Your Housing Problems & Solutions
Transfer of flat
Q: My neighbour has three married daughters. His wife has died five years ago. He stays alone in his flat. Last week, he died due to a heart attack. One of his daughters is a 100% nominee for this flat and pays monthly instalment cheques to society. Can society accept this cheque, since no daughter has filed a claim for transfer of flat? Please advise.
A: A 100% nominee of the deceased flat owner is the caretaker of the flat. As they are the only three married daughters to their parents, all three will get equal rights in their deceased parents’ flat.
If the nominee wants to become the owner of her parents’ flat, or all three daughters want to become joint owners, then the daughters should get a Succession Certificate (SC) from District Court. If the flat is in Mumbai, they should get SC from the Testamentary Division of Bombay High Court.
In place of SC, they can make a Release Deed on Rs 500 non-judicial stamp paper. On the paper, two daughters will release their shares in the flat in favour of the sister who is 100% nominee.
If the three want to become joint owners of their parents’ flat, then they should make a Confirmation Deed on a Rs 500 non-judicial stamp paper stating that they are daughters of their parents and want to become the owners of the flat on an equal sharing basis.
There is no restriction to receiving society’s dues from any one of the owner’s daughters till the flat is transferred through a procedure as stated above.
Illegal resolution against tenants
Q: I had sold my father’s house in Navi Mumbai and purchased a small one BHK flat. The seller of my new flat had not advised earlier that the new society had passed a resolution in 2006, disallowing bachelors as tenants.
A: My younger brother and I are both bachelors and we are staying in rental accommodation for two and half years. I’m 53 years old and marriage is somewhat of a difficult issue at this stage with other complications in life. The new flat is in our name. How can we resolve the bachelor issue in our new society? Your valuable advice will be helpful. Answer: Your society’s resolution in not allowing bachelors to reside in the society is illegal. Kindly make a complaint against the Managing Committee of the society for this illegal rule to the Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies, under the Bye-Law No. 174(A)(xxii).
Defamation notice from Managing Committee
Q: During the recent elections in our society, one of the groups contesting the elections pointed out the actions done or not done by the existing Managing Committee in the last ten years and requested a change of vote.
Based on the election manifesto, the committee sent all the members of the group a legal notice of defamation and claimed a huge amount as damages, legal costs, etc. Members of the group, predominantly women, are terrified of the legal notice. How should they respond? Are there any grounds for such a legal notice? Please suggest an action to be taken. A: Managing Committee (MC) of a Cooperative Housing Society (CHS) cannot send any legal notice to the members of the society’s shareholders. If at all, a MC member or a flat owner is in default, s/he has to write a complaint against such a defaulter to the Deputy Registrar (DR) of Cooperative Societies to take any action against a defaulter.
If any member receives defamation notice from the MC, the member, with a copy of the legal notice received by her/him, should make a complaint to DR against the MC member, under Bye-law No. 174(A)(xxii). You have to persistently follow up on your complaint to the DR. If you don’t receive a reply from the DR within 15 days of your complaint, write an RTI letter to the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the DR. In the RTI, ask PIO to give you information regarding action taken by DR on your complaint to DR. PIO should reply to your RTI within 30 days of your letter. If PIO says that DR has not taken any action on your complaint to DR, then for of action by the DR, you can make a complaint to District DR or DDR. Simultaneously, you can make a Lokshahi Din Complaint (LDC) against DR to District Collector (DC). LDC hearings are conducted every first Monday of the month. The complainant of LDC is called for the hearing. An order is passed to DR to redress your complaint by next month’s LDC hearing. Copy of DC order is sent to you for following up with DR. This way you can redress your complaint in about 45 days.