Home kitchens in residential apartment

Such activities are lawful unless there is infringement of specific local laws. However, there could be a civil action if the activity results in tortious inconvenience upon the neighbours and other society members. The posting suggests no such cause of action.

What is in your bylaws regarding the issue?

If the home kitchen doing a restaurant business inside the flat, i.e., whether the customers are dining there itself or it is only for serving outside ?

So long as your homeowner's association and zoning laws permit you, you can begin selling home cooked food to the public.

Though homemade food businesses encounter fewer compliance issues than a full-fledged setup, an FSSAI food license is essential to run any food business in India. Obtaining this license is critical to an F&B operation making less than Rs 12 Lakh annual turnover.

Dear Sir

Thank you very much for the replies and providing information regarding legal views on home kitchen businees. 

. There is nothing specifically written in Society bylaws regarding the running of home kitchen.  The customers are only taking food parcels from the flat. There is no dinning facility provided  for the customers. 

Since NOC (No Objection Certificate) from EC was not taken by the resident flats who are running home kitchen business.  this is main cause of contention.  EC was not given any intimation by residents who are running home kitchen.

Regards,

-- Poonam 

The association can remain silent until there's any problem arising out of this arrangement.

If the things are going smoothly then, let their livelihood may not be disturbed.

In a Society comprising only residential apartments, use of an apartment for anything other than as a residential apartment is called change of user. Byelaws of most societies say that permission of the society is required for change of user. Permission of the society can mean permission of the managing committee or permission of the general body. Change of user often implies increase in municipal property tax. In Mumbai municipal tax is collected from the Society and not from the individual flat owner. Use of an apartment for the purpose of cooking food for sale is change of user and is subject to all the above requirements. Besides the laws, if cooking food causes any kind of inconvenience to other flat owner or flat owners, he or they should contest it. It can be with the society or in court. Very often it happens that a flat owner does not bother to take permission from the society or municipality and just uses the flat for doing business. In such cases it is very difficult to act. In our society a person started using his flat as a godown. He got permissions from the corrupt municipality. The society had to file case in co-operative court to get the use  vacated. In certain kind of uses like cloth business, the insurance premium for the whole building will be increased or in case of an incident like a fire the insurance company will refure to pay compensation.

A Society is not a law making body; it can only adopt bye-laws within the limited mandate provided by the Law under which settled. It is well settled that ordinary rights of the citizens cannot be interfered except through powers conferred on the strength of a law duly enacted by a competent legislature.

Moreover, a homemaker making use of her talent, learning and enterprise in supplementing the income of the household income through some incidental activites cannot be termed a commercial activity.