Legal Rights of Homeowners as Members of Housing Society

It is important to stay legally informed as you might sometimes go wrong or hit a roadblock.

You might have seen several boards in a housing society like pets not allowed, no loud music after 11 o’clock, etc. Every housing society has to take several decisions with regards to day to day affairs like purchasing books for the society’s library, repairing the swings of kids, conducting Navratri and Diwali functions, upgrading the whole society to make solar energy equipped, finding sponsors for the Holi function, etc.

When you buy a home, you are given certain rights as part of the cooperative society. However, every right has to be exercised reasonably and has a restriction attached to it.

For example, you have the right to burn crackers in an allocated area and not in the common lift gallery. You have the right to park your vehicles in the allocated area and in a manner that you don’t block other’s parking space.

Today, we tell you the legal rights that a homeowner gets when they become a member of a cooperative society. A cooperative housing society is nothing but an association of people coming together and investing their savings into an organization.

Legal Rights to House Owner by Gujarat Cooperative Society Act

The The Gujarat Co-Operative Societies Act, 1961 provides certain legal rights exercisable by every homeowner. Let us discuss the legal rights of homeowners.

First of all, it is the most important right of every homeowner to enjoy peaceful possession of your house as well as enjoy all the facilities offered by society. Every member has the right to peacefully enjoy all the amenities including a common park, lift, library, gymnasium, swimming pool in a manner that you don’t disturb the rights of others.

Every housing society operates just like a company and conducts meetings for day to day activities. Just like a company, the housing society conducts various meetings like the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) for discussion on aspects like the collection of maintenance fee from homeowners, allocation of parking, repairs in the society, etc. Every member has the right to vote in every meeting of the society and participate in the decision making of the society. It has been held by the Supreme court that each flat member should get only one vote to cast per meeting.

The homeowners are debarred from exercising their voting rights if they default in the payment for one year.

Further, Each housing society is also entitled to prepare documents like annual balance sheet, profit and loss account, annual budget, financial statements, audit reports, a list of other homeowners, minutes of general meetings, and the homeowners are entitled to inspect the same at the office of the registrar situated within the housing society.

Every homeowner has the right to visit the registrar’s office situated within the society during the official hours and collect the notes of the meetings or minutes of the meetings free of cost as per section 33 of the Gujarat cooperative housing act.

As a homeowner, you have the right to sell the flat if you have held the same for more than one year. The transfer of membership is done through the registrar of society in the manner mentioned in the act.

Removal of Members Under Certain Circumstances

Opposite of wrong is not right, it’s legal. If you’ve done a wrong, you’ll face a legal consequence.

Legal actions can be taken against the members and they can be removed from membership when they’ve done a wrong. You can be removed by the registrar of the society if you have made a false declaration on oath.

For example, if you have lied about belonging to a particular community while purchasing a flat (say Parsi or a doctor) when the housing society was formed for the residence of that particular community, you can be removed from the membership if it is found that you do not belong to that community.

The removal of a house owner can be made only after the majority of house owners vote against him in a meeting and a 30-day notice to reply is given to him. The date, time, and place of the meeting have to be informed to the house owner well in advance.

If the notice of the meeting is not given or the 30-day show cause notice is not given by the society, the expulsion of the house owner will be illegal and you are entitled to hire a lawyer for getting back your membership.

The law has given a sea of rights to homeowners, we’ve just helped you see those rights.

If you have any questions or a query with regards to real estate, our residential experts are always there to support and guide you. Do mail us all your queries at info@roodland.com. Roodland is dedicated to regularly educate our customers and make them aware of your rights. Roodland makes your dreams come true.