Conveyance deed bill approved

After delaying it for a long time, the state legislature today finally approved the bill amending the Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act, 1963, which makes it mandatory for promoters and builders to execute conveyance deed in the name of housing societies within six months, once a housing society came into existence.

This bill will meet the long-standing demand of residents of more than 1 million housing societies from cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik, Aurangabad and others, where builders have not executed document called 'Conveyance Deed', which vests the ownership of the land on which a residential complex has come up in the name of housing societies.

The non-execution of the deed prevents housing societies from getting the property tax and bills for other amenities in their name, it prevents them from carrying out any redevelopment and create many legal complications in the case of natural calamity.

Under the law an authority will be created in every district under the deputy district registrar of co-operatives department in every district to ensure that housing societies get the conveyance deed executed in their name.

Under the law penalty upto Rs 50,000 and imprisonment of 1 lakh has been recommended for builders who will not comply with the provisions of law.

The bill was originally introduced during the BJP-Shiv Sena government in 1997 and passed by Assembly but could not get approval from the council and as the assembly got dissolved in 1999, the bill needed to be reintroduced again in the state legislature.

However, the ruling Democratic Front government took its own sweet time and didn?t introduced the bill in the legislature in its first term in the office.

The bill could be introduced in assembly in December 2005. However, the government took 15 more months, before it could introduced in the upper house.

The bill was given consent by the legislative council with some amendments after which it was ratified once again by the assembly on Tuesday.