Dear Sirs,
I am a member of a CHS. I seek your opinion/suggestion on the following :
Society was registered in June 2012. First General Body held in October 2012 and builder handed over the society to the nominated committee from November 2012.
Upon request from members Special General Meeting was held in December and in the meeting sinking and building repair & maintenance fund amounts were fixed and was decided Feb 15 as date for payment. It was also decided that If anyone want to pay in 2 installments, then separate application was requested and the second installment would attract interest.
In the monthly bill for February 2013 these amounts were included and shown the period as FY 2012 & 2013 and were asked to pay the full amount before 15 February 2013. (Amount was for full year)
Then few members collectively submitted a letter on 10th Feb. to the managing committee requesting them to consider collecting this amount as EMI and held back payment of sinking fund and repair fund, but paid monthly service charges. This request was replied only in the last week of April 2013 rejecting our request.
All these months we were getting montbly bills adding interest on the unpaid amount.
Considering the delay in getting reply from the managing committ we made separate letter asking for waiving the interest levied on us, as the delay was due to receiving reply from the managing committee. We could have paid the amount if the reply was received immediately before due date. In this letter we also asked the managing committee for the specific period for which the funds are demanded. Committee displayed their replies on notice board saying these are demanded for the period March-April 2014 and we are required to pay full amount (including interest).
Now we are not clear for which period this is being demanded.
In the meantime, committee served demand notice to us stating that the amount is due for 1 month as on 15th May 2013 and warned us of further action at our cost. Since this letter didn't have break-up of the amount being demanded, it was saying the amount was due for 1 month and other letters created some confusion about the period, , we replied asking for break-up of the lumpsum amount demanded since we feel that the interest being charged is for more than 1 month and for some members compound interst is calculated .
For all these periods we were paying monthly service charges, still few days before they stopped garbage picking services for those members who have not paid sinking and repair funds. We approached Registrar and got letter in our favour.
I give below my doubts in this regard
1) Since society was handed over by builder to the committ in November 2012, can the committee demand sinking and building repair funds for the entire financial year (i.e. from April-2012 to March 2013)?. Which means for the period before they came into power also?
2) If this is demanded for April 2013 - March-2014, can they demand in 2 months advance and levy interest for those periods?
3) Since the payment was delayed for want of reply from the managing committee, are we required to pay interest for such period also?
4) Are we eligible to get break-up of the amount as requested.
If they do not respond properly and act legally on above issues, what action we could initiate to get justice.
Reply to my above querries would really help us.
