The Brave Pedestrian

Mumbai, 8th December 2018: Going behind the backs of the flat owners and residents of the posh Lodha New Cuffe Parade, a Lodha employee named Vinod R Parab has submitted applications on behalf of Dioro, Elisium, Enchante (and maybe Evoq also) to the state cooperation department on 17th October, 2018.   Lodha employee Vinod R Parab, who gave his residence address as "BDD Chawl, NM Joshi Marg, Mumbai 400011" claimed to have been elected as chief promoter by nine flat-owners each of Dioro, Elisium and Enchante.  Many flat-owners, when contacted, said that they had no knowledge of their name and signature being on such an application!  EVIDENTLY, NO SUCH ELECTIONS EVER HAPPENED. The law requires that a meeting of the promoters of the proposed cooperative society is held, where the chief promoter is elected, and a resolution is passed for seeking a certain name registration by the government department. It is evident that no such meeting was held. It i...

Mumbai, 7th April 2017: The deadline date for housing societies of Mumbai to correct BMC capital valuation of their properties is fast approaching, and society managers and office-bearers have clearly been caught unawares. With less than one week left, property owners should act quickly in the next six days, or risk having to struggle with unduly high property tax rates for years to come. Unknown to most Mumbaikars, MCGM issued a circular last month giving notice that the Capital Valuation for the forthcoming years has been completed for fixing up property tax applicable to property owners and that "they will be available for inspection at the office of the Asstt. Assessor and Collector in the respective wards… between 23rd March 2017 to 13th April 2017." It added that "complaints against the Capital Values... must be made in writing by the property owners themselves or by the persons duly authorized by them under a power of attorney." BMC’s notice may be down...

12 th August, 2016: In today's mumbai Mirror, there's this frontpage story headlined, " Buyers Hire Rock Climbers to Enter Flats that Builder won't Hand Over ". One empathizes with the desperation that triggered a dozen home buyers in Powai's Tej society, a redevelopment project of Shwet Realtors ... but their adventurous act is likely to land them into trouble. Yes, this move succeeded in focusing public attention on the plight of the home owners and the defaults of Shwet Realtors in particular, but nevertheless, the police will probably register an FIR for "House Trespass" and related offences against the home-buyers and the rock-climber, and promptly issue arrest warrants. The fact that the redeveloper delayed possession of the flats for years will not cut ice, because the police or magistrate view the builder's actions as a "civil dispute", and the buyers' actions as a "criminal offence". Bottomline: Our system i...

20th November, 2015, Mumbai: In most cooperative societies, minutes of general body meetings have some half-truths and omissions, but Mulund’s Shree Gurukrupa Nagar Cooperative Housing Society shows how minutes drafted with blatant lies can easily escape detection by the general body! The draft minutes of a crucial SGM held on 24th May 2014, authored by Shree Gurukrupa Nagar Secretary Sanjay Jadhav and Chairman Anil Shah, pass off their illegal decisions favouring builders as general body decisions. WHAT REALLY HAPPENED At the SGM held on 24th May 2014, the society members followed the recommendations of PMC Atul Mehta and signed a consent selecting Siresukan Realty and Bharat Jain alias Talesara as the builder for their redevelopment. Accordingly, the managing committee issued a Letter Of Intent (LOI) in favour of Bharat  Jain / Talesara, partner, Siresukan Realty. See the following documents: 1)     Notice of meeting says successful bidder will be sel...

1st May, 2015, Mumbai: Many strangers call me every week from different parts of Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane etc., tell me how their society is being herded by some builder towards redevelopment, and take some free advice about how to proceed further in their battle. Everywhere, the same story is being acted out: builders have pocketed the office-bearers by giving them inducements, and with their active cooperation, are in the process of seizing control of the entire property. Some general body members act like stooges of the office-bearers, and shout down the persons who ask questions at society meetings. But the bulk of general body members are like sheep being herded to the slaughterhouse; they are deeply worried, but they are afraid to take a stand at any given point of time. Every week, Maharashtra's cooperation department receives a dozen complaint letters from aggrieved society members, pleading for action against the office-bearers and the builders, who are subverting the...

Cooperative housing societies are really “Uncooperative” housing societies. Argumentative flat-owners, habitually opposing one another, usually accept whatever clauses the developer and his lawyers include – and therein lies the tragedy. The builder usually gives Financial Bank Guarantees, which are more generalized and less safe than Performance Guarantees, and succeeds in safeguarding his own commercial interests, while making a fool of the society and its members. Housing societies, their office-bearers and their members generally have no idea of the financial risks that are being loaded on them. Chronically unwilling to spend money on and accept advice from serious legal professionals (as against aloo-chaaloo advocates), they accept unnecessary risks with a fatalistic statement: jo sabka hoga, woh hamara hoga. (Only those who have been living away from their houses for many years – usually without rent-allowance from builders – have any idea of the seriousness of these dealings...

4th October 2013, Mumbai: Since redevelopment started in 1991 about two decades ago, and builders could augment the FSI (Floor Space Index) of the land by purchasing TDR (Transfer of Development Rights), cooperative housing societies started neglecting their structures. Seduced by builders who promise larger houses and new buildings, building societies have been keen to steamroll opposition to their redevelopment proposals by individual members by deliberately allowing their building to deteriorate, so that structural auditors can declare them as “dilapidated”. Earlier, it was a nightmare for a society to be told that its building was structurally unsound, and managing committee members and general body members alike were anxious to avoid it by regular re-plastering, painting and repairing. But in the last two decades, a report from structural engineers saying that the building is “dilapidated” or is in need of “major rapairs” has been the dream of every managing committee, because i...