bharath 26 June 2015

Does apartmen association have right to cut the water supply

i'm living in an aprtment ,chennai...our flat assn is a registered one..in general meeting they announced that from may mnth onwars maintenance fees is reduced to 1.50 rs per sqft but they had not implemented it so didnt pay my maintenance for past 2 months...without any prior information they cut off water supply at night 8.00 pm..maintenance office is closed and i ringed up night service plumber he told that assn member had told me to cut the supply..i ringed up one oth the assn secretary he didnt picked my call i visted his home rang the bell he didnt reacted to it............. next day i visited the assn office they insulted me "no water to clean your ...." and forced me to pay the maintenence...... i asked 2 days time to pay it....now their validity(six mnths) is over... they have to arrange next election for assn but they are postponing the election and also insisting a rule that flat owners who paid their maintenance can only stand for rlection.....i.e they are not conducting election also and not making us to stand for it...they are ruling us i pay my water tax how can they stop my water...its almost two days gone and they stopped my water supply...one imprt note in my block itself there are several people who had not paid the maintennace for 10 mnths also but assn stops the water supply for one people at a time that to at night...if they cut the supply for all people will group together and protest against them.. finally they are ruling us how to stop them...

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2 Replies

sudhakar.RVS (Advocate) 27 June 2015

Sir,

paying monthly maintenance to associatian is mandatory,failing which ,the defalters don't have right to participte in the ensuing elections. If every body stops paying maintenance ,association can not meet the statutory payments and stsff payments.If the association body fails to see the welfare ofthe residents,,residents have right to conduct emergency meeting,oust the members and file a case in the police station for the mis deeds commited. Before doing so , every body clear all dues.Don't take law into your hands rember law is with you. Other wise elect a fresh exective body and close the association office intimate to police station .

sudhakar.RVS

Advocate

Dr. MPS RAMANI Ph.D.[Tech.] (Scientist/Engineer) 27 June 2015

Under which act of Tamilnadu is your association registered? If your association is registered you must be having byelaws. What do the byelaws say regarding (1) action in the event of default in maintenance payments. (2) eligibility to be a candidate for elections if one defaults in payment of dues to the association. Anyway the two are two different issues, though committee members whose terms have expired may be the people who are acting. You can take action for cutting of water supply. You can also complain to authorities against the outgoing committee for not holding elections. I was thinking and many lawyers think (I am not a lawyer) that it is a criminal offence to cut off water supply. But certain acts like the Andhra Pradhesh Apartment Ownership Act have provision for cutting off water supply also. In any case no one can cut off water supply at his own whims and fancies at the middle of the night. Any action can be taken only after giving a show cause notice with a reasonable notice period. You can go to police. But police are lethargic and they will act only if Jayalalitha wants something even if it is illegal. Certainly you can get a stay order from a court and there are sufficient grounds to get such an order. Remember that for doing anything there must be support of law. As far as residents' or owners' associations are concerned it is anarchy in most States and worse in Tamilnadu. There is a Tamilnadu Ownership Flats Act, 1994 and Rules, 1997. But how many have heard of it? Has any association registered under the Act? I do not know. Most associations are registered under the Societies Registration Act and the act is not adequate to deal with problems of flat-owners' associations. The inflluencial members of the association put all kinds of funny laws and the registrar or charity commissioner, whatever he is called blindly approves them. We cannot blame him. He is not adequately equipped with knowledge.