DEEMED CONVEYANCE

Most of the flat-owners of the newly constructed apartments do not have their sale deeds or conveyance deeds or even names in the 7/12. Mostly in the newly constructed buildings, the builders provide for making a housing co-operative society to which they shall transfer their interest in the property. Then the builders make the society but do not pass on the title of the property (read ownership) to the flat-owners or the society till he has sold all the flats in the building. Thus the builders are benefiting from the buyers lack of awareness and information.

To curb this practice, amendments were carried out in the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963, in 2008 to appoint a Competent Authority (Registrar of Co-operative Housing Societies) to hear the grievances of such apartment owners and to safeguard the interest of such societies.

MEANING OF DEEMED CONVEYANCE: Conveyance means to transfer or convey anything to another person. In the legal sense Conveyance refers to the transfer of ownership or other interest in the property to the other party. Conveyance Deed is a document executed to transfer the title of land and building in favour of Society or Association of Persons (AOP). A deemed conveyance means when the builder/ promoter/ developer of the project refuses to sign the conveyance deed the court can sign the same on behalf of the builder and record the same in the government records.

WHEN IS THERE A NEED FOR DEEMED CONVEYANCE: In a situation when a promoter or owner of residential premises/ buildings does not transfer/convey the ownership of the flats to the housing society or association of persons (AOP), the society or AOP can make an application to Registrar of Co-operative Housing Societies, to transfer the ownership of the said flats to them. This process is carried on through Deemed Conveyance of the title of the buildings and land in favour of the Society or AOP without the need of the builder to do so.

IMPORTANCE AND PROVISION OF LAW ON CONVEYANCE: As per the Housing Society bye-laws, the main objective of formation of the Society is to obtain the Conveyance; and if Conveyance is not given by the Builder within four months from the date of registration of the Society, a case can be filed against the Builder to obtain the Conveyance. As per Section 13 of Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963, failure to give Conveyance is an offence and the Builder can be imprisoned up to 3 years or fined or both.

ADVANTAGES OF CONVEYANCE:
1. Getting a proper and legal title in the name of the Society.
2. Retaining the additional FSI as per the Government announcements.
3. Property will be free and marketable.
4. Society can raise the loans for repairs and reconstruction by mortgage.
5. Permission from planning authorities is possible if the building has to be reconstructed at a later date due to dilapidation of the structure due to age or by earthquake.
6. Society can take the benefit of TDR.
7. Members can receive compensation from Builder on redevelopment of the building.

DISADVANTAGES OF NOT HAVING CONVEYANCE DEED
1. Even though you have purchased ownership flat, you are not the owner of the land and building. 2. In the event of a building collapse or damage to the building, you cannot reconstruct the building without the permission of the Builder / Land owner.
3. The Builder/Developer may mortgage the property purchased by you as he is the legal owner and holding the Title Deeds of the Property.
4. The Builder/Developer may transfer the FSI/ TDR to his other projects and enjoy the commercial benefits, depriving the flat purchasers/Society of its legal entitlement.
5. The Builder may make profit by sale of open spaces, gardens, terrace, parking space belonging to the Society.
6. The Builder may demand a huge amount from the Society, if Conveyance is sought by the Society after a lapse of many years.
7. The Builder may sell the entire Development Rights and the Legal Rights on the land to third party and create a third party interest in the Property and the Society will have to incur a huge amount to clear the same.

CONDITIONS PRECEDENT FOR GETTING A DEEMED CONVEYANCE: There are certain important conditions which need to be fulfilled to go ahead for deemed conveyance, some of them are:
1. At least 60% of the flats in that scheme should be sold.
2. A Co-operative Society or Association of Persons should have been formed of the flat-owners and at least 3-4 months should have been passed since then.
3. There should be communication between the builder and the society or AOP regarding Deemed Conveyance wherein the builder should have made a promise of completion of conveyance or refused to do the same.

PROCEDURE FOR FILING AN APPLICATION FOR DEEMED CONVEYANCE: After the above mentioned conditions are fulfilled, the following steps shall be taken:

 Write a letter /email to builder/ promoter requesting him to provide a draft of the SALE DEED/ CONVEYANCE DEED or providing the draft to him and requesting him to sign the same.
 If the Builder rejects or postpones the same, send him a legal notice through an advocate requesting for the same.
 Even then if the builder refuses, File an application with the Registrar of Co-operative Societies together with all the relevant documents and 2000 Rs. Court stamp fees.
 Self-attestation all the copies enclosed (by the society)
 The Competent Authority will assess the application and if any documents are missing he will ask the applicant to correct the mistake within fifteen days.
 Thereafter, notice would be sent to the promoter and the land owners.
 After receipt of the notice by the land owners and the promoters, the authority will hear both parties in the first hearing and ask both parties to produce further evidences in next hearing.
 Thereafter, second hearing would be held and if the builder or landowners do not attend both first and second hearing then the authority will pass an exparte order.
 Thereafter, the third and final hearing would be held and the authority would be held and order would be passed unless a legal question is raised.
 Normally the whole process is completed within a period of 6 months.

