The
Apartment Owners' Associations/Societies basically are formed to look after
the common interest of their members and their common assets and work as a
non-commercial / non-profit making body. Though it is registered as
non-commercial body, attempts are made to convert the Welfare Society /
Association into a commercial and profit making body by undertaking or allowing
commercial activities.
Further,
though only the apartment owners are eligible to become members of Apartment
Owners' Society /Association, but in reality, in certain associations, persons
other than the apartment owners also become members of such association or
society and also become office bearers of Board of Management. The non-owner
office bearers may not have commitment for the common welfare and for the
development of the association and thereby lapses do occur in the management of
these welfare associations.
The
following are some of the lapses generally noticed in the Apartment Owners
Welfare Association/Society:
LAPSES
IN GENERAL ADMINISTRATION
1. No
basic records are available with Society / Association. Even the Register of
Members is not kept updated and copies of Sale Deeds of Apartment in favor of
members are not available with Society / Association.
2.
There exists no office room for the Society / Association. As such even the routine work of the Society/Association cannot be performed in a scientific and orderly manner. This
would affect the preparation of the documents for the periodical meetings and
the general body meeting.
3. No
Attendance Register is maintained for paid staff of the Society / Association.
No paid care-taker is engaged by Society / Association to work on full time
basis.No duty list and timing is
specified in his appointment order. No Security Deposit is taken from the
care-taker.
4.
Subscription and maintenance charges bills are not issued every month
regularly, and even if issued, these bills may not contain the penalty amount
for the belated payment of association
fees.
5.
Defaulter list containing flat No., name of Defaulter and Amount due from him
is not exhibited on Notice Board.
6.
Outside public are permitted to use toilets in the apartment building in cellar
portion.
7.
Passenger lifts are used for carrying heavy and bulky items.
8.
Visitors' Book is not maintained properly at the entrance of Apartment
Building.
9.
Sales persons are freely allowed to contact flat occupants for sale of their
products.
10.
Apartment building is not insured against fire, earthquake and other similar
natural calamities.
11. Heavy
amounts are spent without proper sanction of the general body of the
society/association
12.
'SPECIAL PURPOSE DEPOSITS' are utilized for routine maintenance of the
apartment building
13. Auditing
of accounts is either avoided or delayed.
14.
Maintenance charges are charged for shops on par with maintenance charges for
residential flats. Maintenance charges for four roomed, three roomed, two
roomed and one roomed residential flats are charged uniformly. Sharing of
maintenance charges on pro-rata basis depending on the value of an apartment is
welcome.
15.
Commercial activity like Beauty Parlor, Creche, Toddler, School, Shops are
permitted in residential flats.
16.
Mobile phone communication towers are permitted to be erected on the terrace of
Apartment building.
17.
Legal obligations of Society / Association such as (i) Submission of Annual
Return of elected member of Board of Management (ii) Submission of Annual
Audited Financial Statement to Competent Authority (iii) Submission of any
amendment to registered bye-laws of Society / Association for approval and
filing in records of the Competent Authority are not complied with.
18.
Unauthorized construction in common area and inside the flats are permitted by
Society / Association with tacit approval.
19.
Society / Association allows additional floors to be constructed on existing
building without Municipal Sanction.
20.
Society / Association starts to function when only a part of the building is
constructed without obtaining Occupancy Certificate from Municipal Authorities.
21.
No. surprise checks are made during night times to see whether watchmen are
vigilant while on duty.
22.
No surprise checks are made for unauthorized vehicle parking in the parking
area.
23.
No tripartile Agreement is executed between Society / Association, owner member
and the tenant / lessee.
24.
No copy of registered bye laws with amendments are given to new entrants as
members.
LAPSES
IN SAFETY, SECURITY AND MAINTENANCE
(a)
Safety
1.
Inadequate fire fighting systems are provided in the Apartments buildings.
2.
The building is not insured against loss due to natural calamities like fire,
earthquake, heavy rains, floods and lightening etc.
3.
There is no provision for lightening arrestor for tall buildings.
(b )
Security
1. No
proper security arrangement to check intruders entering into the Apartments
building.
2.
Bodily weak, Semi-blind and semi-deaf security guards are posted in building
for watch and ward duty.
3. No
visitors' book is maintained at entrance of the building and it is not
carefully examined. Sales men have free access to each flat to sell their
products.
4.
Two entries and two exits in an apartments building could pose serious problem from security point of view.
5.
Lack of compound wall all around and / or barbed wire fencing on top of it
could again pose problem from security point of view.
6.
Absence of credential records of regular visitors to the apartment building
such as Maid Servants, Dhobi, Newspaper vendors, milkmen etc. could also pose
problem from security point of view.
7.
Watch-men are not given list of flat Nos. and their vehicle numbers (cars,
scooters, motor bikes etc.). These lists would be useful to watchmen to keep a
watchful eye on unauthorized vehicle
using vehicle parking area.
( c )
Maintenance
1.
There is no schedule of regular/periodical inspection of Apartments building
to identify prevailing defects and to rectify them in time.
2.
Appropriate steps are not taken to solve the insufficient Municipal water
supply, defective in the water supply net-work, un-uniformed water supply in
different floors of the apartment building and to each flat of the same floor.
3.
Cob-webs and wild plants are allowed to grow and spread all over building and
damage the building by creating cracks.
4.
Flower plants are allowed to die due to lack of systematic watering of these plants.
5. No
plumber and electrician is engaged on yearly basis to attend day to day
problems. Where yearly arrangement is made they are not renewed every year.
6.
Vehicle parking area is not washed with water for years together.
7.
Overhead water tanks and underground sumps are not cleaned periodically.
8.
Open wells are not covered properly and they are not cleaned periodically.
9. No
stand-by pumping arrangement are made
for getting continuous water supply.
10.
There are no long-term planning for maintenance of building resulting in the
leakage in the Cellars during rainy season.
REASONS
FOR LAPSES
1.
The Society/Association is not run as an institution. It is run in a very
casual and informal way.
2.
Office bearers of the Society/Association normally work without remuneration
and thereby they carry an impression that they are doing a favour to the
Society / Association by rendering their free service and as such they are not
answerable or responsible for all their actions in the society's work.
3. There is no effective machinery from
Government to monitor the performance of these Societies / Associations to make
them functional as responsible
institutions.
4.
There are no exhaustive Bye-laws for these societies to be followed by the office bearers of these
societies.Therefore the Society /
Association runs in an unscientific manner with no answerability for the lapses
committed by the office bearers which in turn could harm the Society /
Association.
5.
Most of the members of the Society/Association are uncaring and non-vigilant
on the lapses committed by the office bearers. These members do not take active
part in the functioning of the Society /
Association, but allow to be managed by a handful of persons which in turn
would lead to mismanagement of the funds of the. Society, keeping transparency
in its functioning at bay.
6.
Ignorance of applicable laws and their
non-application in day to day functioning of the society would bring in
inefficiency in the Society / Association.
7.
Absence of adequate and clear-cut provision in the Registered Bye-laws of the
society would give encouragement for arbitrary unlawful decisions in the
Society / Association.
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