Govt simplifies procedure to get deemed conveyance for housing societies

It's good news for housing societies, who are struggling to get the deemed conveyance – ownership right of plot certificate — from the builder. For, the state government has relaxed its earlier stringent approvals norms and brought down the numbers of documents required from 12 to 6.

According to the Maharashtra housing department notification, housing societies need to submit the documents to the co-operative department to get the deemed conveyance certificate. "Now, the documents required for conveyance includes applications form, society registration certificate, approved layout, 7/12 extract, sale of deed of each flat owner or heir document, registered members list of the society, occupation certificate, non-agriculture certificate of that particular plot and notice copy," stated in the notification.

As per the Maharashtra Right To Public Services Act, government has made it mandatory to provide the deemed conveyance certificate services in a time-bound manner. If an official fails to provide and approve it within the prescribed period, then he/she will be penalised between Rs500 and Rs5,000.

A senior housing department official said that the developers deliberately delay the conveyance deed procedure even though the project is completed and sold out. "There are more than 30,000 housing societies in Mumbai which are struggling to get the conveyance. That has also delayed the redevelopment of some of the old and dilapidated buildings. Developers sold the flats still they want to hold the ownership right of the layout. That helps developers to be rightful part of the redevelopment of that particular plot. We want to stop this malpractice. The unscrupulous developers were misusing the right and arm-twisting the residents," said the official.

Government had started the deemed conveyance issuing scheme three years ago. However, there was a lukewarm response to it due to the stringent and complicated procedural norms. "In the last three years, only around 300 housing societies has got conveyance. We have decided to simplify the procedure. We removed all stringent and complicated norms and required list of documents. We hope now, the housing societies will apply in large numbers and get the conveyance certificate easily," added the housing department official.

While submitting the conveyance application and documents to registrar, a copy of the same application also needs to be submitted to the stamp duty and registration department for the speedy approval.

As per the procedure, the concerned department officials such as urban, cooperative, forest and revenue department will sit together while issuing the conveyance certificate. "Earlier people had to go from one department to another that was consuming a lot of time. Besides, it turned out to be passing the buck method. Now, everything will be available under one umbrella. So, no one henceforth can give any excuses. After submitting the application, the authority has to issue the deemed to conveyance certificate within six months," said state co-operative department official requested anonymity.