Punjab Apartment Ownership Act, 1995
No: 13 Dated: Jun, 26 1995
The Punjab Apartment Ownership Act, 1995
Punjab Act No. 13 of 1995
An Act to provide for the ownership of an individual apartment in a building together with and undivided interest in the common areas and facilities appurtenant to such apartment to make such apartment and interest heritable and transferable, to enforce obligations on promoters and apartment owners, and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Punjab in the Forty-sixth Year of the Republic of India as follows :-
Chapter - I
Preliminary
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1) This Act may be called the Punjab Apartment Ownership Act, 1995.
(2) It extends to the whole of the State of Punjab.
(3) 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 - The provisions of this Act shall apply to every apartment in any building constructed or converted into apartments by a promoter before or after the commencement of this Act on free hold land or on land held on lease.
3. Definition - In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires:-
(a) "allottee", in relation to an apartment, means the person to whom such apartment has been alloted, sold or otherwise transferred by the promoter;
(b) "apartment", which may be called block, chamber, dwelling unit, flat, lot, premises, suite, tenement, unit or by whatever any other name, means a separate and self-contained part of any property, including one or more rooms or enclosed spaces, located on one or more floors, or any part or parts thereof, in a building, or in a plot of land, used or intended to be used for residence, office, shop, showroom, or godown, or, for carrying on any business, industry, occupation, profession or trade, or for any other type of independent use ancillary to the purposes specified above, and with a direct exit to a public street, road or highway or, to a common area leading to such street, road or highway, and includes any garage or room, whether or not adjacent to the building in which such apartment is located provided by the promoter for the use by the owner of such apartment for parking any vehicle, or, as the case may be, for the residence of any domestic servant employed in such apartment:
Explanation. - (1) If a basement, cellar, garage, room, shop or storage space is sold separately from any apartment, it shall be treated as an independent apartment and not as part of any other apartment or of the common areas and facilities:
Explanation. - (2) Notwithstanding that provision is made for sanitary, washing, bathing or other conveniences as common to two or more apartments, the apartment shall be deemed to be separate and self-contained;
(c) "apartment number", means the number, letter or combination thereof, designating an apartment;
(d) "apartment owner", means the person owning an apartment and an undivided interest in the common areas and facilities appurtenant to such apartment in the percentage specified in the conveyance deed of apartment;
Explanation. - A member of a co-operative housing society of the tenant co- partnership type, or an allottee under a hire-purchase agreement, will be deemed to be an owner entitled to membership of the association;
(e) "association", means an association consisting of all the apartment owners in a building acting as a group in accordance with the bye- laws;
(f) "Board", means the Board of management of an association elected by its members from among the apartment owners under the bye-laws;
(g) "building", means a building constructed on any land containing eleven or more apartments, or two or more buildings with a total of eleven or more apartments, or any existing building converted into eleven or more apartments;
(h) "building regulations", means the rules or regulations or bye-laws made under any law for the time being in force for the erection or re- erection of buildings or parts thereof and for the purposes of this Act includes Zoning Regulations framed under any law for the time being in force;
(i) "bye-laws" means the bye-laws of an association made under this Act;
(j) "common areas and facilities", in relation to a building, means all parts of the building or the land on which it is located and all easements, rights and appurtenances belonging to the land or the building, which are neither in the exclusive possession of an apartment owner in terms of this conveyance deed of apartment, nor are handed over or intended to be handed over to the local authority or other public service agency and shall include the limited common areas and facilities ;
(k) "common expenses", means,-
(i) all sums lawfully assessed against the apartment owners, by the association for meeting the expenses of administration, maintenance, repair or replacement of the common areas and facilities;
(ii) expenses, declared by the provisions of this Act or by the bye-laws or agreed upon by the association, as common expenses;
(iii) the Government and municipal taxes, including ground rent and property tax, which is not assessed separately, for each apartment;
(l) "common profits", means the balance of all income, rent, profit and revenue from the common area and facilities, remaining after the deduction of the common expenses;
(m) "competent authority", means any person of authority appointed by the State Government, by notification in the Official Gazette, to exercise and perform all or any of the powers and functions of the competent authority under this Act and the rules made thereunder;
(n) "Government" or "State Government" means the Government of the State of Punjab;
(o) "joint family" in the case of Hindus means a Hindu undivided family and, in the case of other persons, a group the members of which are by custom joint in possession or residence;
(p) "land" means a portion of the surface of the earth, comprising the ground or soil and everything under it or over it, and things which are attached to the earth (such as buildings, structures and trees), things which are permanently fastened to the earth, or, to things attached to the earth, easements, rights and appurtenances belonging to them and benefits arising out of them and includes the sites of villages, towns and cities;
(q) "limited common areas and facilities" means those common areas and facilities which are designated, in writing, by the promoter before the allotment sale or other transfer of any apartment as reserved for use of certain apartments to the exclusion of the other apartments;
(r) "local authority" means a corporation constituted under section 4 of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 (Punjab Act No. 42 of 1976), a committee constituted under section 12 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 (Punjab Act No. 3 of 1911) or any other authority notified by the State Government for the purposes of this Act;
(s) "majority" or "majority of apartment owners" means the apartment owners with fifty one per cent or more of the votes in accordance with the percentages assigned in the conveyance deeds of apartments for voting purposes;
(t) "person" includes company, firm, co-operative society, joint family and an incorporated body of persons;
(u) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(v) "promoter" means the person who constructs or causes to be constructed a building consisting of apartments or who converts an existing building or a part thereof into apartments for the purpose of selling all or some of the apartments to other persons and includes his assigns and where the person who constructs or converts a building and the person who sells are different persons, the term includes both of them;
Explanation. - (1) Any development authority or any other public body so notified by the State Government are deemed to be promoters in respect of the allottees of apartments constructed by them on the land owned by them or placed at their disposal by the State Government;
Explanation. - (2) A person who acts as described in clause (v) shall be deemed to be a promoter, even if, -
(i) he styles himself a builder, coloniser, contractor, developer estate promoter or styles himself by any other name; or
(ii) he claims to be acting as the holder of a power of attorney of the owner of the land on which the building is constructed;
(w) "property" means the land, the building, all improvements and structures thereon, and all easements, rights and appurtenances belonging thereto, and includes every type of right and interest in land which a person can have to the exclusion of other persons, such as possession, use and enjoyment free from interference, rights of disposition, franchises and hereditaments; and
(x) "section" means a section of this Act.