Over 200,000 flat-owners who have not been able to get their properties registered because of tax left unpaid by the previous owner of the plot will soon be able to do so by paying their share of the dues.

Most of the flat-owners have been running from pillar to post for at least a decade to get their properties mutated.

The flat-owners now have to deposit their share of property tax with the civic body. The amount is credited against the name of the previous owner of the plot or the house that stood on it before the flats came up. Moreover, the flat-owners cannot get their properties mutated until the entire outstanding amount is cleared.

In the new system, the flat-owners will be able to get the properties registered against their name after depositing their share of tax with the civic authorities. They will be allotted an assessee number different from that of the original owner of the plot.

According to the civic assessment department estimates, the annual property tax revenue of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation will go up by about Rs 10 crore if this move is implemented.

“We are working out the system in consultation with experts,” said municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay on Monday.

Flat-owners in New Alipore, Tollygunge, Kasba, Golf Green, Tiljala, Behala, Jadavpur, Thakurpukur, Naktala, Garia and Santoshpur have suffered the most due to outstanding property tax on the plots.

Many promoters neither clear the outstanding tax before taking up construction of apartment blocks nor inform purchasers of the flats about the dues before they are sold.

The flat-owners get registered copies of their sale deed after a year or more of the transaction. When they approach the civic assessment department for mutation of the flats in their name, they are asked to clear the outstanding property tax with interest and penalty. The tax dues range from Rs 20,000 to Rs 5 lakh.