Maintenance per sq ft calculator
Enter the flat area and the agreed rate, or enter the monthly budget and the total area of all flats to derive the rate. Either way you get the monthly charge with the working shown.
Enter the agreed rate and the flat area.
Which area basis applies — carpet, built-up or super built-up — should be stated explicitly in your society's records and applied consistently to every flat.
Per-square-foot maintenance is calculated as flat area × rate per square foot. Where the rate is not yet set, divide the monthly amount to be recovered by the total area of all flats. The area basis — carpet, built-up or super built-up — must be stated and applied consistently.
How the calculation works
The arithmetic is trivial. The decisions behind the two inputs are not.
The formula: Monthly charge = Area × Rate per sq ft
A 1,150 sq ft flat at ₹3.50 per square foot is 1,150 × 3.50 = ₹4,025 a month. Working backwards, a society needing to recover ₹4,00,000 a month across 1,20,000 square feet of flats needs a rate of ₹3.33 per square foot.
Deriving the rate from the budget is the more useful direction, and it is how the rate should be set: total the year’s expected costs head by head, divide by the total area, and present that to the general body. A rate arrived at by adding a percentage to last year’s is a rate nobody can defend when questioned.
Inputs you will need
The flat area on a stated basis, and the same basis for every flat in the society. Mixing carpet area for some flats and built-up for others produces a cross-subsidy nobody intended, and it is surprisingly common in societies where the register was assembled from sale agreements issued at different times.
The rate, or the budget and the total area. If you are deriving the rate, use the total area of all flats rather than the total constructed area of the building — common areas are what the charge pays for, not what it is apportioned across.
- A single stated area basis. Carpet, built-up or super built-up — one of them, for everyone.
- The rate, or the budget. Deriving the rate from the budget is the defensible direction.
- Total area of all flats. Not the constructed area of the building.
Worked example: 1,150 sq ft flat at ₹3.50 per sq ft
The example flat pays ₹4,025 a month. The table shows the same rates against other sizes, which is the comparison members actually make.
| Flat area | At ₹2.50/sq ft | At ₹3.50/sq ft | At ₹5.00/sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| 650 sq ft | ₹1,625 | ₹2,275 | ₹3,250 |
| 900 sq ft | ₹2,250 | ₹3,150 | ₹4,500 |
| 1,150 sq ft | ₹2,875 | ₹4,025 | ₹5,750 |
| 1,600 sq ft | ₹4,000 | ₹5,600 | ₹8,000 |
| 2,400 sq ft | ₹6,000 | ₹8,400 | ₹12,000 |
Per sq ft vs equal per flat: which is fair?
Both are defensible, and the honest answer is that neither is fair for every head. The widely used model bye-laws recognise this by prescribing a basis per head rather than one basis for the whole bill: service charges divided equally per flat, sinking and repair funds apportioned by area.
The logic holds up. A lift, a security guard and the housekeeping of a common lobby serve a studio and a penthouse identically, so dividing those equally reflects the cost. Sinking fund and insurance relate to the building and to the value of what is being protected, which tracks area. A society charging everything per square foot is likely to be at odds with its own bye-laws, and one charging everything equally is imposing a real cross-subsidy on small flats.
Where the general body wants to change the basis for a head, that is usually a bye-law question rather than a budgeting decision. Check before resolving it, because a rate change applied on a basis the bye-laws do not provide for is exactly the charge that gets challenged.
- The basis is per head, not per society. Which is what the model bye-laws actually prescribe.
- Equal division suits services. Lifts, security and housekeeping do not scale with area.
- Area suits funds and insurance. Which relate to the building rather than to usage.
- Changing a basis is usually a bye-law question. Not a decision for the annual budget.