Curation Team
BENGALURU: Apartment owners across the city are grappling with confusion over the formation and registration of their resident welfare associations (RWAs), with disputes ranging from handover of common assets to unclear directions from authorities. Residents say they are being asked to take over maintenance responsibilities while still paying fees to the authorities, leaving them uncertain about their rights, ownership and the legal framework under which their associations should function.
For instance, in BDA Kaniminike Housing Project, the civic authority sent a letter to homebuyers, asking them to form an association and make a maintenance payment of 1% to it. The letter stated, “… all maintenance work like deployment of security guards, housekeeping and garbage clearance will be withdrawn and lift AMC (annual maintenance contract) to be renewed by allottees.” It also directed homebuyers to follow high court orders in the formation of an RWA, with the “registrar of cooperative societies as the competent authority”, and to hold elections to the association’s governing body.
This has left homebuyers confused. “We were filing RTI applications, visiting BDA every week and doing everything possible to get clarity. We initially thought to register under the Societies Act and later convert it to Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act, but even that is not being allowed as the registrar is refusing to do so. They say the only option is to register as a club, which makes no sense for apartment residents. We are left clueless, fearing for our ownership and money invested,” a resident said.
Sameera Bharadwaj, 47, a resident of Prestige Lake Ridge apartments, Uttarahalli, said: “The biggest challenge unregistered apartment associations face is that common assets such as clubhouses, diesel generators, solar panels, lighting, and even parking areas are never legally handed over by builders. Instead, they create their own deeds of declaration and bylaws without following Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act and pass them off as valid associations with just a PAN card to collect money. With no registered body, residents are left without authority to enforce their rights, while builders misuse loopholes — claiming, for instance, that an occupancy certificate is the same as a completion certificate. Because of this, homebuyers are left stranded and give in to the builders’ tricks, risking their investment and ownership.”
Dhananjaya Padmanabhachar, convener of Karnataka Home Buyers Forum, said: “There has been no cabinet decision on the apartment Act since the day the deputy chief minister announced it. There are thousands of apartments in Karnataka which need to form their owners’ associations for effective management of the common areas and to take control of common area land from the promoters. This will become a big bottleneck for apartments that will undergo redevelopment very soon.”
Many homebuyers are upset with the bill on the issue not being passed during the recent assembly session. The issue was first taken up formally in July 2023 during a Brand Bengaluru session chaired by deputy CM DK Shivakumar, where more than 300 RWAs demanded comprehensive legal reforms.
A senior official from the urban development department said: “There is some confusion, and that is one of the reasons for the announcement of the new Apartment Act. Efforts are being made to get the Act passed. It is with the Chief Minister’s Office at present. We were informed that besides consulting the apartment associations, he also wants to consult a few other experts… That’s one of the reasons it wasn’t tabled during the recent assembly session.”
