__________
(__________)
Registration No. __________
Registered office: __________
Ref. No.: __________
Date: __________
To,
__________
Subject: Statement of unpaid common expenses (no-dues certificate) in respect of Flat No. __________, held by __________
STATEMENT OF UNPAID COMMON EXPENSES / NO-DUES CERTIFICATE
- THE ASSOCIATION. __________ is __________, bearing Registration No. __________, having its registered office at __________. In this certificate it is called "the Association", and its Board of Management or Managing Committee, by whichever name its own bye-laws call it, is called "the Committee". The description printed in this clause states both what kind of body the Association is and where it is, in one breath and from one answer, so that the two can never contradict each other; every other clause of this certificate is to be read against it.
- THE MEMBER. __________ is a member of the Association. In this certificate that person is called "the Member".
- THE APARTMENT. The certificate relates to Flat No. __________, situate at __________. In this certificate it is called "the said Apartment".
- WHAT HAS BEEN CHECKED. The Association has examined its books of account, its bill register, its receipt book and the ledger of the Member for the said Apartment for the period from __________ up to the date of this certificate. Billing basis: the Association bills its members __________.
- HEADS COVERED. The account so examined covers every amount that the Association levies on the said Apartment under its registered bye-laws, namely:
(a) monthly maintenance and common-expense charges;
(b) contribution to the sinking fund;
(c) contribution to the repair and maintenance fund;
(d) major repair, special levy and any other one-time contribution already billed;
(e) water charges collected by the Association;
(f) the Member's share of electricity and other charges for the common areas, lifts, pumps, fire systems and generator;
(g) property tax and municipal charges to the extent collected by the Association and paid over on the Member's behalf;
(h) non-occupancy or tenanted-unit charges, where the bye-laws provide for them;
(i) parking, stilt and garage charges;
(j) ground rent or lease money to the extent collected by the Association and paid over to the lessor;
(k) interest and penalty charged under the bye-laws or by a resolution of the general body on delayed payment; and
(l) any other charge levied on the said Apartment under the bye-laws or by a resolution of the general body.
- THE OPERATIVE DATES. On the basis of the examination described above, the Association states:
Bills raised on the Member's account up to ........... __________
Payment received and credited up to .................. __________
THE ACCOUNT IS FULLY CLEAR UP TO ..................... __________
Date of this certificate ............................. __________
The date marked "THE ACCOUNT IS FULLY CLEAR UP TO" is called the "Clear-Up-To Date", and wherever this certificate speaks of dues being clear, it means clear up to that date and no later. Because the Association bills __________, the Clear-Up-To Date is the last date of the period actually paid for, and not the date on which the last payment happened to be made.
SELF-CHECK ON THE THREE DATES, TO BE READ BEFORE THIS CERTIFICATE IS SIGNED. The form on which this certificate was prepared can police the order of two dates only where the two can never fall on the same day, and these three very often do fall on the same day, so the check is printed here for a human being to make instead of being enforced there and crying wolf on the ordinary case. All three of the following must be true, and this certificate must not be signed until they are. FIRST, the Clear-Up-To Date must not be later than the date bills have been raised up to: an account cannot be clear for a period the Association has never billed. SECOND, the Clear-Up-To Date must not be later than the date payment has been received and credited up to: an account cannot be clear for a period for which no money has come in. THIRD, where the Clear-Up-To Date is earlier than either of the other two dates, the amount in clause 8 must not be NIL, because something is then open on the account. If any of the three fails, the entries are wrong and the ledger must be read again.
- THE CERTIFICATION. The Association hereby certifies that, as appears from its books of account, no amount whatsoever on any of the heads listed in clause 5 is due and payable by the Member in respect of the said Apartment for any period ending on or before the Clear-Up-To Date. This certificate is issued at the request of __________, for __________.
- AMOUNT OUTSTANDING. The amount outstanding on the Member's account as on the date of this certificate is: __________.
- SPECIAL LEVY AND MAJOR REPAIR CONTRIBUTIONS. A levy that the general body has approved but that has not yet been billed is not an amount "due and payable", and is therefore not covered by clause 7. Where such a levy stands approved and unbilled, it is set out immediately below; where nothing is set out below, the Association states that no such levy stands approved and unbilled as on the date of this certificate.
- RECOVERY AND ENFORCEMENT PROCEEDINGS. __________
- GOODS AND SERVICES TAX. __________
- TRANSFER OF THE SAID APARTMENT. This certificate is a statement of account. It is not a no-objection certificate, it is not a permission to transfer, and it does not admit anybody to membership.
