Terms of Use

1.About these terms

These terms apply to the Khula Aashiana website, app and sample society (together, the "Service"), operated by [Operating company, to be confirmed] ("we", "us"). By signing in or using the Service you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

A society that uses the Service may also sign a separate agreement or pilot letter with us. If that agreement conflicts with these terms, the agreement applies to that society.

2.What the Service does, and what it does not

Khula Aashiana helps a co-operative housing society calculate and issue maintenance bills, receive and receipt payments, route invoices for approval, keep double-entry books, reconcile its bank account, track audits, handle records requests, and show all of this to its members.

• It is software, not advice. It is not legal, accounting, tax or audit advice. The rules built into it (for example caps on interest and charges) are based on our reading of Maharashtra law and are shown with their source and the date we last checked them. Your society's chartered accountant or advocate should confirm them.
• It does not replace the society's duties. The managing committee remains responsible for the society's accounts, its statutory audit, its filings and its decisions.
• It does not hold money. Online payments go through the society's own payment gateway account straight into the society's bank account. We never hold, pool or move the society's funds.

3.Who may use it

• You must be at least 18 years old.
• You may use the app for a society only if that society has invited you: as a member, committee member, accountant, auditor or other role the society assigns.
• Anyone may use the website and the sample society. The sample society contains invented data only.
• The person who sets up a society on the Service confirms that they are authorised by its managing committee to do so.

4.Your account and sign-in

• You sign in with a one-time link sent to the email address your society has on record. Keep access to that email secure; anyone who can open it can sign in as you.
• Accounts are personal. Do not share your account or act for someone else without the society's authorisation.
• Tell your society and us at connect@khulaaashiana.com straight away if you think someone has used your account without permission.
• Everything done through your account is recorded in your name in the society's permanent history.

5.The society's responsibilities

A society that uses the Service, acting through its managing committee, is responsible for:

• The accuracy of what it enters: member register, flat details, bill heads and rates, opening balances, invoices and bank records.
• Having the authority, under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, its rules and its bye-laws, to share its members' personal data with us for the Service. For those records the society is the Data Fiduciary and we are its Data Processor.
• Approving its bill heads and rates through its general body where the law requires, and recording the resolution in the Service.
• Keeping its list of office-bearers and their roles up to date, so the right people can prepare and approve.
• Responding to members' requests and complaints about its records.

6.Transparency is built in

Please understand these features before you use the Service, because they cannot be switched off by a committee:

• Every member can see the society's expenses, vendors, contracts, budget, ledger, bank reconciliation and audits, and who approved each item.
• Posted financial entries are never edited or deleted. Mistakes are corrected with a new correcting entry that everyone can see.
• Money movements need a second person: whoever records or prepares something cannot also approve it.
• Questions and their answers are visible to all members and cannot be edited later.
• Every change is recorded in a tamper-evident history.
• Individual flats' dues are shown only as totals unless the general body resolves otherwise.

7.Acceptable use

When using the Service you must not:

• Enter information you know to be false, or records you are not entitled to enter.
• Use information about other members for anything other than the society's affairs, or to harass, shame or threaten anyone.
• Post abusive, defamatory or unlawful content in questions or comments.
• Try to access another society's data, get around the approval rules, or interfere with the Service's security or other users.
• Copy, resell or reverse-engineer the Service, or scrape it with automated tools.

8.Payments through the app

• Online payments are processed by Razorpay under its own terms, into the society's own account. Card, UPI and net-banking details are entered on Razorpay's secure pages, not ours.
• A receipt is issued when the gateway confirms the payment. Cheque, NEFT and cash payments are receipted only after a second office-bearer verifies them against the bank statement.
• Refunds, excess payments and disputes about dues are between the member and the society. We will provide the records needed to resolve them.
• Gateway charges, if any, are set by the payment gateway and the society.

9.Fees

The website and the sample society are free. What a society pays for the Service, if anything, is set out in its agreement or pilot letter with us. Prices exclude applicable taxes. We will give at least 30 days' notice before changing what a society pays.

10.Who owns the data

Your society owns its records. It gives us permission to store and process them only to provide the Service. Our Privacy Policy explains how we handle personal data.

A society can ask at any time for a complete export of its records. When it stops using the Service, we provide that export and then delete our copy, except what the law requires us to keep.

11.Our intellectual property

The Service, its software, design, name and logo belong to us or our licensors. These terms give you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable right to use the Service for your society's affairs; they do not transfer any ownership to you.

12.Pilots, sample data and new features

• During a pilot, the society keeps its existing system as its official books. Figures in the Service are marked "pilot, figures not for statutory use" and must not be relied on for statutory filings.
• The sample society is for demonstration. Its data is invented and changes you make to it may be reset at any time.
• Features marked as pilot or beta may change or be withdrawn.

13.Availability and changes to the Service

We work to keep the Service available and secure, but we do not promise it will be uninterrupted or error-free. We may carry out maintenance, and we may change or improve features. If we plan to withdraw a feature a society relies on, we will tell the society in advance.

14.Limits on our liability

To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, or for losses caused by inaccurate information entered by a society or its users, by a third-party service such as a payment gateway or bank, or by events outside our reasonable control.

Our total liability to a society for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the fees that society paid us in the 12 months before the claim arose. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law.

15.Suspension and ending use

• We may suspend an account that breaches these terms or puts other users or the Service at risk, and we will explain why where we can.
• A society may stop using the Service at any time by writing to us. A member's access ends when the society removes them.
• The society's permanent history, including who did what, is kept as part of its records even after an account ends.

16.Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of India. We will first try to resolve any dispute through discussion. If that fails, the courts at Mumbai, Maharashtra have exclusive jurisdiction. Disputes between a member and the society about the society's affairs remain subject to the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act and its forums.

17.Grievances and contact

Grievance Officer: [Grievance Officer name, to be confirmed]
Email: connect@khulaaashiana.com
Address: [Registered address, to be confirmed]

We acknowledge every complaint within 7 days and aim to resolve it within 30 days.

18.Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. We will post the new version here with its date and tell societies about material changes at least 30 days before they apply. Continuing to use the Service after that means you accept the new terms.

General

If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. Not enforcing a right straight away does not waive it. You may not transfer your rights under these terms; we may transfer ours to a successor that continues the Service on the same terms.