Definition of flat :
The new definition of the
term ‘flat’ has been widened to include coaching classes, palnaghar, beauty
parlour in addition to premises used or intended to be used for residence, or
office, or showroom, or shop, or godown, or garage, or dispensary, or
consulting room, or clinic, or flour mill as per old bye-laws.
2. Bye-law No. 3(xxv) :
Definition of the term
‘family’ has been widened to include, father, mother, sister, brother, son,
daughter, son-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, daughter-in-law, grand
son/daughter. As per old bye-laws only husband, wife sons having no independent
source of income, unmarried daughters and person/persons dependent on the
member were included in the definition of family.
3. Bye-law No. 3(xxviii) :
The term ‘working capital’
has been introduced in the new bye-laws which is defined as the fund at the
disposal of the society inclusive of paid up capital, share capital, funds
created out of profits, and money raised by borrowing or by any other means.
4. Bye-law No. 7(e) :
Raising of funds by the
society - Prohibition on voluntary donation on transfer :
As per sub rule No. (f) of
Bye-law No. 7, the funds of the society may be raised by voluntary donations,
but not from transferor and transferee of any flat.
5. Bye-law No. 5 :
One uniform set of bye-laws
applicable for open plot societies as well as flat owners societies.
6. Bye-law No. 13(a) :
. New
concept for calculating repairs and maintenance funds for meeting expenses for
normal/recurring repairs is introduced which is related to the cost of
construction of each flat, It shall be minimum of 0.75% per annum of cost of
construction of each flat as compared to minimum of 0.75% per annum of value of
each flat as per old bye-laws. The amendment is aimed at reducing areas of
disputes.
7. Bye-law No. 13(b) :
Major repair fund :
A new term ‘Major Repair
Fund’ is introduced. Society can create this fund as and when required and
decided by the General Body at the rate fixed on area basis.
8. Bye-law No. 13(c) :
Sinking fund is now required
to be related to the cost of construc-tion of each flat at the rate decided at
the meeting of general body subject to minimum of 0.25% per annum of the
con-struction cost of each flat excluding the proportionate cost of the land.
9. Bye-law No. 14(e) :
Major repair fund amount can
be used by the society with the prior permission of the general body.
10. Bye-law No. 17(a) :
Eligibility
for membership :
As per old bye-laws, an
individual member could become member of the society provided he resides or
intends to settle down and reside in the area of the operation of the society
and who does not own a house, a plot or a flat in his name or names of any of
the members of his family, in the area of operation of the society. These
provisions have been done away with in new Bye-law No. 17(a).
11. Bye-law No. 19(a)(vi) :
Conditions
for membership :
A person intending to become
a member of the society has to tender along with the application for membership
of the society, a certified copy of agreement which is duly stamped in case of
agreement with the builder/promoter and in case of resale, a copy of duly
stamped agreementwhich is entered into with the transferor. As per old
bye-laws, this provision about submission of stamped agreement was absent.
12. Bye-law No. 24(b) :
Rights of associate/joint
member recognised. As per new provision, the associate/nominal members have a
right to occupy the flat with the consent of the member and permission of the
society, subject to the conditions set out by the society.
13. Bye-law No. 32 :
Nomination
by member :
Secretary of society has to
give acknowledgement of the nomina-tion and such acknowledgementshall be deemed
to be acceptance of the nomination by the secretary. The acknowledgement of the
variation in nomination/sub-sequent nomination by the secretary shall be deemed
to be the cancel-lation of the earlier nomination. Every fresh nomination shall
be charged a fee of Rs.50/-.
14. Bye-law No. 34 :
In the event of death of the
member, nominee/nominees have to apply for membership of the society within six
months from the date of the death of the member.
15. Bye-law No. 38(d) :
Transfer
of shares :
Bye-law 38(d), expressly
states that ‘No objection certificate’ of the society is not required to
transfer the shares. However if the transferor or the transferee requires such
certificate, they shall apply to the society and the committee will consider
such application on merit within one month. The bye-laws are silent on the
course of action to be taken if no objection is declined or not granted within
the specified period of one month.
