Allotment Letter for a Commercial Unit (Office, Retail or SCO)

स्टाम्प ड्यूटी

This Letter records a Total Consideration and a Payment Plan for the Unit and acknowledges a Booking Amount received toward it, so a stamp authority can treat it, whatever it is titled, as an agreement relating to the sale of immovable property rather than as a plain letter — draft and stamp it on that footing rather than hoping the title carries it. PUNJAB: falls to Article 5, Schedule I-A — entry 5(c), an agreement to sell where possession of the property is not given, which is the position here because Clause 5 gives the Allottee no possession of the Unit. The Revenue Department does not publish this figure as prominently as its ad valorem conveyance rates; ask the Sub-Registrar of the tehsil where the Project is situated what entry 5(c) comes to before buying paper, and buy the e-stamp on igrpunjab.gov.in dated on or before the date of this Letter. CHANDIGARH: falls to Item 22, Schedule 1-A to the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 as applicable to Chandigarh — 5 per cent of the earnest money actually paid, which here is the Booking Amount in Clause 4 and NOT the Total Consideration, plus a registration fee of 1 per cent capped at Rs 10,000 and Rs 20 pasting fee. Confirm the current figures at the Sub-Registrar's office, Sector 17, Chandigarh, or through the Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd's e-stamping counters (shcilestamp.com), before the Developer signs. Either way, Section 35 of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 keeps an unstamped or insufficiently stamped instrument out of evidence until the deficient duty and a penalty of up to ten times the deficiency are paid — stamp before signing, not after a dispute makes it urgent.

रजिस्ट्री

Not compulsorily registrable by itself, as a plain letter acknowledging a booking and stating terms that are still to be carried into a formal contract. But if, on its actual wording, this Letter operates in substance as a contract for the sale of the Unit within Section 53A of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882 — because it fixes a definite Unit, a definite Total Consideration and definite payment terms — it can fall to be registered under Section 17(1A) of the Registration Act, 1908, in exactly the way an Agreement to Sell does, whatever its title says. That is precisely why Clause 5 states plainly that this Letter does not itself contract to sell the Unit and gives the Allottee no right to specific performance of a sale — that contract, and that right, are reserved for the Agreement for Sale in Clause 6. Keep this Letter with the Unit's papers so the two read together. Separately, and regardless of how this Letter itself is characterised: Section 13(1) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 bars the Developer from accepting more than ten per cent of the Total Consideration as an advance or application fee before a written Agreement for Sale for the Unit is registered — and in a Punjab colony licensed under the Punjab Apartment and Property Regulation Act, 1995, Section 6(1) of that Act is stricter still and bars any advance at all before that Agreement for Sale is registered. Clause 6 records which of these applies to this Project and what that means for the Booking Amount already received.

नोटरी

Not required by law, and this Letter takes effect once the Developer signs and issues it. Notarisation before a notary appointed under the Notaries Act, 1952 is optional and is sometimes done for comfort, because it creates an independent record of the date and of who signed. It does not cure a stamp duty shortfall, and it does not turn this Letter into the registered Agreement for Sale, or give it the effect of one.

गवाह

Not legally required for a letter of this kind. Two witnesses to the Allottee's acceptance are provided for below regardless, because a booking dispute usually comes down to one side's word against the other's, and a witness who can be produced later is worth more than the wording of any clause. Use adults who are not employees of the Developer where practicable, and record full names and addresses so they can actually be found later. Both the Developer's signatory and the Allottee should sign every page, including the Schedule.