Every industry has its own technical terms and terminologies. So does the construction industry. When you get started with your redevelopment plans, you may encounter terms that you may not have encountered before. Amongst these terms, conveyance is something that will be brought up a lot initially and is crucial to understand.
What is conveyance?
Conveyance is the transfer of the land and building title from the builder/promoter of the project to the housing society. This conveyance needs to be done by the builder/promoter within four months of the registration of the housing society. However, many builders don’t go through with the conveyance process either due to negligence or to avoid the hassle involved.
Why is it important for redevelopment?
- To start the redevelopment process, the title for your building and land needs to be clear and marketable. If the conveyance process was not done, the land/building will still be under the original/previous land owners’ name. This means that the title for your building is not free and your society doesn’t have the required legal rights over the property.
- Without legal ownership over the land, the society is also not entitled to any of the commercial benefits associated with the property. This includes the additional FSI that the property would be entitled to and the TDR for redevelopment.
- Building members will lose out on the compensation that the builder/developer provides during a redevelopment project.
- Without conveyance, the building cannot avail loans for any purpose related to rebuilding or even repairs.
- With the legal rights still in the hands of the builder/promoter they may sell the rights to the open spaces of the building without permission from the society. This may include garden areas, terraces, or even parking areas.
- In the extremely unfortunate case of a building collapse, rebuilding of the society would require permission from the builder/promoter as they still hold legal rights over the property.
- The longer you wait to clear up the conveyance the harder it’ll become to convince the builder to help resolve the issue. Many builders often ask for exorbitant amounts of money as compensation.
- In the situation where the original builder/promoter of the building is either no longer traceable or is refusing to cooperate with the society members, you can apply for something known as deemed conveyance.
What is deemed conveyance?
Deemed conveyance was a concept introduced by the government in 2008 that allowed legal recourse for members who were facing difficulty in obtaining conveyance from the builder/landowner. Using this method you can apply to the Deputy District Registrar of Cooperative Societies for deemed conveyance that would transfer conveyance to your society after verifying your documents and hearing out both the developer and the society.
To conclude, conveyance is such an essential part because it proves that your society has ownership of the land and building, and therefore the resulting right to redevelop. Without conveyance, your redevelopment project cannot move forward regardless of what type of redevelopment you choose to do. This is why if you live in a society without conveyance, it is essential to resolve the issue without delay, because the future of your building depends on it.
Shubham Doshi