The Karnataka Apartment Bill 2026, made simple
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The last round of public discussion on the earlier draft took place in December 2025:
Status, updated 28 August 2026: BOTH HOUSES have PASSED this Bill — and it is still not law. The public consultation on the earlier draft closed on 6 August 2026. The Bill was published in the Karnataka Gazette (Part IVA, No. 745) as LA Bill No. 14 of 2026 on 19 August 2026, the Karnataka Legislative Assembly passed it on 21 August 2026, and the Legislative Council passed it on 24 August 2026. It still needs the Governor’s assent and a commencement notification from the State Government under clause 1(2), and neither has happened. Nothing on this page is in force today. Throughout, we say the Bill “proposes” or “would require” — because that is exactly where things stand. This page has been rewritten against the introduced text; where that text differs from the earlier draft, we say so.
Already on our site: our guide to the existing law — the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act and what it means for RWAs. This page is the deep-dive into the 2026 Bill that would replace it — including the two 1972 Acts it would repeal outright (clause 66).
The Bill would be one of the most significant changes to apartment ownership in Karnataka in fifty years. It aims to replace two older laws — the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act, 1972 and the Karnataka Ownership Flats Act — with a single, modern, RERA-aligned Act. The Bill is being led by Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri D. K. Shivakumar and Minister for Greater Bengaluru Development, Shri Krishna Byre Gowda.
We wrote this page because we spend our days inside apartments across Bengaluru, and owners keep asking us what this Bill means for them. Here is an honest, useful walk-through — no scare tactics, no legalese. We are an inspection firm, not a law firm, so please treat this as background reading, not legal advice.
The key changes, theme by theme
1. Structural safety of older buildings
The Bill proposes (clause 31) that once a building completes 30 years from the date of construction, the association has its structural stability assessed by a certified and registered structural engineer, who certifies it as safe, safe subject to specified repairs, or unsafe. A building certified safe would need a fresh certificate every 5 years thereafter. If a building is rated unsafe, the engineer must give notice to the association, the competent authority and the local authority. An association that disagrees with an adverse finding could appeal to an Expert Committee.
To be clear about what this is and isn’t: Karnataka does not currently mandate any such structural audit. This is a new duty the Bill proposes, and it is aimed squarely at older buildings. (More on what this means for a newer building in the “What this means for you today” section below.)
2. Promoter and handover duties
This is the part most relevant to newly-completed and recently-handed-over buildings, and the introduced text is considerably more specific than the earlier draft was. The Bill would require the promoter (builder) to:
- Submit a declaration to the competent authority within 60 days of the Occupancy Certificate (OC) (clause 13).
- Hand over fifteen named categories of records, also within 60 days of the OC (clause 16(1)(b)): land title documents; the declaration; any lease deed; sanctioned plans, approvals and completion certificates; as-built and structural drawings; fire, lift and environmental compliance certificates; insurance policies; encumbrance certificates; electrical wiring, plumbing and service drawings; equipment purchase, installation and commissioning records; operation, service and warranty manuals; AMCs and vendor contacts for lifts, generators, fire systems and treatment plants; building-management-system logins and documentation; receipts for taxes and statutory dues paid up to handover; and anything further the rules prescribe. Your association would have to acknowledge receipt in writing and copy that acknowledgement to the competent authority — so the handover leaves a record on both sides.
- Transfer the money, within the same 60 days (clause 16(1)(c)): every maintenance deposit, security deposit, corpus fund and advance maintenance collected from buyers, together with the interest accrued on it, and an audited statement of accounts showing the position project-wise and buyer-wise.
- Enable formation of the owners’ association in line with RERA (clause 16(2)).
- Maintain the common areas and provide essential services until the association takes over (clause 16(3)).
There would also be teeth behind it. Under clause 52(1), a promoter who fails to file the declaration, fails to help form the association, fails to execute the deed of transfer, or hands over a flat without an occupancy certificate could be fined up to ₹1 lakh, plus up to ₹1,000 for every further day the failure continues — on a complaint from the association’s secretary, anyone the committee authorises, or any single aggrieved owner.
The Bill also requires the deed transferring management of the common areas to be registered, and says it cannot be executed at all until the association has been properly formed and registered (clause 10). Transferring management does not hand the association ownership of the land or common areas — those stay vested in the owners in proportion to their undivided share — and it does not end the builder’s RERA obligations, including rectifying structural defects during the liability period (clauses 10(3), 10(8) and 21(13)). Correction: an earlier version of this page said the draft proposed a separate deed “within 12 months”. No such 12-month period appears in the Bill as introduced, and we have removed it. (For how a builder-to-society handover actually works in practice, see our HOTO handover guide.)
