Until the formal migration is completed and the new Association of Apartment Owners (AOA) is registered under the TNAOA 2022, your existing Society registered under the 1975 Act remains valid. It holds the legal authority to administer the complex, collect regular maintenance, and manage day-to-day operations.
Section 24 or similar saving/overriding clauses of the TNAOA do not instantly turn existing bye-laws into blank paper. The overriding effect means that if there is a direct conflict between an existing bye-law and a mandatory provision of the TNAOA, the TNAOA wins immediately. However, for non-conflicting operational matters (like security rules, standard maintenance collection, etc.), the existing bye-laws continue to operate as a transitional bridge until your new TNAOA constitution/bye-laws are formally approved by the Competent Authority.
An owner cannot refuse to furnish ownership documents or basic KYC. Refusing to provide these paralyzes the statutory migration process required by law.
If the General Body validly approved a nominal fee of ₹500 for administrative/migration expenses under the existing operating rules, it is legally enforceable as a common transitional expense. Non-payment never affects an owner's absolute property/ownership rights (which are protected constitutionally and via registered sale deeds). It only restricts their rights within the Society (e.g., losing voting rights, being ineligible to contest management committee elections, or facing recovery proceedings for dues). In Ankur Grand Flat Owners’ Association v. Registrar of Societies (2023), the Madras High Court clarified that while associations can collect legitimate operational/maintenance expenses, they cannot take unguided, coercive actions that infringe upon an owner's basic property rights or restrict physical access to their homes.
As your complex is structured under one single Deed of Declaration with a common, indistinguishable UDS and shared common facilities (like sumps, roads, gates, generators), individual blocks cannot legally split to form completely independent associations. The TNAOA 2022 explicitly recognizes one single association per project/declared property. Neither the Managing Committee nor the General Body can split the project into separate legal block associations merely by passing a majority resolution. Doing so would violate the foundational registered Deed of Declaration.
For a true legal separation, the original Deed of Declaration would have to be formally amended and re-registered. Under property law, because UDS is a shared, undivided interest held as tenants-in-common, modifying it or breaking up common areas typically requires the unanimous consent (100%) of all apartment owners, followed by revised planning permissions. Apportioning undivided common facilities (like a single main water sump or electrical transformer) across legally separate entities is an administrative and legal complication.
The TNAOA provides for a Federation explicitly to handle multi-project developments or distinct phase-wise developments where separate declarations/societies were legally carved out from the start. It is not designed to fragment a single, unified declared project into block-level silos.
TNAOA bye-laws can provide for block-wise sub-committees or block-level representation on the main Board (e.g., "Each block elects 2 members to the central management board"). However, any internal bye-law that claims a block has exclusive ownership or total administrative independence over an area marked as "common" in the master Declaration is inconsistent with the TNAOA and legally unenforceable.
The most legally compliant path is to move forward with a unified migration to the TNAOA 2022 for the entire complex. To ease internal friction, ensure the draft of your new TNAOA bye-laws includes structured block-wise representation clauses so that residents of every block feel their specific architectural or localized needs are guaranteed a voice on the central Board.
