I had purchased a shop in Navi Mumbai some year back. Have been regularly paying society charges applicable. But have come across some issues in maintenance in society.
1. Maintenance done by society is focused towards residential maintenance only. Thus front area of shop which comes under boundaries of society has potholes and pest activities.
2. Society without my permission has constructed a grill barricade outlining the boundaries of society, which obstructs shop frontage. That is, customers have to deviate and enter via society gate to visit
shop. This is a huge hindrances to commercial activity.
Please guide how to address this issue, I have already communicated same issue to society multiple times and 3 months back have given a letter which they have taken but refused to confirm received stamp. Nor they have brought it up for discussion in society meeting.
I C Naik
Neelamji a shop owner member in housing society in Thane has two grievances against the society’s management “action and “omission”. The society has constructed fence around the property covering the Shops inside the boundary line. This action is a implicit message to the public at large that their access to the shops by those who are not the members of the society, is not a free way, but it is subject to management right of regulating their entry in to the premises at least as a measure against security risks. Shops forming part of housing society are meant to carry out commercial activities necessarily implying an unhindered entry/exit of any member of public. It is the inherent responsibility of the society management to ensure that no member of public is put to any inconvenience in relation to the access to these shops. On the contrary they are supposed to facilitate such access so that their members attract more customers and earn more. In fact this action of management should have been sternly objected to by every resident of the society as their privacy has been compromised and security risks have been increased many-fold with no benefit to them. Burglars intending to loot shops will have a convenient access to the residential premises too. So for the shop-owner members the management action causing inconvenience to their customers is bringing losses to their shops and that definitely tantamount to deficiency in service to the shop-owner members.
As regards the grievance arising from ‘omission’ of the society management also tantamount to deficiency in service to this specific group of members as the pests and potholes in front of the shopping arcade do discourage the customers to visit the shops. As it is they have an obstacle to overcome namely the Security of the society.
One unified and relatively easy, less expensive and speedy consumer friendly suggestion is to file a complaint to the District Consumer disputes redressal forum for deficiency in both these services provided by the society to the aggrieved members of the society. The address is :
Thane District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum
The Collector Office Building 1st Floor, Thane, Dist. Thane.
Tel.: 25345042 or 25344069 –
All Shopkeeper members can join in one application to make it forceful.
If the grievances are grave enough to aggressively pursue their solutions this group can take recourse to provisions of Section 91 under which a dispute between a section of members of the society are in dispute with the managing committee of the society namely that the managing committee is indifferent towards maintenance of the property as also have overtly created obstacles to the shop owner members doing commercial activity by making their customer’s access to their shops more difficult. Make sure the disputing parties are a section of members and the managing committee (do not involve the society as that includes both the litigants to the dispute in one entity). Later you can to the Registrar to invoke provisions of Section 731AB to recover costs of litigation from the members of the managing committee personally. Section 73(1AB) reads as under:
(1AB) The members of the committee shall be jointly and severally responsible for all the decisions taken by the committee during its term relating to the business of the society. The members of the committee shall be jointly and severally responsible for all the acts and omissions detrimental to the interest of the society.
Provided that, before fixing any responsibility mentioned above, the Registrar shall inspect the records of the society and decide as to whether the losses incurred by the society are on account of acts or omissions on the part of the members of the committee or on account of any natural calamities, accident or any circumstances beyond the control of such members:
Before filing a dispute in Cooperative Court make sure the compliance of the following requirement as laid down under Section 148 of the MCS Act 1960 is complied with.
( 3) No prosecution under this Act shall be lodged, except with the previous sanction of the Registrar
Generally the Registrar does make an attempt to mediate between the managing committee and disputants before sanctioning the prosecution so that Court’s time is saved. This saves time and money of the litigating parties also. so it is advisable to ask for this sanction. Think twice before actually going to the Court after it is sanctioned.