Maharashtra’s draft rules under the Cooperative Societies Act, pending since April, are set to be cleared soon, said State Cooperation Minister Babasaheb Patil.
The rules, crucial for implementing the 2019 amendments, will modernize governance for over 1.25 lakh cooperative housing societies operating under outdated provisions.
Key reforms include maintenance charges, hybrid general body meetings, borrowing limits for redevelopment, interest caps on late payments, and provisional membership procedures.
The law and judiciary department will review the draft, with Model Bye-laws 2025 expected by December, aiming to resolve disputes and improve society management statewide.
We sincerely request that Maintenance charges be levied on area owned ie square foot basis! Only then will there be equality in the rate of maintenance! Today, the model byelaws are outdated as the area of units owned is grossly dissimilar! One flat of 700sq.ft is one unit , so also are 2 floors together comprising of more than 3000sq.ft is one unit!
Thus, the poorer residents have to pay maintenance at Rs.30/sq.ft, whereas the richer ones who have bought whole floors or multiple flats (as one unit) end up paying only Rs.10/sq.ft!
Kndly, stop this disparity by ensuring equal Rate of Maintenance!
It is necessary to update this rule in new bye laws 2025
There are certain common amenities which are enjoyed by all the occupants irrespective of their area. For example security and lift services are equally enjoyed by all. So also the general office stationery and other society office expenses. The maintenance charges to be collected on area basis are general repairs, property tax etc. One has to clearly see the usage of services by society are of equal nature or specific to the areas.
New Housing Bye laws must address the present situation the old bye laws are based on old scheme where TEN ADULT PEOPLE of different family come together form and register the society purchasing plot by paying consideration of plot by way of contribution appointing Architect Appointing Civil Contractor and constructing building with approval of BMC and take the possession।But now Builder is constructing and selling Flat where in Land conveyance is pending flat or shop purchasers pay the consideration and take possesion of their respective possession of shops and flat …so Model Bye Laws needs some changes based on present scheme .Also there should be smooth passing of name transfer to legal heirs of deceased member in case of no dispute amongst the legal heirs of deceased member died intestate …ADV Harshad G Desai Chairman Ekta CHSL Experience senior lawyer in the field of cooperation cell Number 900 44 5 8485
For Hybrid general body meeting, we should have a clear rule on who will attend online and who will attend offline, since managing Hybrid meeting could be difficult to manage
Also if online general meeting is allowed, there is a possibility of people attending online, even if they are in same location or building.
My carpet area as per BMC property tax 463 and our Society illegal chairman is charging our monthly maintenance bill of 570. Sq.sq. ft.
+ge W
Maintenance charge should be flat area wise immediate
Please incorporate that no comittee will be formed with out an AGM resolution and proper recording of comittee members name proposed by and seconded by duly mentioned in the minutes of the original proceedings. In our society as the previous comittee office bearers resigned, the Outgoing chairman made a committee out and out with out passing a resolution in AGM and directly put out the names of the new committee there by not following the byelaw norms. Hence this section should be made more secured so that people don’t get freedom to do what they want of their own self interest
There should be provision to include new MC members through cooption in the numbers that’s required to maintain quorum to run society by its own members without any lock in period or waiting for AGM. A cooperative society should always be run by its members in the true spirit of cooperative.
Provisional membership is not given as the legal heirs have pending proceedings in court. Though the nominee is registered. This is injustice. The jt Registrar dismissed the application on this ground which is illegal and the registrar must be held liable for wrong judgements and should be penalized for any faulty decisions he takes
In a Society plot if there are different entity like flats in building one structure Row houses another structure and shops other structure which are not connected the maintenance charges should be different for all like shops and Row houses should not be charged for lift maintenance or replacement
Maintenance charges should be as per the area of flats/ units/shops
Imaintena ce has to be flat area wise A direction e under the Maharashtra coop Societies act S 79 A is read to amend the Housi g bye laws is read urgently
If the mambers are difoulter in way of not paying the monthly charges or part of charges than society committee has full power to take action against difoulter i.e society witll not issue any NOC for this members or any family members, Mamber will not allow to give flat on rent till the he not cleared all society outstanding.
Society Registrar office should be near to the Society like Mukund division.
Register should be while passing the order after hearing and order should be passed immediately and dispatched but it is observed that months together it is not done.
No MCM should be allowed to change the bye law to make the unnecessary harassment to the members of rented flats, and other issues.