Separate steps that this certificate does not replace, and that the parties must complete themselves:
(a) in an association of apartment owners registered under the Punjab Apartment Ownership Act, 1995 — the conveyance deed of apartment under section 14 and its compulsory registration under section 16, the endorsement of the transferee's particulars on the certified copy of the conveyance deed under section 14(4) (itself compulsorily registrable), and the transferee's undertaking in Form 'A' filed with the Competent Authority within NINETY DAYS of the transfer under Rule 4 of the Punjab Apartment Ownership Rules, 1995;
(b) in a co-operative house building society — the Committee's admission of the transferee to membership and the issue or transfer of the share certificate, subject to the bar against alienation in the society's own bye-laws, under which a member may not alienate a house site or a house built with the help of a society loan except to a member of the society and on the conditions the Committee lays down;
(c) where the site is held on lease from the Chandigarh Administration — the prior permission or no-objection certificate of the Estate Officer for transfer of the lease rights, applied for at the Estate Office, Town Hall Building, Sector 17-C, Chandigarh 160017, before the deed is presented for registration; and, before anything is paid, satisfaction that the intended dealing is one that the Estate Officer's public notice described in clause 20 still permits.
- WHAT THIS STATEMENT IS WORTH TO A PURCHASER.
THE DEFAULT POSITION, WHICH IS THE POSITION ON THIS CERTIFICATE UNLESS THE PARAGRAPH HEADED "STATUTORY CHARGE AND STATUTORY CEILING" IS PRINTED BELOW. This certificate is a statement of the Association's books and nothing more. No statute caps a purchaser's exposure at the figure in clause 8. In a co-operative house building society, the society's lien on the Member's shares and interest, and its right to refer a dispute about dues under section 55 of the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act, 1961, both survive this certificate. In a resident welfare association registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, the Association has no statutory charge on the said Apartment at all and its remedy for dues is an ordinary civil suit, so this certificate is evidence and not a ceiling. And in the Union Territory of Chandigarh no apartment ownership statute is in force at all — the Punjab Apartment Ownership Act, 1995 extends to the State of Punjab, and the Chandigarh Apartment Rules, 2001 were repealed with effect from 1 October 2007 — so no ceiling of the kind that section 27(2) of that Act creates can arise there in any event. A purchaser in any of these cases should hold back a retention from the price until the transfer is recorded on the Association's books, and should press the Association for the undertaking described in the field "Will the association confirm it will not recover pre-cut-off dues from the buyer?", which prints as the last paragraph of this clause when the Committee has resolved to give it.
- AMOUNTS FOR THE EARLIER PERIOD THAT COME TO LIGHT LATER. It is possible for a charge referable to a period on or before the Clear-Up-To Date to surface after this certificate is issued — a water or municipal demand received late from the authority, a statutory levy imposed with retrospective effect, an audit adjustment, or an amount directed by a court, tribunal, the Competent Authority or the Registrar. The position on any such amount is this:
(a) it is a liability referable to the earlier period, and not to any period after the Clear-Up-To Date;
(b) the Association will look, in the first instance, to the person who was the member for that earlier period; and
(c) save to the extent of the statutory ceiling described in the paragraph headed "Statutory charge and statutory ceiling" in clause 13 where that paragraph is printed on this certificate, and of any undertaking expressly given at the end of clause 13, this certificate is not, and must not be read as, a waiver or release of any charge or lien that the Association has over the said Apartment or over the shares held in respect of it.
- WHAT THIS CERTIFICATE DOES NOT COVER. This certificate speaks only to money payable to the Association. It says nothing about, and the Association takes no responsibility for:
(a) property tax assessed directly on the said Apartment and payable by the Member to the Municipal Corporation or Municipal Council, or to the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh;
(b) electricity billed to the Member on the Member's own meter — in the State of Punjab by the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, and in the Union Territory of Chandigarh by the electricity distribution licensee for the Union Territory named on the Member's own bill, whom this certificate does not name because the Association has not verified who currently holds that licence;
(c) water, sewerage, piped gas, telephone, internet or cable charges billed to the Member directly;
(d) ground rent, lease money, extension fee, penalty or misuse charge payable by the Member to the Estate Officer, to the Chandigarh Housing Board, or to a development authority such as GMADA, GLADA or ADA, in respect of the site or the building;
(e) any amount due to the promoter, developer or its maintenance agency for a period before the Association took over maintenance;
(f) income tax, tax deducted at source, capital gains or any other tax liability of the Member; and
(g) any loan, mortgage or charge created by the Member over the said Apartment, and the title of the Member to the said Apartment.
