Amol Kulkarni
I stay in Pune, Maharashtra. I need to provide some background about my problem first. The society that we live in was formed in 1974 as a bungalow plot society. Some people built bungalows. Later on some people built flat system buildings on the plots. Some of these buildings are registered as co-operative societies while some are registered as apartments.
Now there is constant fight in the society about who should pay how much maintenance ?
If the total maintenance cost is divided equally among all the plots, then the bungalow owners are required to pay high maintenance. On the other hand, flat owners are required to pay maintenance separately for their building also and for the society also.
Some people say that allowing buildings to be constructed in bungalow society itself is illegal.
Similarly there are 2 opinions about whom to pay the flat transfer fee in case of resale of flat – should it be paid to the building or to the original society?
The original society maintains a register of co-members for the flat owners and so claims transfer fee.
I’m a flat owner here. Please suggest whether it is right to pay maintenance & transfer fee to original society.
I C Naik
Background
A Plot Society registered in 1974 (4 DECADES AGO) got divided in to plots of two types of several clusters of dwelling units. One or more clusters constructed bungalows which have organized and started managing themselves as Condominium(s) of ownership Apartments as per provisions of Maharashtra Ownership Apartments Act 1970. Each Bungalow is fully owned by the concerned member with percentage of interest in common area apportioned to every apartment in the deeds registered under that Act. The Other clusters have flats a which are governed by the M C S Act 1960 and members’ rights are restricted to occupancy with a right to transfer the rights for a transfer price to any person eligible to become member subject to prior permission of the Society, or by inheritance to legal heir and the concerned Society holding titles to the property of each flat and common areas as may have been conveyed it the concerned Society or agreed to be conveyed under the development agreements with the promoters of every Society.
The Plot society is akin to a federation of cooperative societies and Condominiums. Both are governed by different statutes and cannot get registered as legal identity under one common banner.
The facts supplied by you could well be imagined as not affording an absolutely correct view in law. But notwithstanding such blurred view stark reality is like this. How the matters common to entire plot society are managed is not imaginable. There must be innumerable issues coming up every now and then.
PROGNOSIS
A certain number of dwelling units with more or less uniform requirements of “common amenities and services” for human habitat are located on various plots the holders thereof are organized in a cooperative housing society registered 4 decades as a Plot Society. Whether and how the title to the land of this property of a legal entity “a housing society” stand conveyed as of today is a question mark having a huge significance and ramification for a very long time. As such a very long lasting solution has to be found without overemphasizing on the maintenance or transfer fee issues alone. It needs to be sorted out with an expert property lawyer to bring to a manageable format.
EXPLORATORY
Most Ideal but an exploratory suggestion at this stage is to see if there could be registered at least 5 housing societies on this plot which can become member of the original society re-registering a as a federation. Once this could be achieved other short term and long term issues would start look manageable not that it will be too simple but a logical framework is feasible. A biggest hurdle appears to be the Members of Condominium as they might be reluctant to get in to a complicated cooperative society structure. How easy to sort that out will depends on several facts.
