Despite government laxing rules Pune housing socities fail to get conveyance deed

After observing the poor figure of housing societies filing for conveyance deed, the government removed the complicated norms and required list of documents needed for the document with the hope that many residential societies will apply in large numbers and get the conveyance certificate easily.

Despite the number of documents required to be submitted for application for a conveyance deed has been reduced from 25 to 15 by the government, there has been no significant change in the number of applications filed by co-operative housing societies for this essential document required for the purchase of a property.

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After observing the poor figure of housing societies filing for conveyance deed, the government removed the complicated norms and required list of documents needed for the document with the hope that many residential societies will apply in large numbers and get the conveyance certificate easily. However, out of the 16,000 co-operative housing societies in Pune, only 1,650 are currently in possession of the conveyance deed.

“Lack of awareness about the importance of the conveyance deed is one of the main reasons for minimal number of housing societies having the deeds,” said BT Lavan, Pune district’s deputy registrar for cooperative housing societies department.

Lavan said, “It is a serious concern for the department that the number of housing societies in possession of the conveyance deed is very less. It is an important document for people living in the societies as it gives them the authority to claim their ownership of their residence.”

The official said that action against builders who are refusing to give the conveyance deed to housing societies can only be taken if citizens register a complaint. “We are presently looking into around 20 such complaints filed by residents,” he said.

Mahendra Taneja, chairman of Clover Highlands housing society, which is also facing issues regarding obtaining the conveyance deed from the builder, said, “The authorities should not pass the buck on us for not doing the work they should be doing. Co-operative housing society department should voluntarily take punitive measures and impose heavy penalty on developers who refuse to give away conveyance deeds. Instead, the developers are exploiting the loopholes in the system thus increasing problems for citizens while the government authorities are doing nothing.”

Taneja said that one of the other important problems that residents face is that the builders often refuses us to give the occupancy certificate (OC) which is one of the most important document for filing for the conveyance deed. “We have to follow a long process of filing an RTI with the Pune municipal corporation (PMC) to seek the OC,” he said, adding that authorities must take serious cognisance of this problem as well.

Kiran Vadgama, resident of Wakad and chairman of Palash cooperative housing society limited, said, “Although the government has reduced the number of documents needed to get the conveyance deed, it has not changed anything on ground. Conveyance deed should be voluntarily given by the developers. However, in cases where the developers are refusing to give the conveyance deeds, strict actions should be taken by governing authorities against the builders.”