In the last two years, the Maharashtra government received more than 2,400 applications from housing societies requesting deemed conveyance. According to the data from the office of Commissioner for Cooperation and Registrar, Cooperative Societies, between April 2020 and March 2022, it received 2,475 such applications for title transfer of which it approved 2,301 during the first three waves of the pandemic.
What is conveyance?
A conveyance is a legal document that a developer hands over to the housing society after the formation and registration of the society with the state government. According to Section 11 of the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act (MOFA), 1963, the promoter must convey the title of the land and building to the cooperative housing society.
Why is conveyance not generally transferred?
Developers demur from giving conveyance to housing societies as they lose the rights of the land on granting the ownership to the society. On the other hand, where the conveyance deed is not transferred, housing societies can contact the developer in case of redevelopment of the society, for applying for additional floor space index (FSI) or getting a bank loan to carry out major repair works.
What is deemed conveyance?
A deemed conveyance is issued by the state government if the registered housing society applies for conveyance when a developer fails to give the title of the land to the society. This paves the way for the society to get the legal benefit of ownership of the land.
How many societies do not have conveyance deeds?
According to rough estimates of the state government , in Maharashtra, there are more than 1 lakh registered cooperative societies of which around 50% do not have conveyance deed transferred by the developer in the name of the housing society.
What do the numbers show?
According to state government data, the highest number of applications for deemed conveyance are from the Konkan region followed by Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Aurangabad. In the last two fiscal years, out of the 2,475 applications, 92 percent or 2,301 applications were approved and the remaining are pending.
What is the state government doing?
According to the Maharashtra government, it has adopted two strategies to ensure that this practice of developers not giving conveyance deeds to housing societies stops.
Anil Kawade, commissioner of cooperation and registrar of cooperative societies, said, “We are asking the deputy registrars to guide the housing societies as and when they apply for deemed conveyance. The second strategy is that at the time of registration of the housing society, we tell the societies that if they do not get conveyance deed transferred from the developers in four months, they should approach us.”
Kawade added, “Once they approach us by passing a resolution in the society committee, we issue them a deemed conveyance. As per MOFA, developers are supposed to transfer conveyance to the housing society four months after its formation. However, the problems we face are that several old housing societies do not find sufficient supporting legal documents to comply with documentation required to apply for deemed conveyance. But we are fully assisting the societies to come forward and get deemed conveyance as not having conveyance hits societies in several works, like that for redevelopment.”
Case study
However, it is not so cut and dried in reality. According to cooperative societies’ officials, there is no uniform amount that is charged for deemed conveyance applications. However, the application is to be submitted on a stamp paper of Rs 2,000 value and other expenses relating to deficit, if any, found in the registration fees, stamp duty, etc.
But the real expenses come in when housing societies, as is mostly the case, appoint consultants or lawyers to handle the process of getting deemed conveyance.
That is the situation that 1,650 flat owners residing in 28 societies at Godrej Hill in Kalyan, just outside Mumbai, faced. According to Hill Garden Cooperative Housing Societies Association of Thane West, their estimation for getting deemed conveyance by appointing third party is running into lakhs.
So the association served a civil and criminal notice on Godrej Properties and its board of directors for alleged cheating, criminal breach of trust and non-execution of conveyance
Shrikant Rai, secretary, Hill Garden Cooperative Housing Society Association, said, “For years now, we have approached the developer to honour the commitments made in the agreement, but have not got a solution. We are left dejected and disappointed. Godrej Properties is supposed to transfer conveyance deeds to each of the societies. Even if we independently plan to get deemed conveyance, the expenditure of the same is very high for which we got an estimation from a private consultant. After sending them the legal notice, they have responded to our lawyers asking for 15 days’ time.”
However, a Godrej Properties company spokesperson said in a statement, “We have always been ready and willing to convey the land to the federation—Hill Garden CHSL and on several occasions called upon the federation to come forward and complete the adjudication and registration process. The process for adjudication and registration has not been completed because of the inability on part of federation to provide necessary documents for the competent authority to adjudicate the stamp duty value on conveyance. We once again reiterate our willingness to convey the land to the federation and assist the federation in the said endeavour.”
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