Deputy Registrar, Pune City (3) · Direction under Section 154B-27(1) · 30.09.2021
A society cannot collect the builder’s pre-registration dues from members
Acting on a member’s complaint, the Deputy Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Pune City (3), directed a Pimpri housing society not to recover from flat owners the maintenance arrears owed to the builder for the period before the society was registered, and to levy charges strictly under the 2000 Government order and Bye-laws 64 to 70.
Key points
- A society has no authority to levy amounts that flat owners owed to the builder for the period before the society was formed; it must not recover them.
- The society had billed only some buildings for the pre-registration period, with interest; it could not show an authority letter from the builder or any accounting with the builder.
- Maintenance must be levied according to the Government order of 29 April 2000 under Section 79A and Bye-laws 64 to 70; the society was to report compliance within 15 days.
The facts
The society was registered on 1 April 2016. Its office-bearers began billing members of two of its three buildings, with interest, for maintenance relating to November 2015 to March 2016, the period before registration when the builder was managing the project. A member complained to the Deputy Registrar under Section 154B-27. He pointed out that the office-bearers claimed to act on a builder’s authority letter they never produced; that the society had not obtained any accounts from the builder for amounts it had already collected; that one building was not billed for the same period; and that an MoU recorded that the maintenance collected was for the entire project. The society did not appear despite notice.
What the Deputy Registrar directed
Finding that the method of levying and recovering maintenance was prima facie wrong, the Deputy Registrar exercised the power under Section 154B-27(1) and directed the committee and secretary (1) not to levy or recover dues that flat holders owed to the builder for the period before the society’s formation, and (2) to levy maintenance and other charges in accordance with the Government order of 29 April 2000 and Bye-laws 64 to 70, and to report compliance within 15 days.
Why it matters
Pre-registration maintenance is a dispute between the flat purchaser and the developer under the sale agreement and MOFA or RERA. A newly formed society should take over the developer’s accounts and any surplus, but it should not act as the developer’s collection agent for old arrears unless there is a lawful assignment and a general body decision. This is an administrative direction by a Registrar on one society’s facts, not a binding precedent. See also the equal service charges GR of 29 April 2000.
Three-page direction in Marathi; names of individual members are omitted on this page. This page summarises the decision for general information; it is not a substitute for the full text and not legal advice. Check whether the decision has since been appealed, modified or overruled.
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