1) they should not charge you 4.1. No GST is chargeable in your case 

2) Bye laws have to be adopted by association in AGM 

3) on membership fees GST can be charged 

4) if there is misappropriation of funds criminal case can be filed against office bearers 

5) seek clarifications from association regarding your bills .  Consult a local CA 

1. This need to be clarified from the concerned person/authority who had issued the invoice to you. 

If the society's monthly maintenance bill is more than ₹7500 per house, 18% GST is applicable on the entire amount. If a person owns more than one residence in a society, then a 'separate' ceiling of ₹7500 is considered as the second unit also gets individual exemption of ₹ 7500.

2. Input credit means at the time of paying tax on output, you can reduce the tax you have already paid on inputs.

If you are aggrieved by the RTWA's biased acts against you in this regard, you can make a complaint to it in writing to remove the discrepancies in this regard and after that you can resort to legal action on it.

3. GST is not applicable for membership fee.

You can demand refund of the same from the association if they have already collected.

You can quote the following ruling in this regard:

he Hon’ble AAAR, Maharashtra in Order No. MAH/AAAR/SS-RJ/20/2019-20 dated December 11, 2019 held as under:

• The Court observed that the Appellant is not providing any specific facility or benefits to its members against the membership subscription charged by it, as the entire subscription amount is spent towards meetings and administrative expenditures only. The Appellant has categorically submitted that it do not provide any facility or benefit to any of its members against the said subscription or membership fee. Thus, the Appellant is not doing any business as envisaged under Section 2(17) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (“CGST Act”).
• Since it has been established that the Appellant is not doing any business in terms of Section 2(17) of the CGST Act, the activities carried out by the Appellant would not come under the scope of supply as envisaged under Section 7(1) of the CGST Act.
• If the impugned activities of the Appellant were to be supply, then the membership fees collected by the Appellant, which is purely in the nature of a reimbursement for the meetings and administrative expenditures incurred by the Appellant to sustain and propagate their inherent objectives and programs, would be subject to the double taxation as the amount spent towards the meetings and administrative expenditures is already subjected to GST at the hands of the suppliers of these input services or goods used in the meetings, events and other administrative functions of the Appellant. Thus, doing so would clearly be against the legislature’s intention of the formulation of GST, which certainly does not embrace the idea of double taxation.
• Therefore, the amount collected as membership subscriptions and admission fees from members is not liable to GST as supply of services.

4.  The bylaws are part of the association which is guidelines for the administration of the association, therefore it is not necessary to adopt the bylaws by voting.

5. For what reason you would like to file a criminal case against the treasurer who is doing the job in his official capacity.

As far as bylaws is concerned it is part of the act  i.e., Karnataka Apartment ownership Act, 1972, hence there is no need to adopt it in the general body meeting by the association.

Without the bylaws in force, the association cannot even be registered with the registering authorities. 

There can be no dispute with the proposition that bye laws are binding on all the flat owners 

the only issue is whether bye laws have to be adopted in AGM or not 

in my opinion it should be approved by AGM 

yes the bye laws are applicable unless the same are ultravires to the provisions of the main Act.

Dear Sir,

1) No you cannot be charged the GST at 4.1.

2) SEC 16 - The administration of every property shall be governed by bye-laws, a true copy of which shall be annexed to the Declaration . No modification of or amendment to the bye-law shall be valid, unless set forth in an amendment to the Declaration and such amendment is duly recorded and a copy thereof is duly filed with the competent authority. Thus any amendment needs to be decided by AGM in meeting by due process.

3) If you feel funds are being misused You should raise objection and ask for the Office bearers to get an independent CA to give report. You should also seek consultation of CA for the bills charges.

4) Case can be filed against Office bearers for misappropriation and fraud.

5) GST can be charged for membership.

Thank you

1) yes you can insist that bye laws have to be approved by members 

2) electricity is an essential service and cannot be disconnected by association . You can make payment under protest 

3) you can dispute exhorbitant penalty charges . You should succeed 

4) disposal of cases depend upon pendency on trial courts in your city 

5) you have to seek option of review of legal documents and not mere phone consultation 

6) you are entitled to inspection of books of accounts 

1. The bylaws even if adopted by the association, there is provision to amend the same by passing a resolution with the support of majority of members voting in favor of the resolution moved in the general meeting or special meeting.

2.  If you consider that the committee members are dominating or dictating the terms against the members  and causing hardships to members besides financial loss, all the aggrieved members can raise this issue in the next meeting and get the issue rectified or else to boycott the meeting and issue a letter or legal notice to the association against the irregularities after which they can resort to legal action as per law in this regard.

3. You may resort to legal action expressing your grievances on the arbitrary acts of the association which is found to be illegal.

4. Legal notice  is issued by a lawyer nd it can be done on the same day.

However it depends on which court you will be approaching for the relief and remedy in this regard because the time taken for disposal on any legal case cannot be predicted owing to various factors involved in this disposal

For resorting to legal action, you should first adhere to suggestions made to exhaust the remedies within the association after which you can engage the services of an advocate of your choice  for all issues and you will be informed about the details by the advocate you have chosen.

5. Whether online meeting or offline meeting, the members have the right to express their views, if the management committee is ignoring the views of the members then it can be said the meeting itself is invalid and illegal, a complaint may be made to the registrar concerned. 

6. The account books are public property and all the members of the association have full rights for inspection of accounts as recorded in the accounts book.

If not allowed then a legal notice can be issued to this also and they may dragged to consumer forum for deficiency in service besides a complaint about the fraudulent activities they may probably are into.

1. yes you can

2.yes its an violation of gst provisions

3. yes it can be disputed

3. The cost varies 

4.Its not ok its illegal

5. yes they have right to inspect

Dear Sir/ Ma'am, 

1. there is a provision to amend the bylaws, by the majority of voters in favour of the resolution.

2. you file legal notice to the association, addressing the irregularities and then resort to the legal action as per law. 

3. a legal notice is issued by a lawyer and the time taken for a case to last cannot be predicted given the pandemic and various other factors. It is advisable to first exhaust all the measures that can be taken within the association and then engage in legal action. 

this is to ensure you do not face any delay or undue expenses when the law takes its own course. 

4. if the view of the members is not taken in addressing the issues, irrespective of the mode of meeting, it would stand invalidated. 

5. accounts book being a public property can be inspected by all members of the association. 

• For further assistance, you can book a consultation with me.
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