HOUSING SOCIETY MAINTENANCE ISSUES

What is Building Management?

Any Apartment Complex or a Housing Society’s central aim is to provide a holistic living experience. Apartments have evolved from being just a roof over your head to Gated Communities today, which provide you so much more to ensure that all residents live a luxurious and wholesome lifestyle. There are several amenities and facilities that modern Gated communities offer – Gardens, parks, swimming pools, gymnasium, sports/play areas, clubhouse etc to fulfill all the needs of residents. While it is the responsibility of Management Committees or Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) to manage and maintain these on a daily basis, there is so much more that goes behind building management. There are a number of issues that arise within a housing society on a frequent basis. Housing society maintenance issues such as broken or malfunctioning facilities, complaints put forth by residents, scarce supply of resources etc are some of them. Let us delve deeper into some of these issues and their solutions. 

Commonly faced Housing society maintenance issues

Maintenance Fund Collection and Audits: 

From the perspective of a Management Committee, collecting and calculating the maintenance fee from residents becomes an issue when there are defaulters. More defaulters means lesser collection which results in a lower maintenance amount for the functioning of that society. However, most of the defaulters are accidental and often need nothing more than a reminder or two. However, keep a lookout of Management Committees charging any unnecessary or extra amounts under false pretexts such as keeping pets or asking for more than required because one has a bigger flat. 

2. Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink: 

As essential as this precious resource is, water can actually be quite the cause of a Housing society maintenance issues. Whether it’s being supplied with dirty or unhygienic water, facing scarcity of water supply or unanticipated leakages and wastage. Most cities today already face acute water shortage. In order to avoid any unforeseen water supply cuts, residents fix water tanks overhead to store water. But society rules allow only specific size measurements for installation of such water tanks. Thus, when there are no overhead tanks and water is supplied by the government, Management Committees may cut off water supply during busy hours without any prior notice. That’s when it becomes an issue. On top of that housing societies may sometimes fail to arrange for water tankers or face pump failures. Poor maintenance or handling of Sewage Treatment Plants can sometimes cause major unavoidable shutdowns or stoppages. 

3. Parking Problems

Parking is one aspect of Housing society maintenance issues that has been known to be a bone of contention among residents and MCs in a housing society. Common parking problems sound like members using or encroaching upon other’s alloted parking spaces, haphazard parking causing a great deal of inconvenience or visitors not being allowed to park etc. Ideally, one slot is allocated per member to park their four-wheeler. According to society bye-laws 5% of the space must be reserved for visitor parking. 

4. Waste and Garbage Disposal

Improper and ill-organized garage disposal systems can be a real nuisance to everyone in a society. Even after the Management Committees provide separate bins for wet, dry and sanitary waste, sometimes residents don’t comply with such arrangements and dump waste quite carelessly. It is our responsibility as members of society and the country to adopt and follow healthy waste management practices. Moreover, think how much effort it takes for the cleaning staff and even the management committee to keep micro-managing haphazard garbage disposal with so many Housing society maintenance issues to already look after. 

5. Wear and Tear of Buildings

It’s natural for buildings to age and go through wear and tear. This is something which is inevitable as no builder will promise the longevity of a building’s pristine state. As buildings age, they will require constant repairs and upkeep. RWAs have to keep addressing such problems to keep their working conditions. Some commonly faced issues that require timely maintenance are: 

• Plumbing issues like clogs and leaks
• Malfunctioning AC units
• Pest Control problems
• Fading paint

These issues will be faced by residents who live in a community for long periods of time for which they will raise maintenance requests to the management committee.

How do you prevent and stop these from happening?

Every cloud has a silver lining and every problem has a solution. Here’s what you can do to prevent and stop the above Housing society maintenance issues from occurring: 

• Despite manual reminders through notices or posters, sometimes residents may walk past any such Maintenance payment related information. It’s better to have a Society accounting software like ADDA that sends automatic reminders to residents and keeps track of all your maintenance invoices. It’s highly recommended that you take a good look at all the charges you are being made to pay under a maintenance fee before you buy an apartment. This will make you aware of what exactly you are being charged for and avoid any malpractices that would lead you to pay more than necessary. 

• Measures like rainwater harvesting, reusing wastewater for different purposes like domestic activities or watering the plants can help save water to a great extent. Moreover, many communities today have implemented ways to utilise water from STPs. Read this blog on ways to avoid water scarcity and to know more about such communities.  

• Usually MCs arrive at a parking strategy by drawing slots or assigning slots to members through first-come first serve basis. If an owner does not have a parking spot and rents out their property, it is their responsibility to make a parking spot available for their tenant. If your spot has been encroached or you face any similar issue then write to the management committee. If this Housing society maintenance issue remains unresolved then approach the Registrar of societies or Co-operative court. Check out our blog on corruption in housing societies that addresses the recourse in such cases. 

• It helps to keep as many garbage cans in a society complex as possible to avoid littering. Management Committees can definitely put up notices warning anyone who litters to be fined a heavy amount. One of the best ways to manage garbage disposal without depending on the local municipality is composting. You can get a complete DIY guide on Apartment composting here. 

• A strong team should conduct any seasonal repairs or upgradation to the society buildings to keep them in top notch conditions. Also, there should be a proper method and system of complaint redressal for residents when they want to raise a request for maintenance or repair. 

How can a Housing society management software help with Housing Society Maintenance Issues?

Payment and collection of maintenance dues has never been easier with a software like ADDA that has an inbuilt auto invoice mechanism. This reduces defaulters drastically and leaves no room for calculation errors. 

A software like ADDA will save you the trouble of raising maintenance requests manually. Now, anytime you want to get any repairs done, all you have to do is raise a ticket in ADDA’s complaint management module. Once a complaint is registered, all you have to do is wait for the relevant Management to address and take care of it within a certain time period.  

Contact us to know how we can assist your community management to take care of these issues without all the hassle.