Maharashtra government begins drive for conveyance deed; step won’t help, say experts

The state government has initiated a special drive to help housing societies obtain conveyance deed. The drive will be held from January1-15. However, the experts

The state government has initiated a special drive to help housing societies obtain conveyance deed. The drive will be held from January1-15. However, the experts and activists point out that the government policies pass on the onus of compliance on society to shield the builders.

Representational picture. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

There are more than 30,000 housing societies in Mumbai and over a lakh in Maharashtra are without conveyance deed. Housing society activists also claim that the drive is just a ‘stunt’ and will not serve any purpose.

Conveyance means that society becomes the owner of the land on which the building is located. In 2012, the state government brought in the concept of deemed conveyance, where the society can bypass the builder who fails to execute conveyance deed and get it from the registrar.

Advocate Vinod Sampat, who deals in real estate matters questioned the very basis of this drive. “It is mandatory on the builder to transfer the land and the building to the society within four months on the completion of the project. Ideally, the builder should be taken to task for their failure, but here we have the flat owners who are put in the dock. There are provisions in MOFA (Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act) to imprison the builder and that should ideally be applied,” said Sampat.

Ramesh Prabhu, chairman of Maharashtra Societies and Welfare Association (MSWA), put the onus on the procedure, which he blamed is still cumbersome. “The residents will have to run through four different departments and fill multiple forms. It will take a minimum of one year to scrape through the entire process,” said Prabhu.

The builders are reluctant, as they lose rights over the land, and all benefits like extra floor space index (FSI), transfer of developmental rights (TDR) once the conveyance deed is transferred to the society. Conveyance deed allows the society to mortgage its land for obtaining loans to carry out repair works in society.

A senior official of the cooperation department, on conditions of anonymity, has justified the drive. “We have simplified the procedure to obtain conveyance deed and residents need to take advantage of this. We agree that it is cumbersome, but then residents should cooperate. It will be advantageous for them in future,” said the official.