Two flats bought in the same month in Pune can come with different papers. One buyer is handed a share certificate by a housing society; the other gets a "deed of apartment" and no share certificate at all. Both are lawful. The second comes from the Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act, 1970, a law few buyers have heard of, and the difference changes what you own, how votes and upkeep are counted, and what a sale needs.
Key takeaways
- A building becomes a condominium under the Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act, 1970 only when its sole owner, or all its owners, execute and register a declaration (section 2).
- Each condominium flat is conveyed by its own registered deed of apartment, with a percentage of the land and common areas that sets its share of expenses and votes.
- In a co-operative housing society, the society holds the land and building once conveyed, members hold shares, and a transfer needs the society's permission.
- Maharashtra had 1,26,544 registered co-operative housing societies in November 2025, and 90,947 were still pending deemed conveyance, according to the state Co-operation Department.
- For a RERA project, the agreement for sale's clause on forming the buyers' body tells you which route your building takes.
Priya and Arjun's two columns
Priya and Arjun (illustrative, as our stories always are) had their draft agreement for sale on one screen and Arjun's spreadsheet on the other, the week before registration: Rs 90 lakh for a 2BHK in a new tower inside Pune's municipal limits, to be registered in both names. A colleague of Priya's had just been handed a deed of apartment for her own flat. Her building was a condominium, she said, so nobody would ever need a society's permission to sell. Arjun opened a tab with two columns and one question: which were they buying into, and did it matter? Names and numbers in this story are illustrative.
What the Apartment Ownership Act does
The 1970 Act makes each flat in a building a separate piece of property with a fixed share of everything held in common. It applies only to property whose sole owner, or all of whose owners, execute and register a declaration submitting it to the Act (section 2). Each apartment, with its undivided interest in the common areas, then becomes heritable and transferable immovable property that its owner may sell, mortgage, lease or gift like any other. The common areas cannot be partitioned while the building stays under the Act (section 6), and the owners run them as an association of apartment owners, under bye-laws. That is a condominium.
The familiar route is a co-operative housing society under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960. Title to the land and building vests in the society once they are conveyed to it, and each member holds shares alongside the flat their registered agreement describes. A company is a third form the law allows.
An analogy: the club and the divided house
A society works like a club that owns its building: you hold a membership, shown by a share certificate, and the right to your own rooms, and the club has a say in who takes your place. A condominium works like a family house divided by a registered deed: each person owns their own rooms, the courtyard and roof belong to all of them in fixed shares, and those shares set what each pays for repairs and how much each voice counts.
How a building becomes a condominium
The declaration describes the land, the building and each apartment, lists the common areas, gives the value of the property and of each apartment, and fixes each apartment's percentage of undivided interest "for all purposes, including voting". It must also state that the apartments are not encumbered on the day it is made (section 11).
The deed of apartment then conveys each flat, stating the land, the apartment number, its intended use and restrictions, and its percentage (section 12). It follows the agreement for sale that section 13 of RERA requires before a promoter takes more than 10 percent of the price.
The percentage does most of the work: section 10 shares the common expenses by it, and the declaration makes it each owner's vote. Purely as an illustration, a 2BHK given 2 percent bears 2 percent of the common expenses and carries 2 percent of the votes.
Which route a RERA project takes, and where it is written
Section 17 of RERA requires the promoter to execute a registered conveyance deed in favour of the allottee, with the undivided proportionate title in the common areas going to the association of allottees. The Act does not define that association; in Maharashtra it may be a co-operative housing society, a company or an association of apartment owners. The state's RERA rules put a clock on the society route: rule 9 requires the promoter to apply to register a co-operative housing society within three months of 51 percent of the flats being booked. If a promoter never conveys, section 11A of MOFA, added by the amendment enacted on 31 December 2025, opens deemed conveyance to RERA projects, as MOFA or RERA explains.
Your agreement is where the route is written. Rule 10(1) requires every agreement to conform to MahaRERA's model form, and a promoter's departures from it must be highlighted and uploaded with a deviation sheet when the project is registered. The clause on forming the society or association is among the ten clauses to check: read it in your draft, then look for it in the deviation sheet.
Before you sign, find the clause that names the buyers' body. A society gives you two dates to note: the application, due three months from 51 percent of bookings, and the conveyance after it. A condominium means asking who will execute the declaration and when, because until your deed of apartment is executed you hold an agreement, not a condominium flat.