Maximum MCM are not aware of the GST and misunderstanding the law and harassing members.They should take the guidance from GST officer or ex GST officer available in the society.
Authorities are requested to curtail Office bearers and MC powers and no dillusions with regards to taking arbitrary and unreasonable decisions. This ( Absolute power) misconception of the society should be addressed on priority. This amendment may respite many respectable members of the society. Hence will result in smooth functioning with respectable members being the epicenter of decision making. This amendment will also see less escalation in the Dy Registrar’s / Registrar’s office.
The mantainance charges must remain as unit wise this cannot be as per area of flat, objective is to see the usage of the amenities,big flat doesnot nessarily mean more number of people staying rather its lower number of people staying as in the same area there are say 20flats where in the similar area there are just 10 larger flats,thus lower number of people staying and therefore less utilisation of amenities.
Bye laws are extremely badly drafted . Poor drafting has created confusion. Poor drafting is due to poor understanding of the issues involved. Finally societies go by consensus on what is generally acceptable to courts or registrars or follow other societies. It is pathetic.
My Society sends me 3 bills every month for maintenance, repairs and security of common areas past 30 years for a single unit. I have sent several letters that I have one BMC bill, one electric meter, one gas meter, one kitchen, one entrance. There are 3 agreements for the said unit 2 in my name and one in my wife name. We are 3 members in the family, myself wife & son !
(1)See the number of observations given by general citizens. Point is have citizens comments invited by the Competent Committee ” and Government and duly studied?
(2)Final draft should be open to citizens for giving observations.
(3)MCS says that any dispute to be resolved as per clause 71 of MCS act. The clause says cooperative court is adjudicating body. Even for Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai, there are only 6 to 7 co op courts. Adequacy is not there. Making rule is no great if you can’t enforce it fully and leave loopholes in system to be misused.
(4)Do not leave any shortfalls to enable judiciary to interfere in its proper implementation, such as to term a clause mandatory or voluntary as done in 79 a.
Our society is of 12 members and each floor has 3 flats so if the maintances are as per carpet what extra service bigger flat gets one tube light in each floor 2 watch man 24 hours so what extra bigger flat get tell me so i object for bigger flat extra maintances rest water are as per area or tape then property tax as per area is coming repair as per area is coming no lift is their so how come extra maintances for bigger area account also makes 12 bills we bigger flats dint get any extra facilety or burden to smaller flat rest i will say make the committe members becomes land lord like sectary and chairman so make new rules to that other members are at easy
I
No area wise it should be flat wise maintiance so use your commin sense bigger flat dont get extra facility ok
what extra bigger flat get tell me so i object for bigger flat extra maintances rest water are as per area or tape then property tax as per area is coming repair as per area is coming no lift is their so how come extra maintances for bigger area account also makes 12 bills we bigger flats dint get any extra facilety or burden to smaller flat rest i will say make the committe members becomes land lord like sectary and chairman so make new rules to that other members are at easy
Gst on maintenance charges should be removed or should be reduced to 5% for co-operative housing society as it will directly benefit the members at large. Also need to increase the amount as per inflation ratio. Gst on maintenance charges levied in the year 2017 and since then the cost has been increased and hence all the flat owners has to bear the burden as maintenance has increased for most of the apartments.This rate should be revised from 7500 to 12500 per month and should be directly linked to inflation ratio.
The model bye laws 2014 had suggested to have education fund Rs 10- per member per month. To be collected and used for educating the new members of the committee. But who will provide such education to new members? This remained unattended. Secondly due to lack of education the new committee members behave like the owner of the society. They breach the law and when someone told them that time they say sorry.
There should be a law wherein the above flat refuses to carry out repairs to the leakages emoting out of his flat. Both the flat owners are to bear cost of repair fifty fifty but the one living on top refuses to carry out repairs and is not bothered. The Society does not intervene as into an internal matter but leakages are dangerous for the entire building. In any eventuality the onus should be on the member refusing such repairs.
Provision should be made to interpret number of flats where builder has sold a single self-contained flat under two agreements. Whether the definition of “flat” as a separate and self-contained set of premises will override the contract of two units shown because of two agreements for one flat when there is only one electric meter. Whether the legal fiction will override the statutory definition of “flat”.
They should also revise the quorum rule for GBMs. It should be framed not as a number but as a fraction of the total.number of members. Because the number of members in a society can range from as low as 12 to as hugh as 1000+.
20 out of a huge number making decisions for all is ridiculous.
More people stay or can stay in bigger Flats, hence all the charges shall be applied per Sq. Ft. Basis only.
