• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

The prime necessities of human beings are food, clothing and shelter and housing cooperative is an essential for human existence as much food and clothing. Housing is a significant subject having a concern with a common man. One of the important problems faced by India is the housing problem. The reasons are varied, like tremendous growth in population, migration from rural to urban areas. Highly speculative trend in the cost of land, weakening of joint family system thus creating a requirement of a separate house for each family unit etc. Co-operative housing emerged as a strong, well organized and significant in order to. Solve the housing problem of common man. These are legally established association of persons and are democratically controlled by the members. The working group on housing co-operatives has therefore said that, “co- operative activity is the best means of providing decent houses at reasonable costs to persons, particularly of low and middle income groups.’’ Definition of Housing Co-operatives "Co-operative housing society" means a society of persons- (a) which is formed for all or any of the objects referred to in section five of the act 1958; (b) which has under its rules a share capital divided into equal shares of one or more classes and not being preferential shares; and (c) which under its rules is to terminate on a specified date or when a specified object is attained or a specified event occurs- but does not include a Starr-Bowkett society, that is to say, a society in which the order of advances to members is determined either solely or partly by the drawing of lots; OR A housing Co-operative is also defined as “an association run along with co-operative principles (Voluntary membership, democratic member control, member economic participation, autonomy and independence, education, training and information, co-operation among co-operators and concern for community.)”. Housing co-operatives provide a way for people to share in the ownership of property and live in it at affordable rent levels, as opposed to rent levels designed to generate profit for an individual or company. They are an alternative to home ownership in the traditional sense or renting in the private sector. A housing cooperative is a legal entity—usually a corporation—that owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit, sometimes subject to an occupancy agreement, which is similar to a lease. The occupancy agreement specifies the co-op's rules. Legal status As a legal entity, a co-op can contract with other companies or hire individuals to provide it with services, such as a maintenance contractor or a building manager. It can also hire employees, such as a manager or a caretaker, to deal with specific things that volunteers may prefer not to do or may not be good at doing, such as electrical maintenance. However, as many housing cooperatives strive to run self-sufficiently, as much work as possible is completed by its members. A shareholder in a co-op does not own real estate, but a share of the legal entity that does own real estate. Co-operative ownership is quite distinct from condominiums where people "own" individual units and have little say in who moves into the other units. Because of this, most jurisdictions have developed separate legislation, similar to laws that regulate companies, to regulate how co-ops are operated and the rights and obligations of shareholders. Ownership Each resident or resident household has membership in the co-operative association. Members have occupancy rights to a specific suite within the housing co-operative as outlined in their "occupancy agreement", or "proprietary lease" which is essentially a lease. In some cases, the co-op follows Rochdale Principles where each shareholder has only one vote. Most cooperatives are incorporated as limited stock companies where the number of votes an owner has is tied to the number of shares owned by the person. Whichever form of voting is employed it is necessary to conduct an election among shareholders to determine who will represent them on the board of directors (if one exists), the governing body of the co-operative. The board of directors is generally responsible for the business decisions including the financial requirements and sustainability of the co-operative. Although politics vary from co-op to co-op and depend largely on the wishes of its members, it is a general rule that a majority vote of the board is necessary to make business decisions. Finance A housing cooperative is normally de facto non-profit, since usually most of its income comes from the rents paid by its residents, who are invariably its members. There is no point in creating a deliberate surplus—except for operational requirements such as setting aside funds for replacement of assets—since that simply means that the rents paid by members are set higher than the expenses. It is relatively difficult to start a housing co-op because if the idea is, for instance, to build a building or group of buildings to house the members, this usually takes a significant mortgage loan for which a financial institution will want assurances of responsibility. It may also take a year or more for the members to organize the design and construction, as well as time and foresight to establish even basic organizational policies. It is rare that these kinds of skills of organization are available in a random group of people who often have pressures on their existing housing. It may be somewhat easier to organize a group of closely related housing units. This opportunity may arise, for example, if an existing apartment building's owner is thinking about selling it. Market-rate and limited-equity co-ops There are two main types of housing co-operative financing methods, market rate and limited equity. With market rate, the share price is allowed to rise on the open market and shareholders may sell at whatever price the market will bear when they want to move out. In many ways market rate is thus similar financially to owning a condominium, with the difference being that often the co- op may carry a mortgage, resulting in a much higher monthly fee paid to the co- op than would be so in a condominium. The purchase price of a comparable unit in the co-op is typically much lower, however. With limited equity, the co-op has rules regarding pricing of shares when sold. The idea behind limited equity is to maintain affordable housing. A sub-set of the limited equity model is the no-equity model, which looks very much like renting, with a very low purchase price (comparable to a rental security deposit) and a monthly fee in lieu of rent. When selling, all that is re-couped is that very low purchase price. India Co-ops are more commonly known as "flats" in India. This type of housing is very common in big cities like Mumbai (Bombay) but not very popular in rural India. Actually, they are registered as "co-operative housing society" rather than condominiums in that the owners actually have a share of the co-op and not the actual real estate itself. Owners can sell the "share" in the open market, but they have to get the approval of the co-op to complete the transaction Classification of Housing Co-operatives (a) Tenant Ownership: In the case where the land is owned by the Society and the structure on the plot is owned by the members. Individual members are allotted plots by the co-operative to construct their houses. The society creates infrastructure and may also arrange the finance for the members. (b) Tenant Co-partnership: The land and the constructed structure is owned by the society and the members who are allotted the flats have the easement rights. (c) Builder Co-operative: where the builder floats a housing scheme and sells the flats. The buyers of the flats then organize into a housing society. Such societies are merely service societies or maintenance societies. (d) Ownership cooperative: - In this case, people working in an organization come together and form them into a housing cooperative society. They get their society register, apply to MAHADA. (MAHARASHTRA HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY) and get a plot allotted to them in LIG, MIG, and HIG i.e.: low income group, middle income group, high income group. Once the plot is sanctioned they approach a construction company and depending on their budget build up housing society. E.g.: Gulmohar cooperative housing society situated at Ceissor road, Andheri (west) is the housing complex of the ICICI officers. (e) Faqs 1. - What are the requirements/documentation’s and procedures for the registration of new Society? Ans. The application or proposal for registration of society should come from promoter members who belong to different families but are residents of India only. The proposal should also mention the specific scheme indicating that the proposed society will be viable and will ensure promotion of economic interest of the member. 2 Minimum Requirements Ans. Fifteen or more persons having attained the age of 18 years who are residing in the area of operation of the society could form a Registered Cooperative Society. The norms have been prescribed by the O/O RCS, Delhi for registration of new societies which are given below in the form of a statement and are to be followed by the promoters while organizing a new society. The procedure for formation of cooperative society starts by electing a Chief Promoter by other promoter members by holding a General Body Meeting of such promoters authorizing him to sign necessary papers and submitting them in the O/o RCS.

Load more

  43

Copy Link