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED: Further, the application required to be made with the Registrar shall be accompanied by copies of certain 20 odd documents which the society shall have to prepare or get prepared.

The following are some of the documents required:-
1. 7/12 Extract
2. City Survey Map
3. N.A Order
4. Certificate under Urban Land Ceiling Act, 1976
5. Draft of sale deed etc.

After, the Application is heard by the Registrar he may grant an order for deemed conveyance which shall then be produced before a court for execution and hence the conveyance may be done by a court order.

The Procedure for Deemed Conveyance involves the following Stages
Stage 1- Preparation for Deemed Conveyance
During this stage the Managing Committee prepares the Members of the Co- Operative Housing Society for Deemed Conveyance.
Stage 2- Documentation for Deemed Conveyance
During this stage the Documents Required for Deemed Conveyance are collected/ organized & the Case is prepared.
Stage 3- Legal Case for Deemed Conveyance
During this stage the case is filed before the Competent Authority & after contesting the same the Order & Certificate upholding the right of Deemed Conveyance of the Society is obtained.
Stage 4- Registration of Deemed Conveyance
During this stage the Deemed Conveyance Deed is Adjudicated, properly Stamped & Registered.
Stage 5- Transfer of Property after Deemed Conveyance
During this stage the Society Name is incorporated in the Land Revenue Records.
Let’s discuss each step in detail.

A. Preparation for Deemed Conveyance:
In this stage the managing committee needs to pass resolution to undergo deemed conveyance. A Special General Meeting is scheduled with prior notification and consent of all the members is obtained to move ahead.
During this SGM the following Resolutions are typically passed.
1. Resolution for going ahead with Deemed Conveyance
2. Resolution for Appointment of Authorized Representative
3. Resolution for Appointment of Legal Consultant for Deemed Conveyance
4. Resolution for Per Member Contributions

B. Documentation for Deemed Conveyance:
This is the most crucial step in obtaining deemed conveyance. It is a very meticulous job and make sure all the documents are lined up within the right format. You would require land revenue records, municipal corporation records, society records, property development records and professional certificates.
All these documents can be obtained from various departments such as Land revenue records from City Survey Office, Tahasildar/ Talathi Office & District Collector Office, municipal corporation records from Building Proposal Department of the Municipal Corporation. Society records and certificates can be obtained from society offices and professionals.
Once all the documents are lined up, society needs to fill in Deemed Conveyance Application- Form VII and attached all the related documents. In case of deemed conveyance, a legal notice is sent to the developer for their consent. In regular conveyance procedures, since the developers or promoters are willingly providing the rights lot of documents can be easily recovered from them.
Once the form is filled up and all documents are annexed it is submitted to the Competent Authority- the District Deputy Registrar of Co- Operative Societies of the particular District.

C. Legal Case for deemed conveyance:
Once the application is submitted to the authorities they issue Deemed Conveyance Scrutiny Report- Form VIII within 1 month. Once the compliance is provided the authorities issues Summons & Newspaper Notices to the Land Owners & Property Developers for appearing for the hearing.
During the hearing process authorities take into consideration the arguments of the both parties. The process takes place within 3-4 months. Once all the arguments are documented the office issues a Deemed Conveyance order within 1 month. The whole process is completed within 6 months as this is a time bound activity.

D. Registration of deemed conveyance:
A deemed conveyance deed is created during this phase and is signed by both societies and developers. If developers do not appear for hearing in the prior stage (Which is the case in deemed conveyance), authorities have the power to sign the deed on behalf of developers.
The society needs to conduct a meeting and appoint 3 members to sign the deed. Post that the deed is submitted to district stamp office for adjudication. If all the members have paid their stamp duty and if there is no balance FSI, the office issues adjudication certificate. (Note – Deed only requires Rs 100 stamp duty). The adjudication certificate needs to be then franked from local bank and resubmitted to registration office.
The registration office then issues notice to land owner/developer to verify if there is any stay order against the deed of conveyance. (Note – The developer can get the stay order only from high court). If there is no stay order the deed of deemed conveyance is registered and then the office issues scanned documents and Index II. This mark end of registration process and the society becomes the owner of the land and structure.

E. Transfer of property:
In this phase a new application is submitted to various departments to make mutation entries in their records. This would make the process complete.

CONVEYANCE VS DEEMED CONVEYANCE
Conveyance Deed is a document executed to transfer the title of land and building in favour of Society.
Meaning of Deemed Conveyance
The Promoter (Builder/ Developer) is legally required to convey the land and the building within 4 months of formation to the society or any legal body of the flat purchasers. However, it has been the experience that many promoters (Builders/Developers) have not conveyed the land and building to the legal bodies. Therefore, government has amended the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963 (MOFA) and provided for the deemed conveyance in favour of the legal bodies. Under the provision, deemed conveyance means after the expiry of 4 months of formation of the legal body, the land and building is deemed to have been conveyed to the legal body and to bring the same in the revenue record, a Competent Authority has been designated who will hear the parties on the basis of applications received from the aggrieved party and transfers the title in favour of the legal body by passing the necessary order and deemed conveyance certificate and appoint an authorised officer to execute the conveyance deed in favour of the society and execute on behalf of non co-operative builder or the land owner. Getting the title of land and building by adopting the above procedure is known as deemed conveyance.

