Apartment associations exercise real power over daily life, and they frequently exceed it. The starting point is always the constitutional document.
Which law applies to you
In Karnataka this is genuinely confusing, because associations are variously registered under the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act, 1972, the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960, or as a co-operative society, and the state has been moving toward a consolidated apartment ownership framework. Your rights depend on which statute and which bye-laws govern your association, so establish that first. It also determines the correct forum for a dispute.
There is a test that settles it quickly, and almost nobody applies it. The Apartment Ownership Act does not apply to a building merely because somebody says the association is registered under it. It applies where a Deed of Declaration has been executed and registered with the sub-registrar, submitting that specific property to the Act, along with floor plans certified by an architect as matching the sanctioned plan. So the first step is not to argue about the law but to check whether such a declaration exists for your building and obtain a certified copy.
If one exists it is the constitutional document, fixing the common areas, the undivided share attached to each apartment, and the percentage that governs how common expenses are apportioned. If none exists, the association is in substance a registered society running on its bye-laws, and disputes belong with the Registrar of Societies and the civil court. Filing in the wrong forum here costs a year.
Which statute your association is actually governed by
- A Deed of Declaration filed under the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act, 1972? That Act governs, and the association is an Association of Apartment Owners under it.
- Registered as a society under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960? The society's bye-laws and that Act govern, which is the most common position in Bengaluru in practice.
- A cooperative housing society? The Karnataka Cooperative Societies Act, 1959 applies, with its own dispute mechanism.
- Nothing registered, and the builder still in control? The obligations under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 to form the association and hand over remain live, and the remedy lies with the Authority.
Maintenance charges
- Must be levied in accordance with the bye-laws and a resolution of the general body, not by the managing committee acting alone where the bye-laws require otherwise.
- The basis of apportionment, whether per square foot of undivided share or equal per flat, must follow the bye-laws or the deed of declaration. Changing the basis usually requires an amendment, not a committee decision.
- Members are entitled to inspect the accounts, the audited statements and the minutes.
When you exercise the inspection right, name the documents rather than asking for "the accounts", because a general request produces a general refusal. Ask for the audited statements for the years in question, the association's bank statements, the register of members and dues, the minutes of the meetings at which the levy was approved, and the vendor contracts behind the largest heads of expenditure. Put it in writing to the secretary with a date by which inspection should be arranged.
Capital projects deserve separate scrutiny, because that is where the money and the exposure are. An association that puts up a new common facility or takes on its own power generation arrangement under the Karnataka rules is entering into contracts and liabilities on behalf of every owner. Those decisions need the sanction the bye-laws actually require rather than a committee resolution and a circular, and a member may see the resolution, the tender comparison and the contract before the money moves.
This is the most common abuse and it is generally unlawful. Access to water has been recognised as part of the right to life under Article 21, and consumer commissions and High Courts have repeatedly restrained associations from disconnecting essential services to enforce payment of dues. The association's remedy is to sue for the arrears, not to make the flat uninhabitable. The same applies to blocking lift access or denying parking.
Where to take a dispute
- Requisition an extraordinary general body meeting, which the bye-laws usually permit on the demand of a specified number of members. This is the fastest internal remedy and it is under-used.
- The Registrar of Societies or the competent authority under the applicable Act, for disputes about elections, accounts and non-compliance.
- The consumer commission, where the association is rendering a service for a consideration and there is deficiency.
- A civil suit or injunction, particularly for an urgent restraint against disconnection.
Tenants, and what the association may not do about them
Associations frequently treat tenants as second class occupants: extra deposits, denial of amenities, restricted access, and occasionally a demand that the owner remove them. Separate two things. An association may make reasonable rules on the use of common areas and require registration of occupants for security. What it cannot do is take on the landlord's role. Ending a tenancy is a matter between landlord and tenant under the Karnataka rent law and its eviction procedure, it needs the statutory grounds and process, and an association cannot short-circuit that by cutting services or barring entry.
Building the record before you escalate
The file that wins is assembled before the dispute becomes open. Keep the bye-laws and the Deed of Declaration, the minutes of every meeting at which the disputed levy was taken, your written objections and the replies, the demand notices and payment receipts, and a dated note with photographs of any interruption to water, power, lift or parking.
Then escalate in order: the internal remedy first, the competent authority next, the courts last. A member who has requisitioned a meeting and asked for inspection in writing presents a very different case from one whose first act is a suit. Where the association charges for a service and fails to provide it, our note on how to file a consumer complaint sets out the pleading.
Practical advice
Pay the undisputed portion of the maintenance and dispute the balance in writing. A member in arrears on everything is in a much weaker position, and non-payment is often used to disqualify members from voting or contesting elections.
One more habit: act as a group. A single objecting member is easy to characterise as difficult, and interim relief is easier to obtain where several owners are affected in the same way.