The High Court of Karnataka has given clear directions that an association which is registered under Karnataka Societies Registration Act 1960 (KSRA 1960) is meant for carrying out charitable purposes and not applicable to apartment associations and collect maintenance from flat owners.
The Registrar of Co-Operative Societies also ordered in 2018 that, any apartment associations who declared the property under Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act 1972 (KAOA 1972) cannot be registered under Karnataka Societies Registrations Act 1960.
So, this becomes challenging for all flat owners’ associations who had registered their associations under KSRA 1960. So, such associations what they should do?
The home buyer’s association experts in these areas suggest the best available method for all apartment owner association is to form a flat owners society under Karnataka Co-Operative Society Act 1959 (KCSA 1959) or register Company under Company Act.
If flat owners don’t wake up and take title transfer of their project land, the day will come when they will lose their entire investment when the apartment go for redevelopment or collapse due to act of god” says Dhananjaya Padmanabhachar, Sanchalak of Karnataka Home Buyers Forum.
The Journey of Co-Operative Movement
Experience of creating Co-operative Society for his apartment
Jibin Jayaram a IT leader working in Bangalore who purchased a flat in an apartment called Klassic Apartment. We have waited for more than 5 years for the promoter to create a co-operative society and to take the title transfer to association of owners. When the promoter has not done their job, we the owners of our apartment went ahead and formed the apartment owner’s society under Karnataka Co-operative societies Act 1959 and requesting the builder to handover the operations of the apartment to complete the handover process as per section 17 of RERA Act.
Section 17 of RERA Act clearly mentioned, the promoters need to enable the formation of allottees association, transfer the title and handover the documents, assets to owners’ association.
When the promoter did not follow the RERA guidelines, the owners decided to take step to protect the interest of home buyers/flat owners of the apartment.
Is the journey Smooth? Jibin says, YES! Jibin wanted to protect the land rights of the flat owners and he gained knowledge about the rights of home buyers and being experienced on how Maharashtra flat owners driven the Co-operative movement to protect their interest.
Jibin highlight that, Maharashtra has created a robust SYSTEM to protect the interest of flat owners, whereas Karnataka is still catching up and still long way to go, but Jibin is confident that, the Government of Karnataka will find solutions to the problem that exist from last 50 years!
“The situation of flat owners in Karnataka is like a car owner you own the driver seat of a car but not the entire car as the land title transfer not happening in Karnataka to flat owners’ association” says Jibin Jayaram. Its high time that, every home buyer who owns a flat in Karnataka to form Co-Operative society and request the promoter to transfer the title of the project to owners’ association as per the section 17 of RERA Act 2016.
What KOFA say?
As per section 10 and 11 of KOFA mandates formation of flat owners’ association under Co-Operative Societies Act or Company Act to transfer the apartment project land title.
— Commander Surendra
What RERA Say?
As per RERA act section 17, it mandates every promoter to enable association of allottees to transfer the title of the project
— Sudhir Pillai
Why Body Corporate?
In India, either a society or company of flat owners is a body corporate which has the legal rights to hold the title of the land and has the legal rights to execute contracts
— Ameya Usgaonkar
Karnataka Home Buyers Forum 