Difference between the deemed Conveyance and the Regular Conveyance
In case of regular conveyance, the builder/ Developer/ Landowner prepares a conveyance deed, execute the same and appear before the Sub-Registrar of assurance for admitting their signature. Without any problem, the legal bodies get the conveyance with the co-operation of the builder/ landowner.
In case of deemed conveyance, the builder/ land owner or their legal heirs are not co-operating, therefore, the aggrieved parties appear before the Designated Competent Authority, who hears all the parties and passes the necessary order of conveyance. Deemed Conveyance is obtained as a legal remedy against the defaulter builder/ landowner who don’t want to part with the land and the building in favour of the society.

Documents required to be submitted along with application to get the deemed conveyance:
Registered Agreement for sale entered into with the promoter/opponent party
7/12 Extract and Village form No.6 (Mutation entries) / Property card,
Location Plan
City survey plan or survey plan from the revenue department.
Layout Plot plan approved by the local authority
Architect certificate about the entitlement of undivided interest in the entire Layout Plot, common areas and the facilities by each of the entity or the structure constructed or to be constructed on such Layout Plot.
Latest Title and Search Report for last 30 years from an advocate,
Non-Agricultural Order (N.A. Order)
Certificate under Urban Land Ceiling Act, 1976
Building/ Structure Plan approved by the appropriate authority,
Commencement Certificate,
Completion Certificate,
Occupation Certificate (exempted if not available),
List of Flat Purchasers
Proof of payment of Stamp Duty
Proof of Registration, etc. ,
Development agreement or power of attorney or agreement for sale executed by the landlord with the promoter for development or for transferring the right, title and the interest in the land in favour of the promoter.
Legal notices to be send to the Promoter and other interested parties to execute the conveyance deed or declaration as provided under Maharashtra Apartments Act, 1970 in favour of the applicant/s.
Draft conveyance deed / Declaration proposed to be executed in favour of the applicant.

CONVEYANCE SERVICES FOR SOCIETIES:-
In most of the cases people believe that a Purchase Agreement is the final document they need to own. However, a mere purchase agreement does not pass on the developer’s rights on the land to the society. Societies need to make sure they have the complete right to the land, and mere society registration and formation does not provide those rights.
A Conveyance Deed helps societies to gain the right of their land. Post this builder relinquishes his legal right on the land.
We the “VED LEGAL” provide end-to-end conveyance services to the societies including execution of Conveyance Deed, Deemed Conveyance, and Deed of Apartments. We work closely with co-operative societies and government officials and make sure the complete process is hassle free.
With our team of legal advisers and professional approach, we have handled more than 100 cases across Pune. We guide our clients through the complete process of transferring builder’s rights, allocation of additional space and finally establishment of society rights, as per the law.

Our conveyance services include:
Apartment formation:
• Deed of Declaration • Deed of Apartment
Co-operative Societies Conveyance:
• Conveyance deed with builder’s consent
• Deemed Conveyance – without builder’s consent

CONVEYANCE OF CO- OPERATIVE HOUSING SOCIETY:-
Conveyance of a Property is transferring the Rights, Title, Interest and Ownership of the Property from the Seller to the Purchaser.
In case of a Co-Operative Housing Society (formed by the Flat Purchasers/ Owners under the provisions of Maharashtra Co-Operative Societies Act, 1960), Conveyance is transferring the Rights, Title, Interest and Ownership of the Land and Building from the Land Owner/ Property Developer to the Co- Operative Housing Society.

As per the provisions under Section 11 of Maharashtra Ownership Flat Act, 1963, Conveyance is the Right of the Co- Operative Housing Society and the Duty of the Property Developer/ Promoter to be executed within 4 months from the date of Registration of the Co- Operative Housing Society.
The Conveyance is to be executed by way of Conveyance Deed between the Land Owners & the Co- Operative Housing Society where the Property Developer is the Confirming Party. This Conveyance Deed is required to be adjudicated & properly stamped as per the Bombay Stamp Act, 1958 & thereafter registered as per the Registration Act, 1908. It is required to obtain the Index II of the Registered Conveyance Deed. The copy of Registered Conveyance Deed along with the Index II is to be submitted to various Government Offices for change in the mutation entries of the Property.
After the Land and Building is conveyed in favour of the Co-operative Housing Society and the Title of the property is fully and finally recorded in the Property Card and other Revenue Records then only the Co- Operative Housing Society becomes absolute owner of the Property & the Title of the Co- Operative Housing Society becomes completely free and marketable.