This is a no-dues certificate. It is not a no-objection certificate, not a title certificate, not a possession certificate, and not an approval of any transfer.
- GOOD FAITH. This certificate is issued on the basis of the entries in the Association's books as they stand on the date of this certificate, in good faith and at the request of __________, without any personal liability on the office-bearers signing it.
- VALIDITY. This certificate is valid for __________ days from its date. After that a fresh certificate should be obtained, because further charges will have fallen due in the meantime.
- ANNEXURES AND SUPPORTING RECORDS. The Association's own books remain the primary record, and the Member is entitled to a copy of the ledger for the period certified.
- AUTHORITY. This certificate is issued under the authority of a resolution of the Committee passed at its meeting held on __________ (__________), and is signed by the office-bearers named below, under the seal of the Association. Where the paragraph headed "Statutory charge and statutory ceiling" or the undertaking at the end of clause 13 is printed above, the Committee confirms that the resolution cited here is the resolution that authorises it, and not a standing resolution about routine certificates.
- A CHANDIGARH WARNING THAT SURVIVES A CLEAN CERTIFICATE. Where the said Apartment is in the Union Territory of Chandigarh, a clear account is not by itself enough to get the transfer recorded. The Estate Officer's public notice effective 10 February 2023, issued after the judgment of the Supreme Court of India dated 10 January 2023 in Residents Welfare Association v. Union Territory of Chandigarh, permits only four categories of residential dealing and has stopped transfers and mutations outside those categories pending a decision of the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee. A transfer of the whole of a property to one person, or to persons of one family, falls inside the permitted categories, whether or not the present owners are related to each other; a dealing in part of a unit, or a purchase by buyers who are not one family, falls outside them, and both the transfer and the mutation stop. Chandigarh Housing Board tenements, and apartments approved under the Chandigarh Apartment Rules, 2001, are not affected by that notice. Whether the Heritage Conservation Committee has since decided had not been established when this certificate form was prepared, and the parties must ask at the Estate Office, Town Hall Building, Sector 17-C, Chandigarh 160017 before they rely on this certificate to complete. This clause is printed on every copy of this certificate, including a Punjab one, so that nobody has to remember to ask for it.
For and on behalf of __________
______________________________
__________
Hon. Secretary
(Seal of the Association)
Issued in duplicate. The original is given to the addressee; the duplicate is
retained on the Association's file against the counterfoil in the outward
register.
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GUIDANCE FOR THE PERSON USING THIS CERTIFICATE
This page is notes. Do not print it with the certificate and do not give it
to the bank or the buyer.
==========================================================================
WHICH BODY YOU ARE ACTUALLY DEALING WITH, AND WHERE
There are three kinds of body and two places, and the form asks for both in
a single answer on purpose: the wrong pairing produces a certificate that
cites a statute which does not reach the flat, and that is the one mistake
this document must not be able to make. Only the five real pairings are
offered.
A Mohali, Zirakpur, Dera Bassi, New Chandigarh, Kharar or Ludhiana builder
flat. The body is almost always an association of apartment owners
registered by the Competent Authority — in practice the Sub-Divisional
Magistrate of the sub-division, styled for example "Sub-Divisional
Magistrate, S.A.S. Nagar (Mohali)-cum-Competent Authority" or "Competent
Authority-cum-Sub Divisional Magistrate, Dera Bassi" — under section 17 of
the Punjab Apartment Ownership Act, 1995, as that section was substituted
by Punjab Act 17 of 2021. Its registration certificate is in Form 'E'
under Rule 8 of the Punjab Apartment Ownership Rules, 1995. It is very
commonly called a "Residents Welfare Association", and that name misleads
people into thinking it is a Societies Registration Act body. It is not.
Ask to see the Form 'E' certificate. This is the only one of the five
pairings in which section 27(2) can cap the buyer's exposure at the figure
on this certificate — and even then only where the Act has been notified
for the area, because section 1(3) brings the Act into force area by area
on dates the State Government appoints. That is why the statutory
paragraph in clause 13 prints only when the Association confirms both
things in terms, and why leaving that confirmation blank is the safe
answer.
