The Karnataka Legislative Assembly has passed the Karnataka Apartment (Ownership and Management) Bill, 2026, a legislation intended to replace the Karnataka Apartment Ownership Act and the Karnataka Ownership of Flats Act, both enacted more than five decades ago, amid concerns over the sweeping powers the Bill grants to designated officials. 
Introducing the Bill, Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said rapid urbanisation and the growing scarcity of land had created a range of issues for apartment owners that the existing legal framework had failed to adequately address. He said the 1972 Act, along with the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, did not answer all the questions arising from modern apartment living, particularly around ownership and management of common areas such as roads, clubhouses and open spaces, and the legal clarity required for reconstruction of older buildings. 
Under the Bill, a designated competent authority will oversee apartment associations, enquire into complaints and enforce the law's provisions, exercising powers similar to those of a civil court. The government is also required to appoint a first appellate authority, which must dispose of appeals within 90 days, and a second appellate authority, with a 30-day timeline for disposal. The Bill bars civil courts from entertaining matters that fall within the jurisdiction of these authorities, a provision intended to reduce litigation but one that has raised concerns among some residents and legal observers about the erosion of recourse to the ordinary judicial system. 
The competent and appellate authorities are to be constituted at the local level, including in Gram Panchayats, municipalities and municipal corporations, to adjudicate disputes between apartment owners, associations and developers under the new law. 
A significant provision in the Bill concerns the redevelopment of old and structurally deteriorated apartment buildings. Redevelopment will require the consent of at least 75 per cent of apartment owners. Where an individual owner does not consent, the Bill allows for compulsory acquisition of that owner's property, based on an independent valuation, at twice the prevailing market value, a mechanism intended to enable redevelopment to proceed while offering enhanced compensation to dissenting owners. Critics have flagged this provision as one of the more sweeping powers conferred under the Bill, given that it allows redevelopment to proceed against an owner's wishes, subject only to a valuation-based compensation formula rather than continued consent. 
The Bill also provides that a fully completed apartment project can have only one registered Residents' Welfare Association, even where the project was developed in multiple phases, addressing disputes that have previously arisen from multiple competing associations operating within a single complex. It further specifies that future development potential arising from changes to Floor Space Index, Floor Area Ratio, zoning or planning regulations will belong collectively to apartment owners, rather than to developers or other parties. 
According to government estimates, the law will apply to apartment projects with more than eight units, with enforcement brought under the Urban Development Department through the designated competent authority, rather than the fragmented system that existed under the previous laws. Bengaluru alone is estimated to have more than 25,000 apartment buildings comprising between 2.5 million and 3 million flats, with 60,000 to 75,000 additional flats registered with the Karnataka Real Estate Regulatory Authority in Bengaluru Urban and surrounding areas over the past year. 
The Bill was passed in the Assembly amid protest from the Opposition BJP and JD(S), though the protest was centred on unrelated political matters rather than the substance of the apartment legislation itself. Byre Gowda said the government had framed the Bill after consulting various stakeholders, adding that further changes would be considered if required once the law came into effect. 
The report did not specify a timeline for the Bill's implementation following passage, nor did it detail the specific qualifications or appointment process for the competent and appellate authorities that will be empowered under the new law.