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Most housing cooperatives are nuisances because they are dominated by lobbying groups. Here, no one has a legal obligation or personal right to harass others. These committee positions are not given to rule, but to perform a job. These members volunteer to take part in elections and, naturally, have the support of the group, while others try to vote for the lesser evil. All anyone wants is to live peacefully in their own housing. Harassment is not acceptable. It can be grounds for disciplinary action, including expulsion. But committee members generally use indirect methods to control residents.
For example, I and my female friend are neighbors, both single women. A member of one of our circle of friends rang my doorbell in the middle of the night. He was drunk. This was very scary. By the time I called my friend to inform others, he had just left the place. What would have happened if I had opened the front door? Similarly, a drunk man who lives on the floor below her apartment knocked on her door as she opened it. He was rushing to get in but she got tactless and yelled at him and he realized that his house was below her apartment. So we filed a complaint, but the chairman at the time was a woman from his gang. She checked the shared elevator camera etc. and agreed that the man had gotten off the elevator late at night, but again the burden was on me to prove that the drunk man had come to my house after getting off the elevator.
Well, that’s right! Both these men were from good families so somehow we didn’t make it an issue. Since then this alcoholic man has been taking revenge on us. Unfortunately, the group split up as he held an important position in the committee. Dogs started biting dogs. The previous committee became the focus of the new committee. There were legal issues, the drama continued but our pain is not over yet. There is always uncooperative or overreacting. Ok, I am strong enough to deal with my challenges but imagine what a threat is for a single woman living in a housing society, especially if she is not a member of any lobby or group. We feel unsafe and threatened. This is just an example but imagine it in a bigger perspective. Personal attacks are another big problem.
If a member of a housing cooperative faces an issue of being harassed by other members or by officials of the housing cooperative management committee, action must be taken against that member. If some feel that they are doing more than others, fairness is compromised and negotiations begin again. Maintaining a fair mind is the solution, but it rarely materializes.
Negotiating fairness is the hard part: housing associations are not always the safe, trouble-free paradise we imagine and, like everything else in life, they come with their own troubles and tragedies.
In the life of an average housing association resident, some problems tend to reappear, reoccur and repeat. Some of the problems faced by cooperatives are noisy neighbours, overbearing committee members, careless service, irresponsible committee members etc. Houses leak, garages stretch across corridors and there is poor maintenance. But every problem has a foolproof solution. There are defined components like water, services, common electricity etc. for which members have to pay maintenance fees. However, in many cases, it has been observed that management committees randomly and illegally charge excess fees to members on false pretenses like pet keeping fees, elevator usage fee for bringing new furniture etc.
If while signing the agreement with the developer you have checked the calculation of maintenance charges (flat rate, per square feet calculation, hybrid charges etc.) but you are not aware of the statutory amount to be paid and are therefore wrongly charged, report it to the Management Committee immediately. If the Management Committee refuses to cooperate, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Registrar and ultimately with the District Collector and then with the Police Station.
It is a known fact that wherever power is concentrated, corruption is rampant. In the case of housing society management committees, dishonest members and officials misappropriate funds for their own personal gain, with some committee members turning a blind eye to such misconduct. Incidents like embezzling society funds and submitting false reports, charging members unnecessary bills, writing off unpaid dues of certain members, stealing funds from redevelopment loans, bribing officials for fraudulent expenses, etc. are commonly registered as complaints.
In many cases, the management committee charges hefty absentee fees from unsuspecting residents even if their close relatives live in the apartment or it is locked. Fraudulent/Incomplete Audit: Some societies appoint morally dishonest auditors who turn a blind eye to misappropriation of funds by the management committee and take their share from the funds. Even if the auditors are honest while examining the finances, thousands of societies in Mumbai and other cities have not submitted audited accounts to the authorities and have been deregistered or fined. Improper maintenance of financial statements and cash books makes the audit ineffective. Improper bookkeeping on behalf of the committee prevents the auditors as well as the residents from getting a clear and fair picture of the financial status of the society.
If you check the complaint board websites of most states in the country, you will find complaints from members about annoying neighbors, such as loud music late at night, stereos in cars, littering in the commons, throwing food scraps from the pantry, feeding birds on the balcony, children and sometimes adults playing cricket and other sports very loudly in the gardens after the appointed hours, members getting into skirmishes with security guards and other staff, unpleasant and rude behavior of tenants and landlords, smoking and drinking on the commons premises, and so on. The list seems never-ending and is updated with new complaints describing strange and unruly behavior of residents. There are problems and there are solutions. The problems are inevitable and concrete, and it is Hercules' job to find solutions.
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