cut short. The success of this depends majorly on how transparent and honest the apartment and property owners remain.