212 cooperative housing societies in Pune apply for conveyance deed in July

The conveyance deed is a legal document which transfers ownership of land from the developer to the housing society

After the Maharashtra government issued a fresh directive asking the concerned authorities to approve within a month the deemed conveyance of cooperative housing societies that had undergone self-redevelopment within a period of 30 years, as many as 212 cooperative housing societies came forward to apply for the conveyance deed in July. The conveyance deed is a legal document which transfers ownership of land from the developer to the housing society. A developer/landowner must execute the conveyance deed to transfer the title of the land and building to the cooperative housing society. After the state government’s directive, 10,000 out of the 20,655 cooperative housing societies in Pune city executed their conveyance deeds.

At least 212 cooperative housing societies came forward to apply for the conveyance deed in July. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

According to the commissioner of cooperation and registrar of cooperative societies, which is the nodal department for implementing guidelines in Maharashtra, several cooperative housing societies had not executed their (deemed) conveyance deeds despite the procedure having been made really simple. While the commissioner’s office had received 350 to 400 applications last year, it received as many as 600 to 800 applications following the state government’s directive.

Suhas Patwardhan, chairman, Pune District Cooperative Housing Federation, said, “Several housing societies came forward (following the fresh directive) with applications for completing the deemed conveyance process. Conveyance is the ownership right of the building and the plot on which the structure is built. We are closely working with the cooperative department and helping the societies to complete their pending process,” Patwardhan said.

Deemed conveyance is when the builder/landowner/legal heir refuses to cooperate in handing over conveyance to the cooperative housing society under section 11(3) of the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963. In such cases, the competent authority, on receipt of the deemed conveyance application, issues a scrutiny report within one month of the receipt of the deemed conveyance application.

A cooperative housing society can file an application for a certificate of deemed conveyance by affixing a court fee of Rs2,000 along with the necessary documents to be submitted to the authority. Once compliance is completed, the competent authority issues summons and newspaper notices to the landowner and property developer for appearing before it. The hearing starts after issuing notices to the builder/landowner. The complete process of deemed conveyance takes around eight months to one year.