Is it legal for a housing assoc to increase the annual maintenance of only rented apartments by 20%
shalini
(Querist) 09 September 2015
This query is : Resolved
Hello,
I rent an apartment in a small housing society in Bangalore, comprising 48 apartments. The housing associations wants to charge 20% more from a rented apartment as compared to a owner-occupied apartment. Is this legal and valid?
Regards,
Shalini
T. Kalaiselvan, Advocate
(Expert) 19 September 2015
You may go through the bye-laws of the society and revert with question or can clarify from your landlord.
shalini
(Querist) 19 September 2015
Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to look into my issue.
The housing society is registered as an association under Karnataka Societies Registration Act(1960) and maintenance charges are being charged under "Subscription" of the KSRA.
There is also, no mention of differentiation between different types of residents in the society bye-laws.
From my reading of the KSRA (as the society/ association's bye-laws come under its ambit) there is no mention of differentiation between two sets of residents/ subscription members wherein both sets receive the same services but where one set of residents/ members pay higher.
The non-occupancy charge (capped at maximum of 10% by the Supreme Court ruling on 19-6-2007) is valid only for housing societies in Maharashtra as it has been defined as such under MAOA and MOFA. My understanding is that as there is no such provision under KSRA (or even KAOA) NOC does not apply to housing societies in Karnataka.
Please correct me if I am wrong here, but it is my understanding that differentiated maintenance rates for a housing society whether registered under KSRA or KAOA are illegal and invalid under Karnataka state laws.
Anyways, after posting my initial query, we (all the tenants and their house-owners) called for an EGM and passed a resolution equalizing the maintenance rate/sq.ft irrespective of the type of resident (owner-occupied or tenants).