As more people stay or can stay in larger Flat, all the Maintenance Charges be levied on Sq. Ft. Basis only.
Arvind Agnihotri
No share mentioned in registered daledeef Chsoc ltd even though the propsall of issuing is duly passed unanimously How to proceed further legal action against society ?
No share cerficateo for last one & half year
⁸ no reply to my isxue
Usually, in most of the housing Societies the managing Committee evolve lobbying and indulging in to empowering their mandates resulting misappropriation of Funds, Facilities, vested interests, resulting deprival of vital benefits of the other Owner Members.
Managing Committee Elections are not conducted under supervision of Dy. Registrar’s deputed officer and practice of internal Co-opting of Managing committee Members is being repeatedly practiced resulting misappropriation funds years to years.
No internal Auditing practice being religiously followed. Suggest to make rules for strict adherence of Internal Audit by a non managing Committe members at least two independent internal Auditors.
Reply to Dhulkhedkar
The housing federation of Pune ,Thane ,Navi Mumbai have this facility .
We conduct the courses to educate members of housing society as regards to management of housing society and appartments.
It is worth to attend it .
If you are in Pune call me 9371073727 .I will guide.
I am suggesting the following points to be amended in the new bye laws
1) After election and the core committee member should not allow to make associate member to his family members.it is not clearly mention the laws books
2) Associate members name should not be written on the share certificate. It is not clearly mention in the bye laws
3) After the death of the member.and if the member have completely completed the nomination process and there is no dispute between all legal heir then there should be a provision in the bye laws to get transfer their flat /share certificate by family arrangement documents by registering the documents in the Government stamp duty and registration office to get transfer. Some of the members ask to transfer on the basis of affidavit or indemnity documents which is not correct Please make a provision to make separate documents get it register from the registrar office by paying nominal stmp duty any. Please clearly mention this by giving the example in this respect.
4) Please clearly elaborate the will cases. How to get executed the will documents. Some of the members fills like that if they are having the will it means they fill that they do not require any more documents to transfer their shares or flat It is also clearly elaborated with the example. ( Clarify elaborate probate and any other process some members gets confused and due to this and due to lack of knowledge disputes arises and some committee members gets undue advantages of the illiterate people.
5) maintenance is to be collected on the basis of unit wise but now a days some members have purchased adjoining two units and that are not rectified in the actual plan on the paper documents the units are separate in this case the member should not allowed to merge thir maintenance. At the time of registration of the society they keep single unit and on the approved plan the units are separate. Please elaborate clearly and the registrar are makes mistakes while registration of the society. Actually the registrar should be held responsible if the registration of the society documents are in complete. Some tile the registrar proved the bye laws copy without written any thing on the bye laws book
List of the member during the registration of the documents be clear and attested by the registrar. Some times the registrar office does not clearly mention the name of the members
6) If any of the flat purchased by the joint members some of the society make one member and collect Rs. 100/- for even two or three points members it is not clearly elaborated some time the registrar office makes mistakes. It should be clearly elaborated and educated to the consultant.
7) I form register updation procedure not clearly done due to lack of knowledge. Even on the prescribed ” I ” register column are not proper. And the space provided in the column is also not correct. Please rectify and modify precisely.
The language of the bye laws should be easy to understand
That enough now
Please understand my emotions and the facts. I know there are some grammatical mistakes please understand and those who know English better please re draft it and update.
Please
Only in Maharastra there is non occupancy charges. Don’t understand what is logic behind this as tenants use same amenities as other residents use.
A system should be evolved for annual inspection of functioning of Housing Societies and maintenance of their Office Records, so they adhere to the bye laws and other legal requirements. This should be in addition to annual audit. The Chairman, Secretary and Managing Committee should be made answerable to any adverse remarks of the Inspecting Officer. There are many draw backs in the audit process which takes place at the end of the year. The Audit alone is ineffective in improving the way the majority of Housing Societies function. Some Societies are unwilling to adopt internal audit process even after direction of the Auditor ito that effect in annual audit. Some special checks should also be applied for Societies which are in the process of Redevelopment so the process. by and large, remains on right track.
God knows when these bye-laws will change. This looks like a teaser. In Pune some of the good buildings in good locations are being gradually reduced to dilapidated conditions.
Not just because of poor old bye-laws but mismanaged corrupt practices run by members for their own benefits. Local bodies have no power to establish law & order. When it comes to commercial & residential in one building it becomes even worse.
God save this once beautiful city!