Society maintenance is the most under-discussed flatmate cost. Listings advertise rent + utilities but rarely mention maintenance, which can run ₹2,000-12,000/month and drives a meaningful chunk of "why is my budget off again?" arguments by month 4 of any flat-share.

What's actually in society maintenance?

Charge	Typical 2BHK	What it covers
Common-area maintenance (CAM)	₹1,200-3,500	Lifts, lobby, security, sweeper, gardener
Water (corporation + tanker)	₹400-1,200	Bulk water + tanker top-ups
Generator power-backup	₹600-2,500	Diesel + maintenance for DG-set
Club house / amenities	₹500-2,500	Gym, pool, party hall (if you use them or not)
Parking (per slot)	₹200-1,500	Covered parking allocation
Sinking fund / corpus	₹500-1,500	Long-term repair reserve
Property tax pass-through	₹200-800	Some societies bill as monthly
Typical 2BHK total	₹3,500-12,000

The fairness question

Three reasonable models:

Model 1 — Equal split (most common)

All flatmates pay the same maintenance share. Simple, hard to argue with. Used in 80%+ of flat-shares.

When it's unfair: When one flatmate doesn't use the gym/pool/party hall but still pays the club-house portion. Or when a heavy-WFH flatmate uses 3× the AC/generator power but pays the same.

Model 2 — Equal except amenity opt-in

Common-area + water + parking + corpus = equal split. Club-house + amenities = only those who actually use them.

This is what the Niptao bill split calculator supports out of the box: you create one expense for shared CAM (split equally) and another for amenities (split among the gym-users only).

Model 3 — Weighted by room size or usage

Master + en-suite room pays more (uses more electricity, hot water, AC). Smallest room pays less. Same logic as unequal rent split.

Practical implementation: rent split calculator lets you weight each person and apply the same weights to maintenance.

Real numbers — 6 metros, mid-tier 2BHK

City	CAM	Generator	Water	Club + amenities	Parking	Total
Bengaluru (HSR mid-rise)	2,800	1,200	700	1,500	600	6,800
Mumbai (Powai high-rise)	3,500	1,800	900	2,500	1,500	10,200
Pune (Hinjewadi mid-rise)	2,200	1,000	600	1,200	400	5,400
Delhi/NCR (Saket / Gurgaon)	3,200	2,200	800	2,000	1,200	9,400
Hyderabad (Gachibowli)	2,400	1,400	700	1,500	500	6,500
Chennai (OMR)	2,200	1,500	1,200	1,200	400	6,500

(All figures May 2026; deduct ~30% for older walk-up societies, add 30-50% for new luxury high-rises.)

Common arguments + how to settle them

"I never use the pool, why should I pay for it?" Usually a fair point if it's >₹500/month. Solution: amenity-opt-in model. Charge club-house cost only to users; everyone still pays mandatory CAM.

"My room is bigger so I pay more rent — why also pay equal maintenance?" Maintenance covers building common areas, not your room. Equal split is defensible. But if the bigger room has its own AC + en-suite, you can argue power-backup share should be weighted — link it to electricity, not maintenance.

"Cleaner only does Mon-Wed-Fri but I'm here all 7 days" Cleaner cost is private to flatmates (not society maintenance). Discuss separately. Common rule: equal if cleaner does common areas only; weighted if they do per-room (you split by room).

"I'm moving out, what about the corpus / sinking fund?" Corpus is a society-level contribution (paid by the flat owner, often passed through to tenants in long leases). Most short-term tenants don't get a refund of the prorated corpus. Discuss with landlord upfront.

Quick decision tree

Are amenity costs under ₹500/person/month? → Equal split (not worth the overhead)
Are amenities >₹1,000/person/month AND someone genuinely opts out? → Equal-except-amenities model
Are room sizes wildly different + AC usage uneven? → Weighted maintenance (use rent split calculator)

Per-city deep-dives

Bengaluru cost of living — HSR / Koramangala maintenance ranges
Mumbai cost of living — Andheri / Powai high-rise maintenance
Gurugram cost of living — DLF / Sohna Rd maintenance + DG-set norms

Society Maintenance Charges in India 2026: How to Split Fairly Across Flatmates