Apartment Living - SCL Consultative Seminar on Common Property Management - A concept note

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The first apartment building submitted to the Apartment Ownership Law 

SCL[i] Consultative Seminar - Topic - "Common Property Management in Apartment Buildings”

Date and Time - 22nd February 2025 (Saturday) 9AM to 1 PM
Venue - M.K. Damodaran Hall, High Court Premises, Ernakulam

SCL Sub Committee Research and Conclusions

The Society of Construction Law (Kerala) (SCL K for short) pioneered research on “Common Property Management in Apartment Buildings” in Kerala. The SCL(K) initiative sought ways to improve the legal infrastructure for condominium-type real estate property in Kerala. SCL (K) constituted a sub-committee for the study during the pandemic lockdown. The subcommittee studied the local law on apartment ownership and the hurdles in its application. The team worked remotely and came to a few interesting conclusions. 

The Highlights of the Conclusions 

The following are some of the highlights of the findings of the Sub Committee:

a)   The term ‘apartment ownership’ finds its parallel in ‘condominium ownership[ii]’, which is prevalent in the West. The United Nations has published ‘Guidelines on condominium ownership on housing for countries in transition’.  While going through the guidelines, we will find that the Kerala Apartment Ownership Act 1983 (KAOA for short), is enacted on similar lines.

b)   Even though KAOA, has an international origin and is highly progressive, the legislative process lacks application of mind and some fatal errors crept into the draft legislation.

c)    The essential power of the Competent Authority to compel the promoter to file the prescribed declaration to submit apartment buildings to KAOA, as the sole owners, is found missing in the statute. 

d)   The requirement of all the owners to file a declaration for application of KAOA is practically possible only in the case of buildings with few apartment units.

e)    The popular notion that KAOA is a law for the formation of the Apartment Ownership Association is not correct.

f)     The application of KAOA is essential for apartment owners to protect their apartment ownership, as a real property.  It is also essential for the exclusive ownership of apartments and to make them heritable and transferable. This is a local law, the application of which is preserved under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act 2016.

g)    Without the application of KAOA, the property, including the land and apartment building, will be deemed to be owned in common by the apartment owners.  It would mean that every apartment owner has ownership over every inch of the apartment building, which is unfortunately the current status in Kerala.

h)   The apartment owners face a major challenge due to the failure to register the declaration and floorplans of the apartment buildings.  There will be no data available regarding these buildings after 50 to 70 years, and reconstruction becomes practically impossible.  Hence, the preservation of these data, through the application of KAOA, is an urgent need.

The follow-ups and impact of SCL Sub-Committee Conclusions

SCL(K)submitted a report before the Government of Kerala, basing its conclusion, and request for necessary correction in the legislation.  An SCL Seminar on the topic “Review of the Kerala Apartment Ownership Act 1983 was conducted on 11th February 2023, in the same venue, where a representative of the various stakeholders shared their views on the topic.   

A PIL[iii] was preferred by Mr Anandapadmanabhan, a member of SCL (K), based on the sub-committee conclusion, before the Kerala High Court.  The Court passed a favorable interim order paving the way for the implementation of the KAOA after 40 years of its existence.  The scope of the interim order may be limited to apartment buildings, registered under the RERA Act[iv].  The Article “Undoing the Wrong on the Apartment Owners in the State – After 40 Years” discusses more about the impact of the interim order.  

Click the link to read the article Undoing the Wrong on the Apartment owners

The mountain of problems in the High Rise

The representatives of the SCL had the opportunity to interact with some pro-active groups of the builders and the apartment owners.  Such interactions indicated that the nonapplication of KAOA has taken its toll already.  It has several manifestations and may need immediate judicial and legislative intervention.  

The concerns voiced include the following:

a)  How to effectively implement KAOA during the Pre-RERA period; How many apartment owners should agree to its application.

b)   How to simplify the procedure for the  application of KAOA, to properties not already submitted to it;  

c)    What would be the criterion for the calculation of management fees;

d)   What would be the fair procedure for the transition of the current apartment ownership association to the associations under KAOA;  Does the association under KAOA, have the status of a legal entity, and what is the implication of the Income Tax Act on its activities.

e)    Identifying legal solutions for providing essential services to all the apartment units in the building:

f)     Reluctance of apartment owners to form the apartment ownership association immediately after 50 % of the booking is complete and to take over the management of common properties from the promoters immediately after issuance of the completion certificate, and the consequent cost implications on the project;

g)    The reluctance of promoters to transfer the proportionate title in the common properties to the Association of Owners.

h)   The reluctance of the revenue authorities in effecting mutation of proportionate title in the land, in the revenue records.

i)     Managing the huge bad debts, due to the default in payment of maintenance charges, faced by the apartment ownership associations in the states

This list of concerns raised by the stakeholders of the real estate industry is not exhaustive. Read the Article “Apartment Living and Recovery of Common Expenses – A Kerala Experience”, is also relevant to the topic of discussion.

Click the link to read the article Apartment Living - Recovery of Common Expenses

The SCL Consultative Seminar

SCL (K) proposes to conduct a “Consultative Seminar on the Management of Common Properties in Apartment Buildings”.  The intention behind the consultative seminar is to suggest policy changes in the law, to the regulators and legislators to bring peace to the highrises.   Therefore, the format of the seminar would not be like information dissemination by the speakers but designed to consult with the stakeholders regarding the changes needed.  To enable SCL (K) to invite you to share your thoughts on the subject, a brief of such thoughts may be shared with us in advance for inclusion in the speaker's list.

The total duration of the seminar would be 4 hours, starting at 9 am to 1 PM, on 22nd February 2025 (Saturday).  The Venue is MKD Hall, Golden Jubilee Chamber Complex, High Court Premises, Ernakulam PIN 682 018.

Registration for the Consultative Seminar

Entry to the Seminar is free. However, registration through a Google form is preferred.  If the participant is interested in speaking on any specific topics of discussion, he may express his interest in the Google Form itself.  SCL (K) will come back to you, with an invitation to speak in the seminar.  The program will be in hybrid mode.  SCL (K) reserves its right to select speakers based on the relevancy of topics and availability of time.

Google Form for Registration Apply hear for registration as participant/speaker

Note: The author is the convenor of the SCL Consultative Seminar


[i] SCL stands for Society of Construction Law (Kerala), the Kerala Chapter of SCL (India), affiliated to SCL (UK) https://www.scl.org.uk/

[ii] UNITED NATIONS Guidelines on condominium ownership on housing for countries in transition” https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/484922?v=pdf

[iii] Public Interest Litigation WP (C) No. 15166 of 2024 (Ananada Padmanabhan Vs Union of India)

[iv]  Registration is made under Section 3 of the RERA

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