3. Owners’ associations and how they form
The Bill proposes that the promoter facilitate forming and registering the association within 3 months of the date on which a majority of the apartments in the project have been allotted (clause 21(2)). Forming it is a joint responsibility of the promoter and the buyers, and where the promoter fails, the competent authority could penalise them and cause the association to be formed itself (clauses 21(3) and 21(4)). There would be one registered association per project, and one vote per member however many flats they own. It also sets out how associations assess and recover charges, and how they represent owners in dealings with the promoter and the authorities. The intent is to get owners organised and in control of their own building sooner, rather than leaving them dependent on the builder.
4. Land, share, and parking
- Undivided share of land would go to all owners in proportion to their unit area.
- The Bill introduces a new definition of Super Built-Up Area, and distinguishes between “Undivided Interest” and “Undivided Share” — technical, but it matters for how your ownership is described on paper.
- Parking — the introduced text is more precise than the earlier draft, and we have corrected this. It does recognise a “private parking space”, but only where it is a separate enclosed or specifically demarcated built-up unit such as a garage, is approved as an independent parking unit in the sanctioned building plan, and is conveyed to you by a registered instrument. Everything else — open, stilt, basement or podium parking forming part of the common parking area — is deemed part of the common areas and cannot become private “merely by demarcation or allotment”. A private parking space can only ever be sold on to another owner in the same project, and its area is not counted in your carpet or super built-up area unless expressly conveyed. This is still a meaningful shift for how developers have historically sold parking.
5. Maintenance and charges
The Bill proposes (clause 25) that maintenance charges be shared by super-built-up-area — i.e. proportionate to the size of your apartment — rather than an equal amount per flat. The association assesses and recovers these charges, and there can be separate user charges for community or commercial facilities.
6. Modifications, redevelopment, and disputes
- Structural modifications or redevelopment would need the sanction of 75% of owners. Owners who dissent could take a settlement of no less than twice the market value of their unit.
- Dispute resolution would run through an Urban Development Department “competent authority”, with a two-stage appeal system: a First Appellate Authority that must dispose of a matter within 90 days, a Second Appellate Authority within 30 days, and thereafter the High Court.
What this means for you TODAY
Because this is still a Bill and has not been brought into force, nothing here is a duty you must act on right now. But it helps to know which parts would bite soonest if the Bill becomes law:
- If you are in a new or recently-handed-over building, the parts that matter most to you are the promoter-handover duties and the association-formation timelines. These are about making sure your builder hands over complete documents, unspent money, and a properly maintained common area — and that your association forms on time. This is the practical, near-term half of the Bill.
- The 30-year structural-audit rule is a future / older-building matter — not a new-building concern. A building handed over today would not reach the 30-year mark until around the 2050s. So if your building is new, you do not need a structural audit any time soon, and nobody should tell you otherwise. The rule exists to protect residents of genuinely ageing buildings.
- The Bill applies to projects with more than 8 apartments — worth checking against your own project’s size.
In short: newer buildings should be paying attention to handover and association formation, not to structural audits.
Nemmadi’s view
We support stronger protection for apartment owners — and we’re saying so publicly.
We think this Bill moves in the right direction. Clearer handover duties, owner-controlled associations, honest treatment of parking and common areas, and a real appeals process are all good for the people who actually live in these buildings.
We have also formally suggested to the consultation that the handover itself be independently verified by an engineering firm — so that owners know, at the one moment that matters most, that they have received a complete and structurally sound property. Today, most owners take handover on trust.
We’ll be honest about our interest here: independent handover verification is also what we do. Owner protection and our business happen to point in the same direction — and we’d rather tell you that openly than pretend we have no stake in it.
— The Nemmadi team
What happens next
The consultation stage is over. Here is where the Bill actually stands, and what still has to happen before any of it applies to your building:
- ✅ Public feedback closed on 6 August 2026. If you wrote in, your comments were part of that stage.
- ✅ Gazetted as LA Bill No. 14 of 2026 in the Karnataka Gazette, Part IVA, No. 745, on 19 August 2026.
- ✅ Passed by the Legislative Assembly on 21 August 2026.
- ✅ Passed by the Legislative Council on 24 August 2026.
- ⬜ Governor’s assent — not yet given.
- ⬜ Commencement notification — the State Government must notify a date under clause 1(2). Until that happens, none of the duties or deadlines on this page are running. The rules that make a statute like this usable in practice normally follow after that.
When commencement is notified, several clocks start at once — including a six-month deadline for every existing association in Karnataka to file its particulars with the competent authority and bring its bye-laws into line with the Act. We have set out what that would mean for an association that already runs its complex on our RWA health check-up page, and what it would mean at handover on our RWA handover audit page.
