Your property-related legal queries answered by S.C. RAGHURAM, Partner, RANK Associates, a Chennai-based law firm

We live in an apartment complex comprising 30 flats. A uniform maintenance fee is collected to meet common expenses.

A few apartment owners have not paid the monthly charges for the period when their flats were vacant. Repeated requests have made no impact and they continue to default on payments. The Association is finding it difficult to meet the common expenses. My queries:

nAre apartment owners liable to pay maintenance charges irrespective of whether their flats are occupied or not?

Your property-related legal queries answered by S.C. RAGHURAM, Partner, RANK Associates, a Chennai-based law firm
We live in an apartment complex comprising 30 flats. A uniform maintenance fee is collected to meet common expenses.

A few apartment owners have not paid the monthly charges for the period when their flats were vacant. Repeated requests have made no impact and they continue to default on payments. The Association is finding it difficult to meet the common expenses. My queries:

nAre apartment owners liable to pay maintenance charges irrespective of whether their flats are occupied or not?

K.Vasudevan

Chennai

It is taken that your Association is duly registered and bye-laws are in place. As per the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Apartment Ownership Act (which has partially come into force) the common expenses shall be charged to the apartment owners according to the percentage of their undivided interest in the common areas and facilities.

The Act does not provide for any differential maintenance for unsold or unoccupied flats. However, if the general body decides to grant any concession in maintenance charges for unoccupied apartments, the same can be implemented.

If there is default in payment of maintenance charges, the Association can suspend the facilities provided by the Association to the defaulting owner/tenant. The services rendered by the government or its agencies cannot be terminated.

The arrears of maintenance have to be collected by filing a suit against the defaulters. If there is an arbitration clause provided in the bye-laws, the same can be resorted to for resolving this issue.

I have a property in at Kumaran Colony Main Road, Vadapalani. The said road is 40 feet wide and our property is a three-storey apartment (G+3) constructed on three grounds.

Can plot owners avail 10% as UDS and other flats be registered for 6% UDS?

As per the new rule on FSI, in case the building is demolished and reconstructed, what is the acceptable square feet area allowed for construction?

Ramesh. S

Chennai

The correct method of computing and conveying undivided share of land in any project should be based on the ratio of built up area allotted to each of the owners. On completion of the project, the entire land should have been conveyed to all the flat owners in proportion to the flat area.

In your case, all the sale deeds have to be looked into to verify whether the above practice was adopted. If the owners are planning to demolish and reconstruct, the entitlement of built up area to each of the owners can be calculated and assigned based on the share of land held by them in the plot.

The built up area that can be constructed will depend on the approvals and sanctions given by the authorities based on the dimensions of the plot, road width and set back requirements.