Society or Apartment; Essence is Togetherness!

 “One of the most destructive things that's happening in modern society is that we are losing our sense of the bonds that bind people together - which can lead to nightmares of social collapse”… Alexander McCall Smith

R. Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, is a British writer and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In the late 20th century, McCall Smith became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees concerned with these issues. He has since become internationally known as a writer of fiction. Though he might be a fiction writer but his academics surely shows his wisdom about social issues in his quote above. Off late we are reading or listening in social media, in news about RERA is real estate regulatory act; no, this isn’t about RERA but the aim it’s targeted & what’s aim of any act regulating real estate? Answer in legal terminology is formation of society or apartment condominium! It  does sound simple but even after spending 25 years in real estate (though mostly technical aspect) I have yet to understand exact difference between society & apartment. Rather a layman like me will ask what’s need of all this? Can’t I call my building or my flat or my home in some simple terms? Well I can but we need to have certain rules & regulations for our smooth living in our so called homes, especially when its bunch of different people coming together & residing in one premise! As everybody’s definition of the home can be slightly differ depending up on the culture or background we have grown up, we may call it caste or religion or even may be profession we are in but one thing is sure that finally it attributes to individual life style what makes a home of an individual! The target of RERA is all the people living in one premise build by some developer should become legal owner of their homes & for that final destination is society formation or apartment association formation.

I am not a legal professional but the reason behind this sharing is let fellow builders’ as well common man understand the concept of society. As I mentioned above there has been lot of hohallah especially in social media about developers not performing their duty of forming society of homes they build & sale as well make the conveyance deed which is a document by virtue of which a bunch of people becomes legal owner of the land along with houses build on the land. But the coin has other side also if on one side there are builders who are guilty of not making conveyance then on other side there are flat holders who are aware of just having a society but not the responsibilities coming along with it;as no ownership comes without responsibility, is what first we should understand!

Many people are confused with the concept of apartment & society & I am no exception but for that one should read the clause regarding the same right in the flat purchase agreement itself. The process of society or apartment doesn’t start after possession or completion certificate but it starts when you enter in the agreement of your flat itself. So one should read the flat agreement in detail & study it from the angle of future provisions for formation of society. The conveyance deed of society is reflection of the flat agreement & whatever rights or provisions which in later stage society might object are covered in flat agreement. What I have observed is in many cases individual flat holders are ignorant about legal clauses or provisions in their individual agreement & later when they unite under the name of society they starts objecting various clauses of the builder in conveyance deed but it’s been already signed i.e. agreed by them in flat purchase deed by virtue of which builder has put them in conveyance deed! For e.g. right of amalgamation of adjoining properties or right of advertising on the buildings even after society conveyance, the builder keeps with himself. I am no judge whether it’s right or wrong but if such clauses are in your flat purchase agreement & you have signed it then legally you have already lost the battle. Same is applicable to parking related clauses, which become point of conflicts often after possession.

I think a strong need is there to take awareness program for the flat buyers & logical one, about their rights regarding conveyance as well responsibilities that come along with the rights.  What I have observed is most flat buyers want to execute their rights but without taking any responsibility or lead by themselves!Then comes society formation process & formalities required for the same; all they know is builder should form a society & give it to them on platter. But it’s not builder that has to form a society by coming together, it’s the flat or unit holders which has to come together; as builder is just a facilitator of the process. The flat holder themselves are the society, is what they forget or are not keen to take lead; many of them can't even decide whether to form a society or apartment. Then there is another aspect which is important & that is maintenance; it has two dimensions, one is civil maintenance which is outcome of bad workmanship, that is surely builders responsibility but routine maintenance i.e. gardening, service contracts of lifts etc is duty of residents only & for that society or apartment whatever it may be, but a body has to be in place! This is where many flat holders feel all is going fine so why bother to take lead & get burdened with responsibility of becoming a chairman or secretary! Here is where role of the developer is very much important as he should take lead, make app flat holders understand the importance of conveyance deed & formation of society as well sees that the concerns about collecting funds etc should be taken care.

Solution is simple at least on face, as to take flat holders in confidence & explain them what is apartment & what is a society. As here is where main confusion lays amongst mindset of most members. A society by law has collective ownership of the entire property & the flat holders become members & gets share certificates on their name as ownership of their flats or shops or offices. So on ownership document we call it 7/12 extract or property card, there is name of the society while in apartment every unit holders name comes along with mention of FSI i.e. sq ft area of his unit on the property card! Another aspect is in a Society, disputes are generally referred to the Registrar appointed under the Co-operative Societies Act or to a Co-operative Court, depending on the nature of the dispute. In the case of a Condominium, the suit is required to be filed in a Civil Court having jurisdiction over the area in which the Condominium is located. As the Society disputes are resolved in a separate Court i.e. Co-operative Court / Registrar dealing with Society matters, they are fast resolved whereas, the Apartment matters have to be taken to the normal Civil Court and hence they typically take comparatively longer period to resolve.

