Response

The Societies Registration Act 1960 or a registration act applied by the state government provides clearly defined steps on how to register a housing society. Listed below are the advantages of registering your society: 1. regular and uniform maintenance charges:

Only if your society is registered, the model bye-laws are applicable to every resident. Each member is mandated to pay maintenance charges under the law. In an unregistered society or apartment association, members cannot be forced to do so. In most cases, the members are themselves held accountable for fixing any damage or paying for services since there is no managing committee to look after such needs. Thus it has been observed that while in an unregistered society, some members get together, form an Adhoc committee and collect maintenance charges.

To register as a co-operative housing society, a minimum of 10 members (varies from state to state) are needed to apply for registration with a society name reservation, along with the name, address, share capital, entrance fee from each promoter member, which need to be deposited in the bank suggested by the Registrar.

Some vital documents needed for registration are 7/12 extract of the land or property card, title deed, sanctioned layout/plans, Completion Certificate, OC, NOC from various authorities, Architect Certificate, list of members, Notarized Guarantee letter by the Chief Promoter, Promoter Members, Builders, affidavits, two copies of bye-laws, and other essential documents asked by the Registrar.

Another option (for apartment complexes) is to form an Apartment Owners Association, which is not a co-operative society but gets the legal benefits under the law, can act as an arbitrator for disputes, collect maintenance fees and dues, and manage the amenities and common spaces. Documents needed are proposal letter to the Registrar signed by all committee members, name and address of the association, proceedings of the first general body meeting, memorandum of association, bye-laws and registration fees.

Reference: Section 6 of the Societies Registration Act 1960

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LAWAYZ-2023-624