A Chandigarh sector flat in a co-operative house building society. The
body is a society registered under the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act,
1961 as that Act applies to the Union Territory of Chandigarh, with the
Registrar, Co-operative Societies, U.T. Chandigarh, an office held with
that of the Deputy Commissioner. The land under most of these societies
was allotted on a 99-year lease under the Chandigarh Allotment of Land to
Co-operative House Building Societies Scheme, 1991, notified on
28.05.1991. What you buy here is membership and a share certificate, not
a flat on a conveyance deed. Where the membership was surrendered,
expelled or cancelled, the substitution case has to go to the Registrar's
office for clearance — see RCS Memo No. Coop/HB/2KI/3890 dated 05.10.2001
and the RCS letter dated 08.06.2006 circulated to all co-operative house
building societies in Chandigarh. There is no apartment ownership statute
here: the Punjab Apartment Ownership Act, 1995 extends to the State of
Punjab, and the Chandigarh Apartment Rules, 2001 were repealed with effect
from 1 October 2007. Never let a Chandigarh certificate cite section 26 or
section 27 at anybody.
A plotted colony or an older walk-up block with a plain resident welfare
association. Registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 with
the Registrar of Firms and Societies, Punjab (office at Chandigarh) for a
Punjab body, or with the Registrar of Societies, U.T. Chandigarh. This
body has the weakest hand of the three: the Punjab and Haryana High Court
held in Guru Nanak Hall and Library v. State of Punjab (CWP No.32198 of
2019, decided 14 November 2019) that the Registrar under the 1860 Act has
no adjudicatory function over society elections and takes the annual list
of the governing body on file only for record. Its disputes go to the
ordinary civil court, and it has no statutory charge on anybody's flat.
And if nothing at all has been registered, and the promoter's maintenance
agency still runs the accounts, none of the five pairings fits and this is
not your document. Ask the agency for a maintenance clearance letter on
its own letterhead instead.
WHO IS ASKING, AND WHY IT CHANGES THE PAPER
The member can ask, and usually does. But in an association of apartment
owners the statutory right belongs to the PURCHASER: section 27(2) of the
Punjab Apartment Ownership Act, 1995 entitles any purchaser, grantee,
legatee or transferee to a statement from the Board, and it is the
purchaser's own demand that most cleanly engages the ceiling. So the form
asks who is requesting the certificate, prints that answer in clause 7 and
again in clause 16, and offers two alternative front pages — a request
letter from the member and a demand from the purchaser. Use one or the
other. A buyer who lets the seller collect the certificate still has a
useful document, but he has made it easier for the association to say later
that the statement was given to somebody else for some other purpose.
If the association refuses to deal with a buyer because he is not its
member, do not argue it out at the counter. Get the refusal in writing or
get the demand inwarded and note the date, ask the seller to make the same
request in parallel so that completion is not held hostage, and take the
refusal to the Competent Authority under section 32(1)(l).
THIS IS NOT THE ESTATE OFFICE "NO DUES CERTIFICATE"
The Estate Office, Town Hall Building, Sector 17-C, Chandigarh issues a
document of its own called a No Dues Certificate. That one is about ground
rent, lease money, extension fee and penalties owed to the Chandigarh
Administration on the site. It is a listed Estate Office citizen service,
alongside permission for transfer of lease rights, conversion from
leasehold to freehold and execution of the conveyance or lease deed. It is
a completely different document from this one, it comes from a government
office and not from your association, and on a Chandigarh leasehold sale
you will need both. Do not hand a buyer's bank one and call it the other.
AND IN CHANDIGARH, CHECK THAT THE TRANSFER CAN HAPPEN AT ALL
Before anybody spends money, check that the dealing is one the Estate
Officer still permits. The Estate Officer's public notice effective 10
February 2023, made after the Supreme Court's judgment of 10 January 2023 in
Residents Welfare Association v. Union Territory of Chandigarh, stopped
transfers and mutations of Chandigarh residential properties outside four
permitted categories, pending a decision of the Chandigarh Heritage
Conservation Committee. A purchase of 100% of a property by one person or by
persons of the same family is inside the permitted categories, whether or
not the present owners are related to each other. A dealing in part of a
unit, or a purchase by buyers who are not one family, is outside them.
