Society Maintenance Charges Calculator India 2026

Not by one formula — a society bills by HEAD, and the heads are apportioned differently from one another. In a Maharashtra co-operative housing society under the 2014 model bye-laws, bye-law 66(a)(vi) divides service charges EQUALLY by the number of flats rather than by area, so a larger flat does not pay proportionally more for security, housekeeping or the office bill. The sinking fund (bye-law 13(c), minimum 0.25% per annum) and the repairs and maintenance fund (bye-law 13(a), minimum 0.75% per annum) are both levied on the CONSTRUCTION COST of the flat excluding land — not on the maintenance bill and not on the market value. Water charges go by the number and size of inlets, and insurance, lease rent and non-agricultural tax go by built-up area. Karnataka is different again: under section 10 of the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act 1972 common expenses are charged strictly according to each owner's percentage of undivided interest, with no equal-split component at all. Source: Model Bye-Laws of Co-operative Housing Society (Tenant Co-Partnership Housing Society), 2014, dated 2 September 2014 — bye-laws 13(a), 13(b), 13(c), 64, 65 and 66(a). The 2025–26 revision is draft and not gazetted, so the 2014 text remains operative; checked 2026-09-01.

There is no published figure, and this calculator does not invent one. Maintenance is set by each society's general body or by the builder's facility company, it varies several-fold between a walk-up with a watchman and a tower with a clubhouse, lifts, a pool and generators, and no Indian government body or industry association compiles it. Any site quoting a single national per-square-foot rate is presenting a guess as research. Read the rate off your own maintenance bill or society circular and enter it here — what this tool supplies is the statutory structure around that rate, which India genuinely does publish.

In Maharashtra, bye-law 13(c) of the 2014 model bye-laws sets a MINIMUM of 0.25% per annum of the construction cost of each flat, as certified by the architect, excluding the proportionate cost of the land. It is a floor, not a ceiling — the general body may resolve a higher rate, and many do. Note the base: it is construction cost, so on a flat with a construction cost of ₹25,00,000 the minimum is ₹6,250 a year, or about ₹521 a month. Applying the same percentage to the flat's market value instead would overstate the fund severalfold. The separate Major Repairs Fund under bye-law 13(b) is fixed pro-rata on an area basis at a rate the general body decides, and carries no published minimum. The Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act sets no sinking-fund minimum at all, so this calculator collects none for a Karnataka association rather than borrowing Maharashtra's figure.

Only when TWO conditions are both met: the charge to the individual member exceeds ₹7,500 per month, AND the society's own aggregate annual turnover exceeds ₹20,00,000. The exemption is entry 77(c) of Notification 12/2017-Central Tax (Rate), SAC 9995; the threshold was raised from ₹5,000 to ₹7,500 by Notification 2/2018-Central Tax (Rate) dated 25 January 2018. The rate is 18%, unchanged by the September 2025 GST rate restructure. When the threshold is crossed, CBIC Circular 109/28/2019-GST dated 22 July 2019 requires GST on the ENTIRE amount rather than on the excess alone — its own example taxes a ₹9,000 charge on all ₹9,000. The Madras High Court held in 2021 that only the excess is taxable, but that order was stayed by a Division Bench on 7 October 2021, the department's appeal remains pending, there is no Supreme Court ruling and the circular has not been withdrawn. This calculator applies the circular and shows the stayed reading priced alongside it.

In Maharashtra, yes, but it is capped. The Government of Maharashtra order under section 79A of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act 1960, dated 1 August 2001, limits non-occupancy charges to 10% of the service charges, EXCLUDING municipal taxes — and the Bombay High Court upheld it in Mont Blanc Co-operative Housing Society Ltd v State of Maharashtra, 2007 (4) Mh.L.J. 595, binding on societies whether or not they adopted the new bye-laws. A society levying a percentage of your rent, or a percentage of the whole bill including property tax, is charging above the ceiling. No charge is recoverable at all where the flat is occupied by a specified close relative of the member. The Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act publishes no equivalent ceiling, so this calculator applies none there — Maharashtra's cap is Maharashtra law and does not run in Karnataka.

The sinking fund is recurring and regulated: a monthly contribution from every member, set as a percentage of construction cost by the state's model bye-laws, building a reserve for major structural work decades out. The corpus fund is a ONE-TIME lump sum most builders collect at possession and hand over to the society when they transfer it — the amount is set by the builder in the sale agreement, not by any bye-law, so no rate can be quoted for it and this calculator takes whatever your agreement says. It is reported separately from the monthly bill on purpose: paying an amount once and paying it every month are very different numbers, and conflating them is the commonest error in a possession budget. Karnataka apartment owners' association associations are subject to neither statutory fund minimum.