LDA Revises SOPs – Will it make the property transfer process easier?

The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has revised its Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), aiming to ease transfer of plots in any housing society under the authority.

According to the revised SOPs, no-objection certificates (NOCs) shall remain valid for one year from the date of issuance for the transfer of plots. The application for NOCs is required to be attached to the ownership document(s)/transfer letter, paid processing fee challan form, CNIC copy, and copy of the completion certificate/proof of the building period.

According to LDA’s order, the process fee should be deposited in the specified bank through the challan form issued by the Revenue Directorate. And in case of the discovery of delinquency in property ownership, the deposited process fees will be forfeited as a penalty.

After preliminary scrutiny of the property documents, the application will be transferred to the directorate concerned. In case of allotted plots, the application will be forwarded to the Estate Management Director, and in case of exempted plots, the application will be forwarded to the Land Development Director. If the director concerned finds anything suspicious in the transaction, file or plot, they can issue orders for verification to limit the chances of a fraud, and the applicant will be informed about the verification process.

The Land Department Director will issue reports regarding the building period, double exemption, and number of earlier transfers of the exempted plot and forward them to the Land Acquisition Director for the verification of property ownership. In case of property files, the Estate Management Director will issue reports regarding balloting, physical possession, and exchange, etc.

The Estate Management Directorate will issue site and possession reports and send them to the Town Planning Wing of the authority, which will report regarding the building plan approval or completion certificate to the Revenue Directorate.

The report of the Land Acquisition Director is not required in case of allotted plots and the Estate Management Director will forward the file to the Town Planning Wing, which will report regarding building plan approval or completion certificate to the Estate Management Directorate concerned for physical possession and site report. In the next step, the file will be sent to the Revenue Directorate to verify any outstanding dues.

The Revenue Directorate will then forward the NOC to the Security Feature Paper Wing for printing, after which the NOC will be sent to the directorate concerned for ratification. An office copy will be retained and the applicant’s copy will be despatched.