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.