Justice V. R. Kulkarni of the Maharashtra Co-Operative Court recently ruled that housing societies can’t charge higher maintenance fees from owners of larger flats and shops. She also pointed out that housing societies can’t create different maintenance charges just based on the size of the property or because some units are commercial, unless there is a solid legal reason for doing so.
This judgement came after a case was filed by unhappy residents of a housing society in Worli, Mumbai including Mr Shanbhag, Dr Warke and others. They argued that the society should split the common maintenance charges equally among all members. Instead, the housing society has been calculating these fees based on the size of each flat or shop, with commercial units facing higher charges .
