Single maintenance bill cannot be issued for ‘jodi flats’
Mumbai's cooperative housing society can't charge a single maintenance bill for "jodi flats," as each flat is considered separate for costs.
Mumbai: A cooperative housing society cannot raise a single maintenance bill for “jodi flats”, according to an order passed by Shahaji Patil, divisional joint registrar of cooperative societies.
Jodi flats refers to apartments that are beside each other. In Mumbai, for want of larger homes, buyers opt to purchase jodi flats.
The order, which was passed in January but made public recently, pertains to RNA Royal Park Cooperative Housing Society in Kandivali West. The developer, East & West Builders, had sold jodi flats by combining a 2BHK with a 1BHK, with a total size of 1,670 sq ft.
At the time of the transaction and registration of the deal, two different agreements for sale were inked for a jodi flat. In fact, in the cooperative housing society, each of the 3BHK jodi flats got two votes each—as two flats were amalgamated. Therefore, it was beyond doubt that the jodi flats were actually two independent apartments on paper.
However, concerns then arose among residents with regard to raising maintenance bills and recovering costs towards the society’s upkeep and statutory charges. Some of the society members, Amitabh Arora, Shelly Gautam and Sachdev Chandrakant, filed complaints against the chairman and secretary of the society.
As the original construction plans reflected 442 apartments, the deputy district registrar (R South), Dr Sunil Kothawale, observed that as many (442) maintenance bills should be raised. In March 2021, Kothawale ordered the managing committee to raise two invoices for apartments that were combined to make them into a single big unit.
Even post formation of the society, none of the flat owners initiated measures to get the apartment regularised on paper as a single flat. However, each jodi flats had only one electricity meter. Aggrieved by this, 26 affected flat owners filed an appeal with the Divisional Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies.
The divisional joint registrar upheld the earlier order, concluding, “...it appears that the society has granted two separate memberships and also issued two separate share certificates to flat holders. Audit report of the society indicates total 442 members...Therefore, ...it is necessary to levy equal charges regarding repair and maintenance charge to 442 flat holders.”