The two side by side
| Question | Co-operative housing society | Condominium under the 1970 Act |
|---|---|---|
| What you own | Shares, and the flat your registered agreement describes; the society holds the land and building once conveyed | The apartment itself, with a percentage of the land, building and common areas |
| Governing law | Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, its rules as amended in June 2026, and the bye-laws | Apartment Ownership Act, 1970, the declaration and the bye-laws |
| The document that conveys | One conveyance of the land and building to the society | A registered deed of apartment for each flat, after the declaration |
| Transfers | A registered sale, then the society's permission and a share transfer; the premium is capped at Rs 25,000 | A registered sale deed, as for any immovable property; the bye-laws usually require no permission |
| Who manages | A managing committee; the society is registered with the Registrar of Co-operative Societies | The association of apartment owners, which need not register with any authority |
| Voting | In the general body; legal thresholds, such as for redevelopment, are counted in members | By each apartment's percentage, fixed in the declaration |
| Maintenance | By head; service charges equal per flat, by statute since 30 June 2026 | Common expenses by each apartment's percentage (section 10) |
| Redevelopment | Consent of 51 percent of members, with two-thirds present at the meeting that selects the developer (directions of 4 July 2019) | Since a 2018 amendment, an old building can proceed on the consent of 51 percent of its owners |
| A loan's security | Lenders usually hold the registered agreement and, once issued, the share certificate | The apartment itself, mortgaged like any other immovable property |
Sources: Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act, 1970, and its 2018 amendment; Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, its 2026 rules and the 2019 redevelopment directions. The transfer premium is explained in the share certificate and society membership.
Reading the agreement with the table in hand
Their draft named a co-operative housing society for the tower, the route the older buildings in the complex had taken, which is why the resale flat they had weighed two buildings away came with a society transfer. Row by row, the table spelled out what that meant: a registered agreement now, a share certificate once the society was registered, and the land only after a separate conveyance. Two dates went into the spreadsheet: the day the tower crossed 51 percent of bookings, which starts rule 9's three months, and the conveyance after it.
The row that mattered most was not in the table. Their tower is a joint development, and the filing names the builder and four members of one family on the land. Either route needs the land from whoever holds it: a declaration needs all the owners, and a conveyance passes only the title its signatories hold. They asked whether the family's power of attorney covered conveyance to the society as well as the sale of flats, and kept the written answer. Neither structure was safer than the other. The table showed whose signatures each promise in their agreement would need.
How common each route is
Source: Maharashtra Co-operation Department, reply in the Legislative Assembly, figures as of November 2025, as reported by Indian Cooperative
We found no comparable count of condominiums, and there could hardly be one, since an association of apartment owners need not register with any authority. The society figures show where the co-operative route is weakest: the land reaches a society only through one more deed after it forms, and that deed had come through deemed conveyance for 26,338 societies while 90,947 were still pending. A condominium has no such separate step, because each deed of apartment carries the flat's share of the land. Its weak point comes earlier: a building is a condominium only once its declaration is registered.
Where buyers get it wrong
Taking "condominium" in a brochure as a fact. The Act reaches a building only once its declaration is registered. Ask for the registration details, or the clause committing to it; like any registered document, the declaration has an Index II entry.
Treating a registered society as finished. Formation creates the body and conveyance gives it the land, and the first year after possession is when the second step slips. Where it never comes, deemed conveyance is the remedy.
Assuming one maintenance arithmetic. A society splits service charges equally under the June 2026 rules, set out in what societies may lawfully collect, while a condominium shares common expenses by percentage. Compare figures only once you know which applies.
Forgetting who holds the land. In a joint development the landowners hold title, so they must join the declaration or the conveyance, directly or through a power of attorney that covers it. ReraGenie's free page for any MahaRERA project lists every landowner the filing names beside the promoter, so you can see whose title a declaration or a conveyance will need before you sign.
What the report shows for this question
Which body your building forms is written in your agreement, not in the MahaRERA filing. The filing holds the land and the people on it, which is where both routes end. For any covered Maharashtra project, the Rs 499 ReraGenie buyer report answers land and title as five questions, from who owns the land as filed and the promoter's right to build and sell to what the legal title report concludes and the exceptions it attaches. It sets out sanctions, units and sales building by building where the filing carries them, which is how you would see a tower nearing the 51 percent of bookings that starts the society clock, and it puts complaints and cases in plain words. See what the buyer report covers.
The one-line summary
A society holds the land and building once they are conveyed, and you hold shares in it; a condominium conveys the flat itself with a fixed percentage of everything held in common; your agreement for sale says which you are buying, and in a joint development both routes need the landowners' title.
Methodology and sources
- Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act, 1970, sections 2, 6, 10, 11 and 12; its 2018 amendment, as reported by the Hindustan Times on 4 September 2018.
- Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960; the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Rules, 2026; the section 79A redevelopment directions of 4 July 2019, as reported by The Hitavada on 8 July 2019.
- RERA, 2016, sections 13 and 17; Maharashtra's RERA rules of 2017, rules 9 and 10; MOFA, 1963, section 11A.
- Society figures: Maharashtra Co-operation Department, reply in the Legislative Assembly, as of November 2025, as reported by Indian Cooperative.
This article is educational and not legal advice. For a dispute, consult a lawyer who practices before your state's RERA.
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