Free buyer guide · SOCIETY 9-min read

The conveyance recovery kit: your flat is yours, but who owns the land?

You have the registered sale deed for your flat. But the land under the whole building — and the terrace, the open spaces, the parking — may still legally sit with the promoter, because one document was never executed. Here is which document, how to check tonight, and what the law says you are owed.

For anyone who owns a flat in a housing society or apartment association in India where the builder has handed over the flats but the land has never been formally transferred to the society.

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One number, never sold.

§17(1)

the RERA section requiring a registered conveyance to your association

3 months

the fallback deadline from the occupancy certificate, where local law is silent

2 deeds

your flat and your share of the land are separate legal events

The 30-second version

Buying your flat and owning your share of the land under it are two separate legal events. The first happened — your sale deed. The second, called conveyance (the registered transfer of the land and the common areas from the promoter to your society or association), very often never happens at all. Until it does, the promoter remains the owner on paper of the ground your home stands on.

Ask your society secretary one question tonight: 'Do we have a REGISTERED conveyance deed?' If the answer is 'it's in process', the answer is no.

The receipt: the paper to find tonight

The registered conveyance deed — and it is NOT your flat's sale deed.

It is a separate registered instrument between the promoter or landowner and your society or association. In some states it is called the deed of conveyance, the deed of assignment, or the transfer of land and building to the society. It lives in the society's own document file, held by the secretary alongside the society's registration certificate. Ask for it by name.

The exact question: 'Do we have a registered conveyance deed for the land and common areas — and can I see the copy with the sub-registrar's registration number and date on it?' A good answer is a copy bearing a registration number, a date, the sub-registrar's office name, and the society named as the party receiving the land. A bad answer is 'it's in process', 'the builder is doing it', 'we have the possession letter', 'we have the OC', or an unregistered draft. None of those is a conveyance.

How to verify it yourself — do not rely only on the secretary

1
Search the sub-registrar's index for the land parcel
Go to the sub-registrar's office in whose jurisdiction the project falls, with the survey / plot / CTS number of the land. Ask at the counter for a search of the index of registered documents for that property, and for a certified copy of any conveyance registered in favour of the society. Search and certified-copy fees are fixed by state rules and are modest — ask the counter for the current fee rather than trusting a figure quoted online.
2
Pull an encumbrance certificate for the land
The encumbrance certificate is the sub-registrar's list of every transaction, loan or claim recorded against a property. Pull it for the land parcel covering the period from the project's launch to today. A conveyance to the society, if it happened, is a registered transaction and should appear on it.
3
Open the project on your state's RERA portal
Read the documents section — the declaration, the sanctioned layout, and the promoter's stated timelines. Many state portals also publish the project's land title documents.
4
Read your own agreement for sale
Find the clause dealing with formation of the society and execution of the conveyance, and the clause saying who bears stamp duty and registration charges on it. That second clause decides who funds the final step.

The law in plain words

The promoter must execute a registered conveyance deed in favour of the allottees, hand over the undivided proportionate title in the common areas to the association of allottees, and hand over the title documents — within the period specified under the local law. Where no local law specifies a period, the conveyance must be carried out within three months from the date of issue of the occupancy certificate. (RERA Act 2016, Section 17(1) and its proviso.)

He must also hand over the necessary documents and plans, including those for the common areas, after obtaining the occupancy certificate and handing over possession. (Section 17(2).) And he remains responsible for the obligations owed to the allottees and to the association — including enabling the formation of the association and maintaining essential services on reasonable charges until it takes over — until the conveyance is done. (Section 11(4).)

An aggrieved person may complain to the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Section 31). Civil courts are barred from matters the Authority is empowered to determine (Section 79).

The fine print that decides whether this is your case

This applies to RERA-registered projects. The deadline is set by your state's local law first — the three-month rule is only the fallback where local law is silent, so check your own state's apartment-ownership or ownership-flats legislation before you quote a date. In that fallback, the clock runs from the occupancy certificate, not from possession and not from your own registry.

Section 11(4) is cited here at section level rather than by sub-clause letter, deliberately: sub-clause lettering is easy to get wrong, and a wrong citation is worse than none. Plead the obligation in words and cite the section — the Authority will locate the sub-clause.

What the missing paper actually enables

Stated carefully — these are things the absence of conveyance makes possible. They are not an accusation about any particular project.

The land stays the promoter's to deal with

While title has not moved, the promoter remains the recorded owner of the land and can continue to deal with it.

Unused development rights stay with him

Any remaining or future development potential on the plot sits on land that is still his on paper.

Redevelopment gets decided without you

A society that does not own its land cannot control the terms of its own redevelopment.

Common areas stay allottable by him

If the terraces, open spaces and parking were never conveyed, the promoter can keep treating them as his to allot or licence.

