WHY A CO-OPERATIVE
HOUSING SOCIETY IS BETTER THAN APARTMENT OWNERS ASSOCIATION?
1. The builder is interested in using the increased FSI
which will be awarded by the govt. for that area at any time in future. If the
‘Society’ is formed, then upon the transfer and conveyance of land in favour of
the Society, the increased FSI will be owned by the Society and the builder
shall not have any right over it. But if it is an Apartment, then the builder
owns that increased FSI and can use it anywhere. Thus, the builder will keep
taking advantage of every increase in FSI throughout in the future.
2. In an Apartment, the builder retains the ownership of the
open spaces which are not included in the saleable area. Example – Terrace or
any open parking/stairs space which is not included in the saleable area. But
in case of Society, the builder cannot retain any right on any of these areas
and has to hand over everything to the Society. The Maharashtra Apartment
Ownership Act also provides for the ownership of an individual Apartment in a
building and to make such Apartment heritable and transferable property.
3. Bye-laws and Rules of ‘Society’ are binding on all the
residents and nobody can act as per his/her whims. Hence, if the Society
decides to ban any objectionable commercial activities in the flats such as
noise-making music classes or using the flat for catering or courier activities
etc or not to rent out to bachelors etc, then all the residents have to abide
by it. But if it is an Apartment, then owners can violate the Apartment Rules
and the Apartment Body can just file a case in the Civil Court. However, while
the Society disputes are resolved in a separate Court i.e. Co-operative Court
dealing with Society matters and hence they are fast resolved whereas, the
Apartment matters have to be taken to the normal Civil Court and hence they
typically take years and decades to resolve.
4. When
the building contemplates redevelopment after 25-30 years, the Society’s
decision will be final and hence the Society members will have negotiation
power with the builder at that time. But if in case of an Apartment, the
consent of every Apartment-owner is required and hence it goes into an endless
delay due to lack of a common decision acceptable to everybody. There are many
instances in Mumbai wherein finally the dilapidated buildings had to be
forcefully vacated by an eviction order from Court since they became unlivable.
Thus, while the decisions are taken on a ‘majority’ basis in Society, the
Apartment goes with rule of ‘Acceptable by Everybody’. So if the builder has
retained even one flat in an Apartment, he will play a veto card in his favour
at the time of redevelopment.
