The city civic authorities are set to make mutation of cooperative flats and inherited landed property simpler.

Flats in buildings once owned by housing cooperatives that have now become defunct can soon be mutated in the names of the owners if they agree to pay property tax at non-cooperative rates, said civic sources.

A landed property, one or more inheritors of which are missing, can be mutated in the names of the remaining inheritors after a declaration of “civil death” of the missing inheritors. For example, a woman whose brother is missing long enough to be declared dead can get their late parents’ flat mutated in her name.

Municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay discusses the proposed changes with assessment officials last week. “Another round of discussion is needed to give the policy a final shape,” said Bandyopadhyay.

The chief manager (revenue) of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, Aniruddha Mukherjee, said thousands of flat-owners in the city are facing problems in getting their flats mutated in their names as they belonged to housing co-operatives that have become defunct.

The application to mutate a flat in a cooperative housing estate must be made through the cooperative society. Each flat is treated as a separate unit for assessment purposes. Since annual valuation of most such flats is below Rs 18,000, property tax is charged at the rate of 20 per cent of the amount.

For landed property with annual valuation over Rs 18,000, the tax rate is 40 per cent. Flat-owners in estates that do not belong to cooperatives have to pay tax at the higher rate since all the flats together are treated as a unit, pushing its valuation over Rs 18,000.