CAN SOCIETY NON MEMBER SELL FLAT WITHOUT NOC?

3 years ago

Sir,

I cake actors your blog and found it extremely informative and useful. I must congratulate you for the same.

I stay in a 1BHK flat owned by my mother who is a senior citizen, in the Kandivli West area of Mumbai. The title ownership of the flat is undisputed and clearly on my mother's name. We have been staying here since 1989.

We are non-members of the society and have been refusing to pay the maintainance charges for the last 20+ years on the grounds that the society never showed us the calculation and paperwork like bills or reciept on the basis of which it charged the maintianance. My late father, who recently passed away, on behalf of my mother consistently wrote to the society asking for accounts and figures of our dues. However he regularly paid the BMC water charges and property taxes on a yearly basis. In the middle of all this, the society had 4 instances of repair work which left huge damage to our flat roof as we stay on top floor. Water used to seep into our house regularly causing damages to property and structure. In a major event in 2019, while the whole slab was stripped out by the contractor, the over head water tank overflowed causing a literal rain inside our house through cracks im the roof. We have documented these instances from time to time and even written to the society seeking damages. We wrote roughly 148 letters to the society asking for proper proofs of our dues and the damages they owe us. None of these letters were ackowledged by the society neither did they respond.

The society sent us 5 or 6 notices through different laywers, but after pointing out facts, the lawyers ran away, never responding. In the last 30 plus years, the society has never taken us to court since they know that there are many technilities where they are wrong. They claim we owe them ₹13 lakh + in dues while our claim for damages plus interest due to faulty repairs is ₹47 lakh+ and all this is on paper.

Since my father passed away, my mother has been wanting to sell this property and go to our native place. At the same time, we have no intention of not clearing the dues of the society but we are also not going to let go of the damages we seek.

In such a scenario, can we as non members (officially the society lists us as non members on the name board at wing entrance.), sell the property?

If yes, do we need NOC from society?

My plan is to given a written notice to the society saying we are selling the property but since we dont want to leave the damages they owe us and neither do we want to default on any dues, we can always keep communicating on our new address. Is that legal?

Any help or assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Rgds,

Ishan Choudhary
9819778214