Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act, 1970
No: 15 Dated: Feb, 19 1971
THE MAHARASHTRA APARTMENT OWNERSHIP ACT, 1970
ACT No. XV OF 1971
An Act to provide for the ownership of an individual apartment in a building and to make such apartment heritable and transferable property
Whereas, it is expedient to provide for the ownership of an individual apartment in a building and to make such apartment heritable and transferable property, and to provide for matters connected with the purposes aforesaid;
It is hereby enacted in the Twenty-first Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act, 1970.
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Maharashtra.
(3) This section shall come into force at once; and the remaining provisions of this Act shall come into force in such areas, and on such dates as the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint; and different dates may be appointed for different areas.
2. Application of Act. - This Act applies only to property, the sole owner or all of the owners of which submit the same to the provisions of this Act by duly executing and registering a Declaration as hereinafter provided:
Provided that, no property shall be submitted to the provisions of this Act, unless used or proposed to be used for residence, office, practice of any profession or carrying on any occupation, trade or business or for any other type of independent use:
Provided further that the sole owner or all the owners of the land may submit such land to the provisions of this Act with a condition that he or they shall grant a lease of such land to the apartment owners, terms and conditions of the lease being disclosed in the Declaration either by annexing a copy of the instrument of lease to be executed to the Declaration or otherwise.
3. Definitions. - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) "apartment" means a part of the property intended for any type of independent use, including one or more rooms or enclosed spaces located on one or more floors or part or parts thereof in a building, intended to be used for residence, office, practice of any profession, or for carrying on any occupation, trade or business or for any other type of independent use and with a direct exit to a public street, road or highway or to a common area leading to such street, road, or highway;
(b) "apartment owner" means the person or persons owning an apartment and an undivided interest in the common areas and facilities in the percentage specified and established in the Declaration;
(c) "apartment number" means the number, letter, or combination thereof designating the apartment in the Declaration;
(d) "Association of Apartment Owners" means all of the.apartment owners acting as a group in accordance with the bye-laws and Declaration;
(e) "building" means a building containing five or more apartments, or two or more buildings, each containing two or more apartments, with a total of five or more apartments for all such buildings, and comprising a part of the property;
(f) "common areas and facilities", unless otherwise provided in the Declaration or lawful amendments thereto, means-
(1) the land on which the building is located;
(2) the foundations, columns, girders, beams, supports, main walls, roofs, halls, corridors, lobbies, stairs, stair-ways, fire-escapes and entrances and exits of the buildings;
(3) the basements, cellars, yards, gardens, parking areas and storage spaces;
(4) the premises for the lodging of janitors or persons employed for the management of the property;
(5) installations of central services, such as power, light, gas, hot and cold water, heating, refrigeration, air-conditioning and incinerating;
(6) the elevators, tanks, pumps, motors, fans, compressors, ducts and in general all apparatus and installations existing for common use;
(7) such community and commercial facilities as may be provided in the Declaration; and
(8) all other parts of the property necessary or convenient to its existence, maintenance and safety, or normally in common use;
(g) "common expenses" means,-
(1) all sums lawfully assessed against the apartment owners by the Association of Apartments Owners;
(2) expenses of administration, maintenance, repair or replacement of the common areas and facilities;
(3) expenses agreed upon as common expenses by the Association of Apartment Owners;
(4) expenses declared as common expenses by the provisions of this Act, or by the Declaration or the bye-laws;
(h) "common profits" means the balance of all income, rents, profits and revenues from the common areas and facilities remaining after the deduction of the common expenses;
(i) "Competent authority",-
(1) in relation to buildings constructed or to be constructed by the Housing and Area Development Authority established under section 3, or a Housing and Area Development Board established under section 18 of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Act, 1976, or by a company, means the Deputy Chief Engineer or the officer referred to in sub-section (2) of section 7 of the Maharashtra Ownership Flats (Regulation of the promotion of construction, sale, management and transfer) Act, 1963; and
(2) in any other case, means the Registrar of Co-operative Societies as defined in the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960;
(i-1) "Co-operative Court" means the Co-operative Court constituted under Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960;
(j) "Declaration" means the instrument by which the property is submitted to the provisions of this Act, as provided by section 2, and such Declaration as from time to time may be lawfully amended.
(m) "joint family" means an undivided Hindu family, and in the case of other persons, a group or unit, the members of which are by custom joint in possession or residence;
(n) "limited common areas and facilities" means those common areas and facilities designated in the Declaration as reserved for use of certain apartment or apartments to the exclusion of the other apartments;
(o) "majority" or "majority of apartment owners" means the apartment owners with 51 per cent, or more of the votes in accordance with the percentages assigned in the Declaration to the apartments for voting purposes;
(p) "person" includes a joint family;
(q) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(r) "property" means the land, the building, all improvements and structures thereon, and all easements, rights and appurtenances belonging thereto, and all articles of personal property intended for use in connection therewith, which have been, or are intended to be, submitted to the provisions of this Act.
(s) "Registrar" means a person appointed to be the Registrar of Cooperative Societies under the provisions of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960;