Apartment living generates a distinctive set of disputes: maintenance charges nobody can account for, a lift that has not worked for a year, a builder who never handed over the building, and a management committee running the property as though it owned it.

The legal position is more settled than most residents believe. What is usually missing is the paperwork the law contemplates.

What you own, and what you share

Buying an apartment means acquiring your unit, together with an undivided share in the common areas — the land, structure, staircases, lifts, corridors, parking, water tanks, roof and services.

Two consequences.

The common areas are not the builder's to sell. Parking spaces, roofs, terraces and open areas sold separately after completion are a recurring source of dispute, and such sales are frequently challengeable.

You cannot separate your share from your unit. It passes with the apartment.

The apartment ownership framework contemplates a deed of declaration for the building, defining the units and the common areas and the share attaching to each, and an association of owners to manage what is shared.

Buildings without a declaration and a properly constituted association are where nearly all of these disputes originate.

The builder's handover

The point at which most problems are created.

On completion, the builder should deliver the completion certificate, the approved plans, the declaration, the association's constitution, utility connections and their security deposits, warranties for lifts, pumps and generators, and the sinking or maintenance fund it has collected.

In practice the builder frequently retains control of maintenance, continues to collect charges, sells common areas, and never constitutes the association.

Owners should press for handover collectively and in writing, early, while the builder still has units to sell in the project — that is the point of maximum leverage. See giving your plot to a builder and building control in Karachi.

Maintenance charges

Charges are payable, and non-payment by a minority is the most common cause of buildings deteriorating.

But charges must be:

  • Levied by a properly constituted body, not by whoever holds the keys
  • Apportioned on the basis the declaration or constitution provides — usually by share or area, not arbitrarily
  • Accounted for, with records owners may inspect
  • Applied to the purposes for which they were collected

Where an owner refuses to pay, the association's remedy is recovery — not cutting water or electricity, which is unlawful however tempting and however clearly the owner is in the wrong. Buildings that resort to disconnection convert a debt claim into a claim against themselves. See recovering money owed in Pakistan.

Equally, an owner disputing charges should pay the undisputed portion while challenging the rest. Withholding everything weakens the position.

When the association is the problem

Committees that never hold elections, refuse to produce accounts, award maintenance contracts to relatives, or exclude owners from meetings are common.

Owners' rights include inspecting the accounts and records, requisitioning a general meeting, and seeking relief where the association acts outside its constitution or the statutory framework. Where the association is a registered body, the supervising authority may intervene.

As with cooperative societies, collective action works and individual complaint usually does not. See cooperative housing society disputes.

Alterations, use and nuisance

Recurring flashpoints in Karachi buildings:

Structural alterations by an owner — removing walls, extending onto a terrace, enclosing a balcony. These affect the structure and the common areas and generally require the association's consent and, where structural, approval.

Change of use — a flat run as a guest house, an office, a salon or a school. Whether it is permitted depends on the declaration, the bye-laws and the land use. Where it is not, the association can act.

Nuisance — noise, smells from a commercial unit below, water ingress from the flat above. Water ingress in particular: establish the source before apportioning blame, because the cause is often a common service rather than the neighbour.

Parking, which produces more disputes per square metre than anything else in a Karachi building.

Security and safety

The association's responsibilities include fire safety equipment and access, lift maintenance and inspection, water tank cleaning, and the security arrangements.

Where a building has a known and unremedied hazard, owners and the committee can face liability if harm results. This deserves to be on the agenda of every general meeting rather than raised after an incident.

Renting out your unit

Tenancy of an apartment engages both your lease with the tenant and the building's rules. The association can enforce building rules against occupants, and the owner remains responsible for charges regardless of what the tenant agreed to pay.

See evicting a tenant in Karachi.

How the firm can help

We advise owners, associations and builders: constituting associations and drafting declarations and bye-laws, securing handover from a builder, recovering maintenance charges, challenging unlawful levies and committee decisions, acting against sale of common areas, and dealing with alterations, use and nuisance disputes.

Where a group of owners is acting together, we can act for the group — which is almost always the more effective and cheaper route.

If your building has no association, or the accounts have never been shown to you, contact the firm.