New Maharashtra Rule: Water Charges Must Be Based on Taps, Not Flat Area

The Maharashtra Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Rules, 2026, notified on 18 June 2026, change how cooperative housing societies must work out each member's share of the water bill. Water charges now have to be calculated based on the total number and size of water inlets, or taps, sanctioned for each flat in the building's approved plan — not on carpet area, number of members in a flat, or an equal flat-rate split, as many societies have used until now.

Why the formula is changing

Before this rule, societies were free to devise their own water-billing method, and most relied on carpet area or an equal per-flat charge, which do not necessarily reflect actual water usage. A two-tap 1BHK and a six-tap 3BHK on the same floor could end up paying the same amount under an equal split. The new rule ties the charge to the sanctioned building plan, which records the number and size of inlets in each flat, giving societies an objective, verifiable basis for billing that can be checked against official records rather than a committee's internal formula.

What this means for housing societies

• Managing committees should pull out the sanctioned building plan and confirm the tap count and inlet size recorded for each flat before revising the water bill formula.
• Existing maintenance bills that split water charges by carpet area or an equal flat rate will need to be revised to align with this rule; committees should flag this for the next general body meeting.
• Members can now ask for the basis of their water charge in writing, and the society should be able to point to the sanctioned plan to justify the amount.
• Societies that have added or removed taps through unauthorised internal renovations may need to reconcile actual fixtures with the sanctioned plan before billing can be finalised.

The change applies from the date of notification, so societies still billing water on the old carpet-area or flat-rate basis are technically out of step with the rules already. There is no separate compliance deadline attached to this provision, but committees revising their maintenance bill structure for the current or next financial year should update the water-charge formula at the same time to avoid disputes or challenges from members.