Building your own roof and dream home is the biggest goal of every working person. To meet the rising property prices and huge down payment of home loan, most of the employees resort to the amount deposited in their Employees Provident Fund i.e. EPF account. Employees Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) gives legal permission to its account holders to make partial withdrawal/advance for buying a house, getting land registered, constructing a new house or repaying the principal amount of an old home loan. But often employees file online claims in a hurry without understanding the eligibility and conditions, due to which their application gets rejected or gets stuck in 'Under Process' for months. If you are also preparing to withdraw a huge amount from your PF fund, then first understand the mandatory rules under Para 68-B and 68-BB of EPFO.
Under EPFO rules, advance from PF for housing purpose can be withdrawn only when the member has completed minimum 5 years (60 months) of continuous service in EPF. If you have changed jobs midway, then the service history of the old PF account is required to be merged with the new UAN so that the total service period is considered to be 5 years. The maximum withdrawal limit depends on the purpose for which you are withdrawing the money. If you are purchasing a vacant plot or land, you can withdraw a maximum of 24 times the employee's basic salary (Basic + DA). Whereas if you are buying a ready-made flat, house or getting a new construction done, then a maximum of 36 times the basic salary and DA or the total employee and employer share balance (including interest) in your account, whichever is less, can be withdrawn. Additionally, if you are claiming repayment of a home loan taken from a government recognized bank or financial institution, up to 90% of the total balance in the account is eligible for lump sum withdrawal, provided the relevant category condition of 3 years or 5 years of your service period is fulfilled.
The rules for PF withdrawal for housing purpose make it clear that the property to be purchased should be registered in the member's own name, in the name of his/her spouse, or in the joint name of both. EPFO may reject the claim if there is joint ownership with a brother, father or other relative. Apart from this, the most important restriction is that this facility is available only once in a lifetime (Once in Lifetime) for direct purchase or construction of a house. However, if you had earlier purchased a house and after many years need money for its renovation/alteration, then there is a provision of separate limited withdrawal for repairs after 5 years of construction of the house. If applying for loan repayment, the loan should be taken only from National Housing Bank (NHB) or RBI registered institution or government housing agency.
Technical and documentary deficiencies are the main reason behind rejection of housing related advance claims on the EPFO portal. The first major reason is mismatch of bank accounts; If the bank account number and IFSC code entered on your UAN portal does not match with the bank passbook or cheque, the claim gets auto-rejected. The second reason is to upload a blurry image of a check or bank passbook. The name of the member should be clearly printed on the check to be uploaded and the signature of the bank official and the seal of the bank should be clearly visible in the passbook. The third mistake is wrong entry of service details (Date of Joining and Date of Exit) or non-transfer of PF of the old institution. The fourth mistake is the name of the member in the housing document like allotment letter, builder agreement or home loan statement being different from the Aadhaar card as in the UAN record.
Now there is no need for the employer's signature or going to the office to withdraw advance from PF, the entire process can be completed online. First of all, go to the Unified Member Portal of EPFO (unifiedportal-mem.epfindia.gov.in) and login by entering your UAN number, password and captcha. After this, click on 'Online Services' tab in the menu bar above and select 'Claim (Form-31, 19, 10C & 10D)' option. The screen will ask you to verify the last 4 digits of your bank account. After verification click on 'Proceed for Online Claim'. Select 'PF Advance (Form 31)' under 'I want to apply for' in the dropdown menu. After this, select 'Purchase of Site/House/Flat' or 'Repayment of Housing Loan' in the Purpose option. Enter your required amount, fill in current residential address and upload a clear JPG copy (between 100 KB to 500 KB) of your bank check or passbook. Finally click on 'Get Aadhaar OTP' and enter the OTP received on the mobile number linked to Aadhaar and submit the form. Generally the claim amount is directly credited to your bank account within 7 to 10 working days if all the details are correct.