How to avoid paying full maintenance for household utilities

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There are basically three methods for maintenance calculation which are prevalent in Karnataka which are as follows:
• Per Square Feet Charge:
This happens to be the method which is most used for calculating maintenance charges for housing societies. As a part of this method, a fixed rate is charged per square feet of area of an apartment.
• Equal Maintenance Fee:
This is a favoured method where the size of apartments are almost the same. The total maintenance charge which is to be collected per month is arrived at and then it is divided the number of apartments. The resultant amount is charged per apartment every month as maintenance charge.
• Hybrid Charges:
In this method a part of the maintenance charge is charged equally among all apartment owners. These charges would be the common expense like lifts, security staff salary, stationary, property taxes, conveyance, audit fees, meeting charges, common electricity etc. The second part includes the area based charges that are specific to the apartments such as water charge and electricity usage.

The Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act, 1972 deals with the registration of Apartment Owners Association mainly undertaking the routine maintenance activities, repairs, painting, providing various facilities connected with apartment living[1]. All, associations which take care of apartments’ maintenance of common areas and facilities are mandatorily to be registered only under Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act 1972 and all the owners to file declaration before competent authority as per rules provided under the Act to create proper title of the property. According to the Act, the owners of all apartments form an association[2].
Also, the Act does not enforce the owners of the apartments to pay the maintenance charges as per one particular method. Rather it allows the registered society to have its own rules, regulations and Bye-laws which can be adopted by the members of the residential society along with the members of the association on the basis of majority of votes or any other method. The bye-laws adopted by an Apartment Owner’s Association should have the following details[3]:
• the aims and objectives of the society,
• the details of the rules and regulations that apply to members,
• the specifics of selecting a member and office-bearers of the society,
• details of how the association aims to help the residents of the society
• Details of how it will go about getting the co-operation of all members.
• Information on how the society will manage its income and expenses.
• The list the office-bearers who will be authorized to issue cheques and monetary transactions on behalf of the association.
• details about transfer charges, maintenance costs, penalties, etc.
These Bye-laws can also be amended at a later stage as per the current requirements or on the expiry of tenure of the management committee of the Association.
To conclude, in the State of Karnataka, there is no compulsion to pay the maintenance charges but the option is available to the owners to register as a Society. Upon registration, the Society has the freedom to determine its own rules and regualtions and functiion according to that.

Advocate Siddhant Sharma LawRato