Friday 7 August 2015

MAINTENANCE OF APARTMENT BUILDING


The unique feature of apartments is that the owner of an unit in the  apartment building will possess and enjoy his property subject to several restrictions. Such a owner will not get absolute ownership over the land on which the apartment building is constructed and he only gets an undivided share in it. Not only this, he has to use the common areas and the facilities such as stair case, elevator, basement, swimming pool, recreation centre, community hall, etc., in co-ordination and co-operation with other apartment owners. Under such peculiar circumstances, in order to give a long life to the apartment building, it would be appropriate that all major repairs to the apartment building be carried out at lease once in ten years while the periodical white washing and minor repairs can be carried out as and when required. Then, the immediate question that arises would be : What constitute Major Works.  Normally, the following types of works  are considered as major works of repair:

Water  Proofing  :
Whenever surki is used as water proof course the surki become weak over a period of time and damages appear in the roof resulting in leakages in the roof of the top floors.If proper slope is not given,the waterproof course gets damaged early. If unwanted furniture and other materials are dumped in the terrace, the terrace do get damaged early.To prevent such leakages, the civil engineers suggest replacing waterproof course and surface treatment of the entire roof surface requiring several lakhs of rupees.

Instead of carrying out total surface treatment, if only patches are repaired, then there is every possibility of frequent repairs since new patches may appear within a couple of days. It is, therefore,  necessary to treat the entire surface or provide better type of water proofing with adequate slope to drain off rainwater and this treatment may remain intact for 5 to 10 years.  However, in  buildings where tiles are provided on the terrace, repairs and leakages problem could be  less.

Water  Supply:
A number of high rise buildings are coming up in most of the metro cities, which require borewell in each such high rise building.This results  in the depletion of underground water level. Gradually the yield in the  existing borewells would get reduced requiring further deepening of such  borewells.This work of deepening of bore wells  will cost several thousand rupees.

Similarly, the G.I. pipes inside the bore wells and the pipes inside the sump tanks do normally get rusted after 12 years of installation.Therefore, these  pipes require to be replaced.Now-a-days, plastic rust proof unbreakable pipes are available.The replacements cost several thousand of rupees depending on the depth of the  bore wells.The water supply pipes feeding water to individual flats also require replacement as and when they get worn out requiring huge amount of expenditure.

Lifts :
Normally,after usage of 12-15 years,the existing lifts may require replacement.Presently, the minimum  cost of a  lift would be about Rs. 5 lakhs. 

Motor  Pumps :
In an apartment building, as large quantities of water are required to be pumped to overhead tanks, usage of motor pumps for long durations every day becomes necessary.  Such long hours usage of water pumps would affect the functioning of such pumps requiring frequent repairs or replacement for which purpose reasonably good chunk of money is required. Pumps and motors could at the best serve us for 12 to 15 years and thereupon they require replacement.

Electrical  Wiring:
It would be dangerous to continue to use the old and damaged electrical wires in an apartment building. Complete electrical wiring and meter board may have to be replaced at least after a lapse of  12 to 15 years.

Sewer  Lines :
The next major work of maintenance is to repair the leaking sewer lines caused due to damages in the existing sewer pipes or joints. Sewer lines coming down from the flats also require replacement costing considerable expenditure.

Pavements:
In an  apartment building, the number of vehicles would normally be more and due to frequent  movement of vehicles, pavements do get damaged very frequently.  In order to maintain the apartment building habitable, proper upkeep of pavements is necessary. Therefore, pavement all round the building may have to be repaired or replaced with concrete or slabs depending upon the condition of the existing surface.

Apartment owners and tenants have to pay maintenance fee for the amenities and service enjoyed by them in the apartment building. Expense incurred for the maintenance of common area is shared among residents of apartment and income is distributed among apartment owners. Apartment owners form an association for collecting the maintenance fee and association works for the welfare of owners and residents of apartment. To undertake all these major repairs/replacement of utilities, the Apartment Owners  Society/Association should have sufficient  funds in the form of “Sinking Fund”. From out of the monthly maintenance charges collected by the apartment owners association from its members, it is desirable that a considerable percentage should be reserved towards for sinking fund to meet the expenditure on major repairs.

If Apartment owners Society/Association does not have sufficient funds at its disposal and sinking fund is not maintained, collection of additional charges from the occupants would be an Herculean task for the office bearers. The common expenses will include the amounts determined to be payable as such by the Society or Association. It includes expenses such as expense of administration, maintenance, repair or replacement of common areas and facilities. So long as there is no dispute, any system which is acceptable to all the apartment owners can be implemented on the basis of consensus.

There are various methods of calculation of maintenance charges. The following are some:
a)Flat  Monthly  Fee:
Under this method, apartment owners association or society calculates the total maintenance charge and divides equally amongst all the flat owners. In an apartment building, there may be flats with different sizes. Under this system irrespective of size of the flat, all flat owners will be paying equal maintenance fee. This system is generally followed where apartments are of the same size.

b)Per  Square  feet  rate:
Under this method, variable rate depending upon square feet of each apartment or flat is charged. Larger the square feet owned, higher will be monthly maintenance fee. This is widely practiced in Apartment societies with different sizes of apartments. The logic behind this being that since you have bought the flat on the basis of sq ft., you must pay the maintenance on the same basis.

Partial  flat  rate:
Under this method, the association or society charges flat rate for a limited square feet and for each additional unit of sq.ft. there will be an extra charge. For example,  the flat owners who own up to 1000 sq.ft. will be charged at a fixed rate and for every additional 100 sq.ft. there will be an extra 2 per cent charge of maintenance fee. In this case, all flat owners with 1000 sq.ft.  pay equal amount but the flat owners of 1100 sq.ft., 1200 sq.ft. and 1500 sq.ft. pay higher amount towards monthly maintenance fee depending upon the size of their flat.

More,

Whitefield   

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