16. Bye-law No. 38(e)(vi) :
Transfer
of shares :
As per new provision, on
transfer of shares, the transferor has to give the undertaking to discharge the
liabilities of the society. This provision may not be effective since
transferor may not be traceable later on and undertaking given by him for
discharging all the liabilities of the society may not be enforce-able.
17. Bye-law No. 38(e)(vii) :
Transfer fee by the
transferor has been raised from Rs.50/- to Rs.500/-.
18. Bye-law No. 38(e)(viii) :
Entrance fee by the
transferee has been raised from Rs.10/- to Rs.100/-.
19. Bye-law No. 38(e)(ix) :
Premium for the transfer of
flats to be fixed by the general body meeting but it should be within ceiling
prescribed by govt. from time to time. It is specifically mentioned in Bye-law
No. 38(e)(ix) that no additional amount towards donation or contribution to any
other fund or under any other pretext shall be recovered from transferor or transferee.
20 Bye-law No. 38(e) :
Exchange
of flats :
It is specifically mentioned
in a note to Bye-law No. 38(e) that condition about charging of premium on
transfer of shares is not applicable in case of mutual exchange of flats among
the members that is no premium is payable on exchange of premises by the
members in the society.
21. Bye-law No. 43(2)(iii)(d) :
Non-occupancy charges not to
be levied if the incoming member occupies the flat.
22 Bye-law No. 43(2)(iii)(c) :
Subletting :
. Non-occupancy charges shall
be charged by society in accordance with circular to be issued by the
Government of Maharashtra Commissioner of Co-operation from time to time. Vide
Govt. of Maharashtra Notification No. SYG-1094/15165/P.No.317/14-C dated 1st
August 2001, the society should not collect the non-occupancy charges at a rate
exceeding 10% of the service charges (excluding municipal
corporation/Nagarpalika taxes. This Notification also provides that
non-occupancy charges shall not be levied if the flat is given by the member to
nearby relation such as father, mother, sister, brother, son, daughter,
son-in-law, brother-in-law, daughter-in-law, grand son, grand daughter or such
other relative as might have been permitted by the society.
23. Bye-laws Nos. 53 and 54 :
Under new bye-laws, the
for-feiture of shares takes effect simultaneously with the expulsion from
membership of the society duly approved by the Registering Authority.
24. Bye-law No. 57(vi) :
A person shall cease to be
member of the society, if whereabouts of such member are not known for
continuous period of seven years and if his share and interest in the
property/capital of the society is not claimed by any-body else.
25. Bye-law No. 57(vii) :
A person shall cease to be
member of the society on the cessation of right/title and interest as a member
in the property of the society by way of legal attachment or sale.
26. Bye-law No. 61 :
Cessation
of memberships - Information to member :
The committee to inform the
concerned member in writing within 7 days of date of decision of the committee
about cessation of member’s membership. In old bye-laws this provision was
absent.
27. Bye-law No. 62 :
Restriction
on holding more than one flat for individuals :
As per new bye-law No. 62,
individual member of the society may hold more than one flat in his own name or
in the name of any of the members of his family subject to conditions as laid
down in Section no. 6 of the Maharashtra Societies Act, 1960. Member of the family
u/s.6 of the MCS 1960 means a wife, husband, father, mother, son or unmarried
daughter. Minimum number of persons for a society is 10, each of such persons
being a member of a different family, who are qualified to be members of the
society and who reside in the area of operation of the society.
Thus even
as per new bye-law, if there are 10 flats in a society and two flats are for
sale, a member cannot purchase both the flats in his own name as that would
bring down the total membership to less than 10, being number required to
constitute a society.
As per old
bye-laws previous consent in writing of the committee of the society was
necessary for holding more than one flat in own name or in the name of any of
the members of one’s family.
28. Bye-law No. 65 :
Acknowledgement
of applications to the society :
The secretary of the society
to compulsorily acknowledge every application received by him from the members
of the society even if it is incomplete.
29. Bye-law No. 66 :
Valuation of interest of
expelled member of society in the capital/property to be valued by the
government approved valuer to safeguard the interest of the expelled member.
30. Bye-law No. 69(a)(ii) : Water
charges :
Society is to charge water
charges on the basis of total number and size of inlets provided in each flat.
In old bye-laws there was no reference to the size of inlets.