Then there is factor of redevelopment in future; 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 in case of an Apartment, the consent of every Apartment owner is required and hence it may cause delay due to lack of a common decision acceptable to everybody. But even in society it’s difficult to physically move out any individual unit holder if he is opposing redevelopment decision of the society as he individually also can go to the court & delay the redevelopment!

Lastly all I will say is when its living together we need certain set of rules for peace & enjoy the community living. We can form Society or Apartment, it’s not important what we call it but the essence should be togetherness & that doesn’t come with just setting some by-laws but only by respecting them by our conduct & self discipline! So go ahead, be responsible, take lead & have your own society or apartment & live in harmony with your neighbors!

Below is something which one of my recently completed project’s flat holder Mr. Apurva Jain, has wrote to me & my reply to that, sharing here so as to put some light on what I wanted to say about the concept of society!...(A flat holder of completed project calling his builder “bhaiya” in itself is big achievement for me!)

Bhaiya,

With execution of Conveyance Deed finally you made Gyanoday an independent entity, and because of your kind help and support in this journey from Bhoomi-Poojan to Conveyance Deed, today I can confidently stand with world to say that the concept which I had shown is existing in reality today.

When we had initiated this concept approx 5 years ago, people had joined with us by seeing the faith and enthu shown by 25 years Youngsters. And you have helped us in proving them and standing in front of them.

On Personal note Bhaiya, I got chance to work with few builders for the same concept, with same efforts, with same dedication but I will bet no one is that much perfect as you in delivering and gaining confidence of flat buyer with so much defined disciplined approaches/processes. You and your Team made sure that communication, design, documentation, execution, construction, monitoring, timely response everything was more than expectations of each member, which felt me too happy and satisfied that at least they were at right place.

I will say it was a good learning too for me under your guidance, it helped me to grow and a successful achievement in my career too.

Most important thing I will try to implement which I learnt from you is how to deliver such high quality work in a limited period of time.

It will be my pleasure to work with you again if I get some such opportunity.

Regards,
Apurva Jain

My reply to Apurva & the entire flat holders follows…

“जय जिनेन्द्र”

Dear Gyanodaya Team,

“A non-religious person when awaken would make others sleep. Therefore his sleeping is good. A religious person when awaken will awaken others. Therefore his awakening is good.” … Bhagwan Mahavir

I very clearly remember the Sunday we all met first time in Jain temple at bavdhan, I think the date was 4-11-2012 & we discussed about the idea of community living which Apurva, Abhishek, Yashi, Anubhav & all Gyanodaya team members were carrying since long. I am a believer of God but my definition is slightly different, may be in end all roads leads to same destination when it’s God we are referring too!  I believe in goodness as that’s what represents the God, is my definition of God. And on that Sunday it was goodness, humanity, togetherness is what I felt as if all these feelings are in place then commercial part follows; though I won’t say it doesn’t matter. So on that Sunday a journey started on the path of goodness & what better place than God's residence itself to start such journeys, there only I knew that we are going to succeed in what we have set for!

Just to name the mile stones of the journey, on 6-1- 2013 we performed bhumipooja of Davabindu & with slight ups & downs we handed over the project on 2-5-2015 i.e. in 28 months! It was a new road to travel for all of us but one thing was common & that was our mutual trust on each other & belief in the cause we were together. In the whole process there were some bumps but we kept on marching ahead riding over them. I too learned so many things as entire concept was new rather unimaginable a times, yet we did what hasn’t been done so smoothly ever. Nearly eight odd youngsters who are not from the city come together just on one criterion that they are Jain & believed in a non Jain team for their dream of community living, worked in hand & on 22-4-16 i.e. within one year of possession of the project we have completed conveyance formalities in the name of Gyanodaya team! I think four years back most of the world has laughed at us, as we have said this will happen! But then to achieve something which most thinks impossible is the real fun of life!

Many has raised question that is it ethical to build a project for a particular community or caste or religion; in first place? To all of them my reply was, we all are free to choose our neighborhood so what is wrong if these boys choose their neighbors in advance; rather that makes them wiser & mature than most of us.After all what one looks when one looks for his home! Is it luxurious amenities or size of home or location? By me it’s your surrounding & people in it, is what one looks for as that what makes your four walls a home & each of us has right to choose his surrounding & nothing better if you on your own create your surrounding & make a home in it, that’s what team Gyanodaya has done & done it successfully!

It was a wonderful time to work with you & all I will say is thanks for believing in us as your trust is our biggest strength, making us more responsible for the work at hand. Do mind, conveyance of the society isn’t end of the journey, it’s just one more mile stone as togetherness is our destination so the road has no end; all we can do is keep holding each other hand & keep walking enjoying the beauty of the road. My all wishes to residents of Davabindu & your family members, may you take the community living to a new level adhering to words of Bhagwan Mahaveer as that will be the best way to walk on his path!

Sanjay Deshpande & Team Sanjeevani

 Sanjeevani Dev.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1415&v=blgni8HSfDU

Please do visit my blogs to know about our philosophy at Sanjeevani ! (Click the links below)

http://visonoflife.blogspot.in/2015/06/agreement-ho-gaya-rabba-rabba-permanent.html


http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.in/

Social Side of Sanjeevani ! (Click link below) 

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