G.O.(Ms.) No. 171, Tamil Nadu Apartment Ownership Rules, 2024

Purpose and scope

The Housing and Urban Development (HB3(1)) Department issued G.O.(Ms.) No. 171 dated 24 September 2024. The appended notification contains the Tamil Nadu Apartment Ownership Rules, 2024, made by the Governor of Tamil Nadu under the Tamil Nadu Apartment Ownership Act, 2022, and directed to be published in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette, Extraordinary.

The Tamil Nadu Apartment Ownership Rules, 2024 affect apartment promoters, apartment owners, existing housing societies, owners associations and federations of associations or societies.

Property declarations

The Tamil Nadu Apartment Ownership Rules, 2024 set out the following requirements:

• A promoter or the majority of apartment owners must submit a property declaration in Form A to the competent authority, with the fee specified in the Schedule.
• Where common areas and facilities have been handed over to owners, the majority of owners must submit the declaration. Where a society manages them, the society representing the majority must submit it.
• If a completion certificate is not required under the applicable development and building rules, the permanent power connection provided by Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited for any apartment is treated as the completion certificate.
• A person owning more than one apartment is counted as one apartment owner for this purpose.
• In a development with multiple phases, an existing society for a particular phase or tower must submit its own Form A declaration.
• The competent authority may accept a declaration or return it with defects identified and require resubmission within thirty days.

Associations and existing societies

Apartment owners must form an association with at least four apartment owners. Bye-laws based on the model bye-laws must be submitted for registration within one hundred and eighty days after acceptance of the declaration.

The competent authority may register compliant bye-laws within ninety days. After registration, the association must provide details of its elected President, Secretary, Treasurer and other managers in Form G, with the relevant resolution and meeting attendance sheet.

An existing society must provide Form G and authenticated copies of its bye-laws within one hundred and eighty days after acceptance of Form A. Bye-laws that do not conform to the Act and Rules must be amended. The competent authority may accept a late filing where sufficient cause is shown.

Management and federations

Each association must have a Board of Managers. Its membership is one third of the apartment owners, subject to a maximum of twenty-one. The Board manages association assets and all common and limited common areas and facilities.

For phased properties, constituent associations or societies may form a federation. The President and Treasurer of each constituent association or society are federation members. The federation must submit a declaration covering collective common areas and facilities in Form D within ninety days after its formation.