Software for housing societies, RWAs and AOAs in India

There is no single national law: each state sets its own, and this page covers Maharashtra. There, co-operative housing societies fall under Chapter XIII-B of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, added in 2019 (s. 154B(1)). A building whose flats are owned as apartments, run by an apartment owners’ association (AOA), comes under the Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act, 1970 only once its owners execute and register a Declaration (s. 2). For an RWA or a society in another state, check that state’s law.

Every member must pay the society’s dues within the time its general meeting decides (s. 154B-10(5)(i)). A member who is a defaulter cannot be appointed, elected or co-opted to the managing committee, or sit on it (s. 154B-10(4)). Elected committees serve five-year terms (s. 154B-19(3)).

It applies to the Registrar for its dues, or for repairs and maintenance, construction cost and service charges, with a statement of accounts, and the Registrar may grant a recovery certificate. The amount is then recoverable as arrears of land revenue (s. 154B-29(1) and (3)), and the society holds a charge on the member’s share and interest for what is owed (s. 154B-14). Funds and the charges towards them are those prescribed or decided by the society, and the corpus fund is spent as the general meeting decides (s. 154B-15 to s. 154B-18).

Free of cost, at the society’s office: the Act, rules and bye-laws, the last audited balance sheet, the profit and loss account, the list of committee members, the register of members, minutes of general and committee meetings and the entries for the member’s own transactions. Copies requested in writing are due within forty-five days of paying the fee (s. 154B-8).

Under the Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act, common expenses are charged to owners by each apartment’s percentage of undivided interest in the common areas and facilities (s. 10), and nobody escapes their share by not using the common areas or by abandoning the flat (s. 17). The bye-laws must provide for a Board of Managers, a Secretary who keeps the minute book, a Treasurer who keeps the books of account, and the way owners’ shares are collected (s. 16(2)).

Unpaid common expenses are a charge on the apartment that ranks ahead of everything except government and municipal taxes and a first mortgage (s. 19). The buyer is jointly and severally liable with the seller for arrears up to the sale, and may ask the Secretary of the Board of Managers for a statement of the amount (s. 20).

It gives the treasurer one ledger per flat: maintenance billed, payments received and what is still due, updated as each payment is recorded against the right flat. Members get automatic reminders and see their charges in the resident app, where complaints and requests are tracked instead of being lost in a chat group. Sinking fund or repair fund contributions, where your bye-laws provide for them, sit in the same flat balance.

No. There is no UPI integration and no connection to any Indian bank. Members pay society maintenance by UPI or bank transfer as they do today, and Unitify records each payment against the right flat. Paying online by card in the resident app needs a payment provider connected for your buildings; we agree it per project.