We will update this page when the status changes.
Frequently asked questions
Is this law yet?
No. It is a Bill, not an Act. The Karnataka Legislative Assembly passed it on 21 August 2026 and the Legislative Council on 24 August 2026 (LA Bill No. 14 of 2026, gazetted 19 August 2026). It is still not law: it requires the Governor’s assent and a commencement notification from the State Government under clause 1(2), and neither has happened. As at 28 August 2026 it is not in force.
Does my new building need a structural audit now?
No. The Bill’s structural-audit rule (clause 31) would apply to a building once it completes thirty years from the date of construction, and Karnataka does not currently mandate any such audit. A building handed over today would not be due for one for decades. Where a building is certified safe, the Bill would require a fresh certificate every five years after that.
What must my builder hand over under the Bill?
Clause 16(1)(b) would require the promoter to hand the association fifteen categories of records within sixty days of the Occupancy Certificate: land title documents, the declaration, any lease deed, sanctioned plans and completion certificates, as-built and structural drawings, fire/lift/environmental compliance certificates, insurance policies, encumbrance certificates, electrical and plumbing service drawings, equipment purchase and commissioning records, operation and warranty manuals, AMCs and vendor contacts for lifts, generators, fire systems and treatment plants, building-management-system credentials and documentation, and receipts for taxes and statutory dues paid to the date of handover. The association would have to acknowledge receipt and copy that acknowledgement to the competent authority.
What happens to the maintenance deposits and corpus fund?
Clause 16(1)(c) would require the promoter to transfer to the association, within the same sixty days of the Occupancy Certificate, all funds collected from buyers towards maintenance deposits, security deposits, corpus fund and advance maintenance, together with the interest accrued on them, along with an audited statement of accounts showing the position project-wise and buyer-wise.
When should our owners’ association form?
Clause 21(2) would require the promoter to facilitate forming and registering the association within three months from the date on which a majority of the apartments in the project have been allotted. Forming it is a joint responsibility of the promoter and the allottees, and where the promoter fails, the competent authority could penalise them and cause the association to be formed itself.
What would our existing association have to do?
An association already registered under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, the Co-operative Societies Act, the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act 1972 or the Companies Act would be deemed an association under the new Act, so it would not have to re-form. But within six months of commencement it would have to furnish its registration, membership and bye-law particulars to the competent authority and bring its bye-laws into conformity with the Act and the model bye-laws. Where a single project has multiple associations, they would have to merge into one.
Can parking be sold to me as private property?
Only in narrow circumstances. The Bill recognises a “private parking space”, but only where it forms a separate enclosed or specifically demarcated built-up unit such as a garage, is approved as an independent parking unit in the sanctioned building plan, and is conveyed to an apartment owner by a registered instrument. Everything else — open, stilt, basement or podium parking forming part of the common parking area — is deemed part of the common areas and cannot be treated as private “merely by demarcation or allotment”. A private parking space may only be transferred to another apartment owner in the same project.
What happens next?
Four steps have happened: the public consultation closed on 6 August 2026, the Bill was gazetted on 19 August 2026 as LA Bill No. 14 of 2026, the Legislative Assembly passed it on 21 August 2026, and the Legislative Council passed it on 24 August 2026. Two steps remain before any of it applies: the Governor’s assent, and a State Government notification setting a commencement date. The rules that make a statute like this usable in practice normally follow after that.
Does Nemmadi perform the statutory structural audit the Bill talks about?
No — and we want to be precise about this. Nemmadi’s service is a condition survey (a home / building health-check): we inspect and report on the state of a property so an owner knows what they are getting. A statutory 30-year structural audit under this Bill would have to be carried out and signed by a certified and registered structural engineer — that is a different, formal exercise. We do not conflate the two, and neither should anyone selling you either service.
Read More:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/redefining-apartment-living-in-karnataka-draft-bill-proposes-6-key-changes/articleshow/132423732.cms
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/will-address-challenges-faced-by-apartment-owners-through-dialogue-consultation-rather-than-litigation-karnataka-cm/article71224910.ece
https://www.hindustantimes.com/real-estate/karnataka-draft-apartment-bill-explained-75-redevelopment-rule-association-rights-and-key-proposals-for-homeowners-101784121005010.html
Nemmadi is a Bengaluru home-inspection and property-quality firm. This page is general information, not legal advice. For a definitive reading of the Bill or your specific situation, consult a qualified advocate. Full text: Karnataka Gazette, Part IVA, No. 745, 19 August 2026.
