Our Cooperative Housing Society insists on charging the salaries of liftmen only on the residents of the building and not shop-keepers. Owing to this, we’ve been having terrible fights within the society. The ground-floor shopkeepers are insistent that since they don’t use the lift, they should not be forced to pay part of the liftmen’s salary. As far as I know, all service charges are to be levied equally on all members. Please clarify.
Venkatesh Naidu
As per Model Bye-law number 68 Service Charges includes:
(1) Salaries of the office staff, liftmen, watchmen, mails and any other employees of the Society.
(2) Where the Society has an independent Office, the property taxes, electricity charges, water charges for the same,
(3) Printing, Stationary and Postage,
(4) Travelling Allowance and Conveyance charges to the staff and member of the Committee of the Society,
(5) Sitting fees paid to the members of the Committee of the Society,
(6) Subscription to the Education Fund of the Maharashtra Rajya Sahakari Sangh Ltd.,
(7) Annual Subscriptions of the Housing Federation and any other Cooperative Institutions to which the Society is affiliated,
(8) Entrance Fees for affiliation to the Housing Federation and any other Cooperative Institutions,
(9) Audit fees for internal, statutory and re-audit if any,
(10) Expenses incurred at meetings of the General Body, the Committee and the Sub-committee, if any,
(11) Retainer fees, legal charges, statutory enquiry fees,
(12) Any other charges approved by the General Body at its meeting.
Pursuant to the notification issued by the Cooperative Department u/s 79 (A) Service charges should be recovered equally from members.
Rain Woes
Despite incessant leakages owing to the rain, the Secretary of our society insists that members need to undertake personal repairs to damages incurred by their properties and that too, after paying the security deposit of Rs 7,500 as decided by an earlier AGM. I have been insisting that it is the society’s job to repair the structure of the building and prevent damage to members’ homes. What does the law say on this? Please advice.
CV Menon
The monsoons are known to trigger off leaks within societies and subsequent problems between members and the managing committee too. While issues of leakages between two member flats have to be solved among themselves probably with the intervention of the managing committee which may help work out an amicable solution, rain-related issues that spark of leaks from common areas such as the terrace, common passage and others have to be dealt with by the managing committee itself.
1. Subject to the provision of the Bye-law no. 158 the Committee shall proceed to carry out the Repairs and Maintenance of the Society’s property. It shall be the responsibility of the Committee to see that the repairs are carried out as per contract.
2. Under bye-laws No. 160, the following Repairs and Maintenance of the Society’s property shall be carried out by the society at its cost:
a) (i) all internal roads (ii) compound walls (iii) external water pipes (iv) water pumps (v) water storage tanks (vi) drainage lines (vii) septic tanks (viii) stair-cases (ix) terrace and parapet walls (x) roof of flats (xi) stair-cases lights (xii) street lights (xiii) outside walls of the building / buildings (xiv) all leakages of water (xv) electric lines up to main switches in the flats and (xvi) lifts if any (xvii) roofs of the flat and ceiling and the plaster thereon on the top floor on account of the leakages of the rain water through the terrace.
(b) All repairs not covered by Bye-laws No. 160 (A), shall be carried out by the members at their cost.