31. Bye-law No. 69(a)(iii) :
Expenses
on repairs and main-tenance of building/buildings of the society :
It will be related to cost
of construction of each flat for meeting expenses of normal repairs or
recurring repairs. It shall be minimum of 0.75% per annum of construction cost
of each flat. As per old bye-laws it was related to value of each flat. This
aims at reduction in the areas of disputes.
32. Bye-law No. 69(a)(iv) :
Expenses
on repair and main-tenance of lift including charges for running the lift :
It has been clarified in new
bye-law that the cost shall be borne equally by all the members of the building
in which lift is provided irrespective of the fact whether they use it or not.
As per old Bye-laws it was to be borne by all the members.
33. Bye-law No. 77 :
Structural
audit of buildings :
Structural audit of building
to be conducted by architects on the panel of municipal corpora-tion for
societies situated in municipal limits. In other cases structural audit to be
carried out by government approved architects. Structural audit to be done as
under :
(a) For
building ageing between 15 and 30 years
Once in 5
years
(b) For
building ageing above 30 years
Once in 3
years
34. Bye-law No. 78(a) :
Car
parking :
As per new provision, a
member may hold parking space/stilt if he has purchased the same, and he shall
have a right to sell the same to transferee or other eligible member of the
same society. Thus the new provision recognises the sale of car parking space
by the builder.
35. Bye-law No. 96(iv) :
In the annual general body
meeting results of the election to the committee shall be declared if election
to the committee has taken place prior to annual general body meeting of the
society. As per old bye-law, the results of election to the com-mittee were to
be declared if the election took place during the year in which annual general
body meeting was held.
36. Bye-law No. 96(v) :
Auditor to be appointed for
the statutory audit, from the panel of auditors maintained by the Registrar. As
per old bye-laws, the society was to appoint an internal auditor, if considered
necessary.
37. Bye-law No. 100 :
In case of holding of
special general body meeting, an intimation to the federation and to the
registration authority along with agenda is also to be given. This provision
did not exist in old bye-laws.
38. Bye-law No. 114 :
Bank account can be operated
upon by the secretary jointly with the chairman or treasurer. As per old by
laws treasurer could not sign the cheques.
39. Bye-law No. 115 :
Provision regarding strength
of committee. There is a provision for reservation of seats for women members
in the committee. There will be at least one woman member in the committee for
number of members upto 300 and at least two women committee members if number
of members is 301 and above.
40. Bye-law No. 118 :
Associate
member given power to become member of committee :
. An associate member is
eligible for being elected as member of committee on submission of the no
objection certificate from the member and undertaking as may be prescribed.
41. Bye-law No. 119 :
New provision for
constitution of committee has been inserted. This provision stipulates sending
of the names and addresses of elected members on the committee to the
Registrar.
42.. Bye-law No. 122 :
Period of office of the
elected committee is increased from 3 years to 5 years.
43. Bye-law No. 123(a) :
The first meeting of the
newly elected committee jointly with the outgoing committee shall be held
within 30 days from the date of constitution of the new committee as per
Bye-law No. 119. As per old bye-laws such meeting was to be held within 30 days
from date of the general body meeting of the society at which results of its
election were declared.
44. Bye-law No. 126(a) :
The post of treasurer has
been included as an office bearer of the society. Old bye-laws did not
recognise the post of treasurer.
45. Bye-law No. 126(b) :
The Chairman, Secretary and
Treasurer of the Society shall hold office for a period of 5 years from the
date on which they are elected to be the Chairman or Secretary or Treasurer.
They can be removed by passing of no confidence motion in the special meeting
of the Committee. If no confidence motion is moved against Chair-man, Secretary
or Treasurer, then such special meeting shall be presided over by the Registrar
or such officer not below the rank of Asstt. Registrar. This provision did not
exist in old model bye-laws.
46. Bye-law No. 132(e) :
Resignation
of entire committee :
Such resignation of
committee to be placed before the general body and such resignation to be
effective from the date of ac-ceptance of such resignation by the general body.
The committee to continue in office till alter-native arrangement is made for
management of society. There was no provision in old bye-laws for handling such
a situation.
.
