Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Mantri's: When does the clock stop ticking ?

My reference is to the maintenance deposit we paid when we took possession of our Mantri apartment. We moved in (D-901) in mid-April; and the possession letter from Mantri's, dated March 30, said the maintenance clock for D Block starts from April 1,2011. Which means our maintenance meter on a deposit of Rs.44,250 (Rs.25 per sq.ft.) would stop ticking on March 31, 2012.
The maintenance clock for other blocks would have started from subsequent months. My question is whether the ticking clock for all 9 blocks would stop at the same time (March 31),before the start of 2012-13 fiscal. In other words, have we all been asked to pay maintenance deposit for a full year from the date of possession, or only for the remaining months, till March 2012 ?
Your response would throw much-needed light on an issue that generated some heat and sound in my informal meeting with some ad hoc committee members last evening. They asked how come,I set the mid-March deadline for registration of our apartment owners association.
My answer: considering that the Mantri project work is targeted for completion by March-end, and that PropCare wants revision of the maintenance charges (raised from the Rs.2 per sq.ft monthly), I would say the apartment owners association should be up and running, latest by mid-March. Frankly, I didn't feel comfortable with the questioning mode adopted by a member of the committee. I wasn't the one who sought this meeting. The idea was to strike a rapport for better appreciation, of the committee's limitations and our expectations from the committee as apartment owners.
I thought the ad hoc committee and I were on the same page in this regard - both wanting Mantri apartment owners association registered at the earliest. And here I was, being questioned, as if it were an inquisition, as to how I had arrived at the mid-March deadline, for the purpose of getting our acts together; and to have a registered association in place, well in time for negotiating terms with PropCare, come April,2012.
This apart, I would like to think last evening's interaction with ad hoc committee was mutually educative. I got a sense of the hassle the core committee faces in dealing with Mantri's local managers. The ad hoc committee, on its part, has agreed to be transparent in keeping association members informed of the proceedings of committee meetings. As for the status of registration process, committee has retained a lawyer, and is getting the documents ready for submission.

3 comments:

  1. I believe it will be better to clarify the doubt about the March 2012 deadline with a Mantri representative rather than discussing among ourselves. Interaction definitely gives us more insight, however in this particular case it is creating un-necessary confusion.

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    Replies
    1. You are right. We need clarification, only if there is doubt. And I have none - about the prospect of rates revision - post-March 2012. A doubt, if any, in this regard, is best clarified by the ad hoc committee. In an ideal world, Mantri management, taking cognizance of our interaction, would have come up with a status statement.

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    2. To quote one of the wise men of our country:"Each work has to pass through these stages-ridicule,opposition and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood". Hence, we need not fret.

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