Corpus Fund, Accounts and Maintenance Records Not Handed Over: Pick the Right Route

Reviewed on: 2026-06-12.

Your route depends on who is holding the money and where your society stands. Decide first, act second:

• If the builder still runs maintenance and no association exists yet, your fight is formation first, records second. Form the association (see builder not forming the society) while demanding annual statements of collections in writing. You cannot receive a corpus that has no legal body to receive it.
• If your association is registered and the builder refuses to transfer the corpus and accounts, send a consolidated handover demand and escalate to your state RERA authority for a registered project. This is a promoter duty connected to handover, not a favour.
• If an outgoing RWA or managing committee refuses to hand records to the newly elected committee, the builder is irrelevant. Go to the Registrar of Societies or Registrar of Co-operative Societies under your state law, who can direct production of records and order an audit or inquiry.
• If the numbers do not add up after you get the records, ask the registrar for a special audit, and take legal advice before alleging misappropriation.

Mixing these up weakens every demand letter, so separate them:

• Corpus / IFMS. A one-time amount collected from each buyer, usually at possession, meant as the society's permanent reserve. In the NCR it is commonly called Interest Free Maintenance Security. It belongs to the body of owners, not the builder.
• Maintenance collections. Monthly or advance charges for running the building. The builder may collect and spend these while he runs maintenance, but must account for every rupee and transfer the unspent balance.
• Sinking fund. A repair reserve some agreements and state bye-laws require separately.

• Under Section 11(4) of the RERA Act, 2016, the promoter must maintain essential services until maintenance is taken over by the association and must pay all outgoings until physical possession transfers. Money collected from allottees for specific purposes must be applied to those purposes; RERA authorities have directed corpus transfers with accounts in handover complaints.
• Uttar Pradesh has the clearest statute: Section 14 of the UP Apartment Act, 2010 requires the promoter to hand over the IFMS, with interest, to the association once it takes charge. For a Noida project of 300 flats that paid IFMS at Rs 100 per sq ft on an average 1,500 sq ft, that is Rs 1.5 lakh per flat and Rs 4.5 crore in total, before interest. Builders who held such funds for five years owe the interest too, which is why your demand must always say “with interest earned and a deduction statement”.
• State cooperative and societies acts give the registrar power to call for records, supervise handover between committees, and order an audit or inquiry into accounts.

Send a single dated demand by email and registered post, listing:

1. Corpus / IFMS amount collected, flat-wise, with interest earned and a statement of any deductions.
2. All bank statements, passbooks and FD receipts of the maintenance and corpus accounts.
3. Audited income and expenditure statements for each year the builder or outgoing committee ran maintenance.
4. The maintenance ledger, flat-wise dues and advance position.
5. Vendor contracts, staff list, statutory registrations (EPF, ESI where applicable) and utility security deposits.
6. A written handover statement and a joint verification date.

Sign for each item at handover. A partial handover with no signed list becomes “everything was given” within a year.

Builder route (registered project): demand letter, then a complaint to the state RERA authority seeking transfer of the corpus with interest, audited accounts and a penalty for the delay. Attach the demand, proof of delivery, your association registration certificate and possession evidence. Where the project is not RERA registered, the consumer commission route through e-Daakhil for deficiency in service, or a civil claim, applies; check limitation early.

Committee route: written demand to the outgoing committee citing the bye-laws, then a complaint to the Registrar of Societies or Co-operative Societies. Ask specifically for a direction to produce records and for a special audit if figures look manipulated. The registrar's audit report then becomes your evidence for recovery.

Criminal route, used sparingly: where records show funds diverted, a police complaint for criminal breach of trust may lie. Take a lawyer's opinion first; a premature FIR can stall the civil recovery.

Neither a private builder nor a private RWA is a public authority, so RTI does not run against them directly. It runs against the offices above them:

• Registrar of Societies / Co-operative Societies: filed annual returns, audit reports submitted by your society, election records, and action taken on your handover complaint. If the outgoing committee claims accounts were “filed with the registrar”, RTI proves or destroys that claim in 30 days.
• State RERA: the promoter's quarterly filings and any corpus or maintenance disclosures on the project record.
• Development authority (Noida, Greater Noida and similar): correspondence with the builder on apartment owners' grievances, where the authority is the lessor of the land.

Use RTI online or your state portal, and a first appeal if the PIO is silent.

• Accepting a one-line “corpus: Rs X” figure without flat-wise collection data. You cannot verify a total you cannot reconstruct.
• Forgetting interest. Five years of FD interest on a multi-crore IFMS is real money and legally part of the fund.
• Letting the builder set off disputed “dues” against the corpus unilaterally. Deductions need documentation, and contested ones belong before RERA or the registrar.
• Treating the registrar route and RERA route as either-or. They cover different opponents: registrar for committees, RERA for promoters.

He may hold it while he lawfully runs maintenance, but it remains the owners' money. Once the association takes charge, transfer with interest is due. In UP this is explicit in Section 14 of the Apartment Act, 2010.

Demand the audited statements that prove it. Corpus and maintenance are separate pots; using the reserve to cover routine deficits without member consent is exactly what a RERA complaint and a special audit are for.

Yes. The records belong to the society, not to whoever held office. The registrar can direct the outgoing committee to produce all books, whatever the period.

It varies by state; the registrar may charge the society or direct costs against the defaulting committee. The audit report's value as evidence usually outweighs the fee.

The builder. The agency acts for him. Address the demand to the promoter company and name the agency in the RERA complaint.

No. Bank statements of a private company are not held by a public authority. RTI gets you the registrar's and RERA's records; the bank statements come through the handover demand, the registrar's production order, or court discovery.

• Maintenance transfer from builder to society: worked example
• Common areas and documents handover under Section 17
• Builder not forming the society
• Maintenance demanded before possession or OC
• All practical guides

Download the corpus and accounts handover checklist (PDF).