47. Bye-law No. 133 :
Notice of
meeting of committee :
If chairman and the secretary
fail to issue a notice and the agenda of any meeting of the committee, the
concerned Hous-ing Federation to which society is affiliated, may call such a
meeting. As per old bye-laws the registration authority was authorised to call
such a meet-ing in similar situation.
48. Bye-law No. 142(xx) :
Structural audit register to
be maintained wherever applicable.
49. Bye-law No. 146 :
Limit for making payments by
account payee cheques increased as under :
Up to 20
members Rs.1,500/-
21 to 50
members Rs.3,000/-
Above 50
members Rs.4,500/-
50. Bye-law No. 158(a) :
Committee is competent to
incur expenditure on repairs if one time expenditure does not exceed as under :
Up to 25
members Rs.25,000/-
26 to 50
members Rs.50,000/-
51 and
above members Upto Rs.1,00,000/-
For
expenditure in excess of above limits, prior sanction of general body is
necessary.
.
51. Bye-law No. 160 :
The responsibility for
Internal leakage would now be on the concerned member. As per old bye-laws the
responsibility of all leakages, internal as well as ex-ternal leakage was on
the society.
52. Bye-law No. 160(a) :
Member residing on top floor
of building of society can insist upon the society to repair at the cost of
society the damaged ceiling and plaster thereon of the top floor flat on
account of leakage of the rain water.
53. Bye-law No. 173 :
Insurance of the building of
society against risk of fire and earthquake made compulsory.
54. Bye-law No. 173 :
An attempt has been made to
guide the members as to which authority they should approach for their
complaints.
Dear friends,
On Feb 14th, 2013, Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act 1960 was
amended vide an ordinance. The impact of this will be felt immediately by
Co-operative Housing Societies. This change was mandated by the 97th
Constitutional Amendment, which was at various stages of process since 2006.
I gave a talk on this yesterday at
DNA’s Real Estate Exhibition at Goregaon, where a two-day seminar was conducted
by Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association (MSWA). Please see the PPT on highlights of MCS Act, along with Gazette of 97th Constitutional
Amendment.
In the months to come, we will have to
hold many meetings in the neighbourhoods of every city, to ensure
that people understand what the amendments in MCS Act requires of them, what it
mandates them to do, and how it empowers them.
Contrary to all the negative vibes
that are being spread about 97th Amendment etc., I feel that a lot of good
winds are blowing. However, we have the duty to spread our sail to receive the
good winds!
Download selected sections of Amended MCS Act 1960: http://tinyurl.com/CHS-MCS-Act-1960
Download selected sections of Amended MCS Act 1960: http://tinyurl.com/CHS-MCS-Act-1960
AMENDED MAHARASHTRA CO-OP. SOCIETIES
ACT – HIGHLIGHTS:
1. Empowers active members.
Non-serious participants cannot participate in decision-making.
2. Power to expel dormant
members or compel them to become active is given to
co-operative societies.
3. No Administrators can be
appointed for most co-op housing societies. Instead, active
members will be “authorized officer” or “interim committee”.
4. Regular education &
training to groom fresh leaders through Apex Co-operatives.
5. No more ignorant MC members. Managing
Committee must attend regular training at least once in five years.
6. Stop washing dirty linen in
co-op. court. Resolve internal differences through
“Grievance Redressal Committee”.
7. Co-op. court to encourage
Win-Win compromise, and discourage litigation. This will reduce
clutter of neighbour-to-neighbour conflicts, and let co-op court focus on
important cases.
8. Mandate and power to get
professionals’ help for CHS management. Adopt modern methods of
management, record keeping etc. and stop being frogs in the well!
9. Strengthen Audit function. Duty
of auditors, Registrar etc. to pinpoint responsibility for fraud and register
FIR. Also, mandate for auditor to present audit findings including
irregularities in every AGM. If they don’t, Auditors will be disqualified.
10. Realistic penalties for
offences. Fine and prison sentences have been substantially
increased.
11. Disqualification of errant MC
members is now very easy, and much more long-lasting.
Disqualified MC members will be debarred for contesting for 5 years.
12. State Election Authority to
monitor elections closely. No more bullying by a small clique
retaining power by token elections by show of hands etc!
All this and much more is there to make co-operatives truly
participative democracies… but we have to act, educate co-op. society members
and let them know about their new rights!