This does not make your flat less yours

Your registered sale deed is what gives you title to your apartment, where the seller had clear title to give. What is outstanding is the land and the common areas — a separate transfer, owed to the society as a body. Mutation, separately, only updates the revenue record and the tax bill; get it done after registry, but never treat it as ownership.

State variance — check before you copy anyone else's advice

The period, the procedure and the stamp duty all vary by state. Advice that worked for a society elsewhere may not describe your rights at all.

Question	Where the answer comes from
How long does the promoter have?	Your state's local law first; three months from the OC only where local law is silent
Can we force it if he refuses?	Maharashtra has a deemed-conveyance mechanism through the Competent Authority (District Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies) under MOFA 1963. Some states have analogues under their apartment-ownership law; many do not. Do NOT assume it exists in your state.
Who pays stamp duty and registration?	Your agreement for sale and your state's stamp law. Read the clause — do not quote a figure from a WhatsApp group.

Does this apply to me?

Seven honest questions before you send anything:

Is there a registered society, association of allottees, or condominium? Conveyance runs to a body — if none exists, forming it is step one.
Is the project RERA-registered? If it predates RERA entirely, your route is your state's ownership-flats law and the civil or consumer forum instead.
Has the occupancy certificate been issued? In the fallback rule the clock runs from the OC.
Does your state's local law set a different period? If so, that period governs — quote it, not the three months.
Is the land leasehold? If yes, this is NOT straightforwardly your case — what can be conveyed is the leasehold interest, and the lease deed and lessor's consent govern.
Is this a plotted development? If you registered your plot you already hold that land; what remains is the common areas — a narrower demand.
Has a conveyance already been registered that nobody told the members about? Check the sub-registrar first, write second.

Every step in this kit is a paper step. Do not stop paying maintenance and do not occupy or lock any common area to make a point — that turns a strong documentary case into a dispute about your conduct.

The play — five steps, five pieces of paper

1
Ask the secretary, in writing
Put tonight's question on paper or email so there is a record and a date. Keep their reply — or their silence.
2
Verify at the sub-registrar
Search the index for the land parcel and pull an encumbrance certificate. This is independent proof, not the builder's word.
3
Pass a resolution and send the association's demand
A written demand to the promoter with a 30-day deadline, listing every document to be handed over. Send by email AND registered post with acknowledgement due.
4
When the 30 days lapse, file with the Authority
A complaint under Section 31 on your state RERA portal, seeking a direction to execute the conveyance, hand over the documents, render accounts of the maintenance corpus, plus interest, compensation and costs.
5
Maharashtra societies only: run deemed conveyance in parallel
Apply to the Competent Authority with the standard document set — confirm the current checklist with that office, as it is periodically revised.

What to expect, honestly

The likely first response is silence, or a letter saying the conveyance is 'under process'. Treat that as a non-answer and ask for the specific step, the specific date and the specific officer. A complaint before the Authority moves in hearings over months, not weeks, and a matter with a title complication runs considerably longer.

The real cost is not the filing fee — it is professional: a title search report, a lawyer to draft and appear, and above all the stamp duty and registration charges on the conveyance itself, which your agreement and state stamp law decide. Budget for that first: a society that wins an order and cannot fund the stamp duty has not finished the job.

What makes a weak case weak: no formed society; a leasehold plot nobody has read the lease on; no occupancy certificate in a state where the clock runs from it; a demand that was never actually delivered; and members who will not fund the stamp duty. A promoter's strongest defence is usually a divided society.

A lawyer stops being optional the moment the land is leasehold, there is any dispute about the promoter's own title, the promoter claims additional development rights on the plot, or you are drafting the instrument and dealing with stamp duty adjudication.

Not legal advice

General information, not legal advice — confirm your specific case with an independent property lawyer. Conveyance periods, procedure and stamp duty vary by state and change over time.

Sources & citations›

Registered conveyance and undivided proportionate title in the common areas to the association; within the local-law period, and in its absence within three months of the occupancy certificate — RERA Act 2016, Section 17(1) and proviso.
Handover of necessary documents and plans, including for the common areas — RERA Act 2016, Section 17(2).
Promoter's obligations to allottees and the association until conveyance; enabling formation of the association; maintaining essential services on reasonable charges until handover — RERA Act 2016, Section 11(4) (cited at section level; sub-clause letters not asserted).
Complaint to the Authority — Section 31. Bar of jurisdiction of civil courts — Section 79.
Deemed conveyance through the Competent Authority (District Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies) — Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963. Stated as a Maharashtra mechanism only, not as a national rule.
No fee, stamp duty or search-cost figure is stated anywhere in this guide, because all are state-set and periodically revised.

Before you buy the next one, check whether the society owns its land.

A pending conveyance is one of the questions a careful buyer's lawyer asks — and one most buyers never think to ask at all. villow checks title and approvals up front on every listing, and your number is never sold to a wall of brokers.