Apartment laws to be amended in Bangalore
Over the last decade or so, Bangalore has become one of the fastest growing cities in India, drawing inflow of population from across the country. Apartment culture has seeped in the city scape and multi-storey apartments are increasing in number.
However, as real estate in Bangalore is reaching new heights, civic issues related to apartment ownership, maintenance and conflicts need to be addressed in an effective manner on a large scale.
Residents in apartments and gated communities in the city have come up with various complaints with respect to willful flouting of rules and norms by developers and inefficiency of prevalent laws to safe guard the interests of apartment owners. After years of complaints from residents, the authorities have finally paid heed to the complaints and the laws are to undergo changes in near future.
KAOA and KFOA
In Karnataka, ownership, maintenance and transfer of flats are being primarily governed by two acts – Karnataka Ownership Flats (Regulation of the Promotion of Construction, Sale, Management and Transfer) Act or KOFA and the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act or KAOA.
KOFA covers the process of a builder/developer constructing and selling an apartment; whereas the title, heritability and transferability of apartments come under the purview of KAOA.
Activists point out that the ambiguities and inefficiency of the Acts arise due to the fact that they have not been amended since their inception in 1970s. The Acts were modeled on their counterparts in Maharashtra. While, the acts of Maharashtra have undergone several amendments over the years, Karnataka Acts have not yet being amended.
Roots of complaints regarding Apartment laws
The first root to all the troubles haunting the residents of apartments in Bangalore is that most of them are unaware of the proper registration process of apartment owners association. Most of the apartments are registered under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act 1960 whereas as per the law, they should have been registered under either KFOA or KAOA.
Societies Registration Act is unlikely to safeguard the owners’ rights as Section 3 of the Societies act defines the various types of societies that can be registered under the act and none of them meet the definition of an apartment association. It is therefore being manipulated by the developers for their own interests. Instances like developers using premises under the complex for commercial purpose could not be contested in court by the residents if the owners association is formed under the inappropriate act. Registering apartment owners association under inappropriate laws lead to faulty title deeds, thereby barring residents to fight for their rights.
Another ambiguity is due to the words ‘apartments’ and ‘flats’ in KAOA and KFOA respectively. As opposed to the popular misconception that there exists a difference between an apartment and flats; the KFOA too pertains to sale of apartments only.
The biggest area of concern probably lies in the absence of a regulatory body to address the concerns of the bereaved consumers. Although the Registrar of co-operative societies is named as the ‘competent authority’ as per the acts, he/she lacks well defined powers and functions to address the conflicts and disputes between buyers and developers.
Plans for new apartment law
There lies a number of crucial issues in front of concerned authorities regarding the problems of thousands of apartments and the residents residing in them:
First, they need to ensure that the provisions in the Acts are being implemented effectively.
Second, the buyers have to be made aware of the laws and implications so that there would be no faulty property title deeds.
Third is to find out if amendments are possible to be made into current legislation.
Fourth, to find out a plan to address the issues inflicting the apartment owners who hold faulty title deeds and who are in dispute with developers over their property rights.
Taking into consideration the complaints raised by apartment owners associations and applications filed by RTI activists, the Urban Development Department (UDD) has agreed to form a committee to enquire about various loopholes in KFOA/KAOA. UDD decided to form the committee in January, 2013. Its aim would be to form a new legislature to cover all the disputed areas effectively.
The committee would be comprised of members from Department of Town Planning, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bangalore development Authority (BDA), Department of Parliamentary Affairs and Department of Co-operative Societies. Acting upon suggestions from officials as well as civil society, the committee is expected to form basis for a new Act which would cover all the concerned areas. It would also render its views on the proposed central Apartment Ownership Bill as well.