Chandigarh Housing Board tenements and apartments approved under the
Chandigarh Apartment Rules, 2001 are not affected by the notice. Whether the
Heritage Conservation Committee has since decided has not been established
as at 6 September 2026, so ask at the Estate Office, Town Hall Building,
Sector 17-C, Chandigarh 160017. A dealing outside the permitted categories
can be documented and even registered and still fail to mutate, and a
perfect no-dues certificate will not save it. Note also that mutation in the
Estate Office record has been auto-triggered from the Sub-Registrar since
2025, so the papers must be right at the moment of registration; that is a
reason to get everything in order early, not an assurance that the transfer
will go through. Clause 20 of the certificate carries this warning on the
face of the document so that the bank officer reading it sees it too.
WHAT TO ATTACH WHEN YOU HAND THIS OVER
1. This certificate in original, on the Association's letterhead, sealed.
2. Annexure A, or a printed ledger extract for the last two to three years.
3. Copies of the last three payment receipts.
4. The share certificate, in a co-operative house building society.
5. A copy of the Form 'E' registration certificate, in an association of
apartment owners, or the registration certificate of the society.
6. A copy of the Committee resolution or the relevant minute, if the bank
asks for proof of authority.
7. The separate no-objection certificate for the transfer, if this is a
sale, and the Estate Officer's permission where the site is leasehold.
Ask for two originals. The bank keeps one and does not give it back.
THE DATE IS THE WHOLE DOCUMENT
Take the last bill. Look at the period it covers. Look at whether it reads
"for the quarter commencing" (advance) or "for the quarter ended"
(arrears). Then check that the Clear-Up-To Date in clause 6 is the end of
the last fully paid period on that basis, and work through the three-line
self-check printed at the foot of clause 6 before anybody signs. If the
certificate says "dues paid till date" and nothing more, send it back. Those
four words have caused more arguments after completion than anything else in
a transfer file.
IF THE ASSOCIATION WILL NOT ISSUE IT
Put the request in writing, get it inwarded, and keep the acknowledgement —
you cannot complain about a refusal you cannot prove. Then:
Association of apartment owners under the Punjab Apartment Ownership Act,
1995: the civil court is expressly barred by section 35. The petition goes
to the Competent Authority-cum-Sub-Divisional Magistrate, which resolves
disputes between an association and a member under section 32(1)(l) and
has the powers of a civil court under the Code of Civil Procedure by
virtue of section 32(2). An appeal lies under section 33(2) within thirty
days of communication of the order, to the Appellate Authority notified
by the Punjab Government, on a memorandum affixed with a court fee stamp
of FIFTEEN RUPEES under Rule 11(2) of the Punjab Apartment Ownership
Rules, 1995. Revision lies to the Punjab Government under section 34,
within sixty days of communication of the order. A defaulting association
can be penalised under section 37, and the penalty is recoverable as an
arrear of land revenue.
Co-operative house building society: no court has jurisdiction over a
dispute touching the constitution, management or business of the society.
Refer it under section 55 of the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act, 1961
to the Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Punjab, or to the Registrar,
Co-operative Societies, U.T. Chandigarh-cum-Deputy Commissioner, who may
decide it, transfer it to an officer invested with his powers, or refer it
to an arbitrator under section 56. Appeal under section 68, revision under
section 69.
Resident welfare association under the Societies Registration Act, 1860:
the ordinary civil suit, because the Registrar has no adjudicatory role.
Where the flat is still maintained by the promoter or its maintenance
agency and no body has been registered at all, none of the above applies.
The route is a complaint to the Real Estate Regulatory Authority under the
Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, or to the consumer
commission, and the promoter's failure to get the association registered
is itself a breach of section 17 of the Punjab Apartment Ownership Act,
1995 — the promoter must apply to the Competent Authority after the
occupation certificate and within three months of the threshold share of
the apartments being allotted, sold or otherwise transferred, and if he
fails, the allottee may apply instead.
WHAT IT COSTS AND HOW LONG IT TAKES
The Association charges an administrative fee for issuing the certificate,
fixed by the Committee under its own registered bye-laws; Rs 100 to Rs
1,000 is what associations here actually charge. There is no statutory
cap on it, and no statutory cap on a transfer fee either — the model
bye-laws under the Punjab Apartment Ownership Rules, 1995 set only the
membership fee, at Rupees One Hundred (model bye-law 5(a)). The money
figures printed in the model bye-laws of a co-operative house building
society — Rs 10 admission fee, Rs 100 per share, Rs 10,000 maximum
shareholding — read as historic, and it is the society's OWN registered
bye-laws that govern, not the model. Ask for the bye-law number behind any
figure demanded. Fifteen days is a reasonable expectation; there is no
notified service limit for this document.