Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act paves the way for condos

Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act paves the way for condos

By Mahabaleshwar N. Morje

Q. What is the object and purpose of Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act, 1970?
Ans. This Acts provides for the ownership of an individual apartment in a building and to make such apartment heritable and transferable property.
Q. What is meaning of Apartment?
Ans. An Apartment means an part of property intended for any type of independent use, including one or more rooms or enclosed spaces located on one or more floors in a building intended to be used for residence, office, practice of any profession or for carrying on any occupation, trade, or business or for any other type of independent use and with a direct exit to a public street, road or highway or to a common area leading to such street, road or highway.
Q. What is distinction between Apartment and Flat?
Ans. In respect of apartment ownership, the legal title of the flat as an object, along with a proportionate share in the common areas of the building and also proportionate share in the land on which the building stands, vests in the apartment owner. That means, the building belongs to jointly but each apartment owner has an independent right to his apartment to the exclusion of others. Whereas, in the case of ownership flat, the title to the building and the land vests in a co-operative housing society or a limited company and the flat owner is not a owner of the flat in real sense but he has only a right to occupy the flat. This is a species of property, which is heritable and transferable.
Q. What is the difference between Maharashtra Ownership Flat Act, 1963 and Maharashtra Ownership Apartment Act, 1970?
Ans. In case of Maharashtra Ownership Flat Act there should be atleast 10 members for forming co-op society and in Apartment ownership there should be 5 apartments in one or more building. In case of Ownership Flat Act or co-op societies Act the assessment of the flats will be in the name of owner of the land or builder or the society and in case of Apartment Ownership Act there will be separate assessment in respect of each apartment and its percentage of undivided interest in common areas and facilities. In case of Ownership Flat Act, there will be registration of co-op society or Pvt. Ltd Company as contemplated under section 10 of MOF Act and in case of Apartment Ownership Act declaration is required to be made in prescribed form before the Magistrate as required under the Act.(See Rule 2).
Q. How the conveyance of the Apartments is made?
Ans. All transfers of apartments by the sole owner or all the owners of the property (being an owner or owners who has or have executed and registered a declaration in form “A” ) to an apartment owner and subsequent transfers from an apartment owner to his transferee shall be by a Deed of Apartment.
Q. Who are the parties of the Deeds of Apartments?
Ans. In the case of the first Deed of Apartment the party of the first part shall be either the sole owner or all the owners of the property who has or have executed and registered the Declaration in form “A” and the party of the second part shall be the apartment owner. In the case of subsequent Deeds of Apartment, the party of the first part shall be the apartment owner and the party of the second part shall be his transferee