Maintenance Fees

The payment will be updated against your plot within the same day. The funds paid via the payment gateway will be settled to the association account in T+2 days.

COLLECTION GATEWAY

IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't use collection gateway option if you are doing foreign transactions.

ApnaComplex provides a unique account number to all the Units in the community. The owner can transfer the dues to this unique account number and the dues will be automatically cleared against your plot.

This option can be used if you don’t wish to install the ApnaComplex application on your mobile phone.

The Unique account details can be found by logging to apnacomplex web portal https://www.apnacomplex.com/auth/login, then goto Home->My Profile->Unit Details.

Note: This is NOT the association bank account. This is a virtual backing account provided by ApnaComplex. When you transfer money to this account, ApnaComplex automatically clears your dues and the funds will be settled to the association account in T+2 days. DON’T transfer funds directly to the Association bank account.

The detailed README for Payment Gateway and Collection Gateway can be found HERE.

What is the criteria for fixing Rs 0.25 per SqFt per month as the maintenance fees?

The Association is intending to take control over partial maintenance of the layout from January 1st 2023, subject to the condition that owners show support by paying the maintenance fees on time. The maintenance tasks that we are planning to take control of as of Jan 2023 are the below with the estimated expenses.

Cost Estimates Per Month

More details here

Maintenance

Before we start maintaining the items stated in the above table, we must ensure that we have a constant flow of maintenance funds adequate enough to meet all these expenses so that we can commit to a third party with confidence.

While ensuring adequate flow of maintenance funds, we must take into consideration the trends that we have seen while collecting Membership Fees. We have a total number of 1465 numbered plots in our layout and we have been able to verify the contacts of 880+ owners (as of 05th October 2022) which constitutes around 60% of all plots. These owners have been added to ApnaComplex. Out of this 880+ owners added, around 710+ owners (approx 48%) have paid the membership fees. This is a result of constant reminders and follow ups over a period of last 12 months from the MC team consisting of few members. Nevertheless to say, this also includes efforts from previous MC that extends to over 3-4 years.

Out of the 1465 numbered plots, we have the plot area details of 1378 plots. The remaining 87 plots are considered unsold. The total area for 1378 plots comes to approx 30,51,613 square feet subject to any area corrections. Our current targeted monthly collection is Rs. 256300 as per the above table which will be achieved if we are able to get 30-35% of the owners to pay the maintenance fees at Rs 0.25 per SqFt. Our final target is to collect maintenance from all 1465 plots and for Commercial plots of Concorde. The collection of maintenance from all the plots will not happen immediately. This will be a gradual process. Considering the trends that we saw with membership collection, we are expecting to reach a maintenance collection from 30-35% of the owners by the end of December 2022. This will ensure us funds adequate enough to take over maintenance of the items mentioned in the above table from the first quarter of 2023. Below table shows the calculation at Rs 0.25 per SqFt per month.

Maintenance Calculation

More details here

Maintenance Calculation

How are you planning to collect the maintenance from the remaining 65% of the owners?

MC will continue the follow up as they did for the membership fees.

MC will also put up a board at the CMV entrance stating that no sale/purchase of the plot can happen without clearing the dues to the association.

Note that MC had also requested help from owners to do this follow up but received minimal support in this regard. Appointing a manager will help take some of the burden of MC’s shoulder as the manager also can help following up with owners. Also this way, the onus of following up with owners becomes a shared responsibility of all owners as the manager will be employed on everyone’s behalf at everyone’s cost.

If we start getting maintenance from more than 30-35% of the owners, there will be extra funds. How will that be utilised?

Parks are going to be developed by Concorde in Phase 2 works. Once that is completed, we will require more funds to maintain the parks. Some of the funds will go towards that. Also further maintenance items will be brought into scope like maintaining the signages, maintaining plot numbering, maintaining overhead tanks, maintaining water lines etc.

Also, the 0.25 per SqFt can be revisited and reduced if we meet all the additional expenses incurred and still continue getting excess flow of funds in coming quarters.

What about the unsold plots and Commercial plots?

MC will be asking Concorde to pay the maintenance of unsold plots and Commercial plots. This dialogue has started with Concorde and is ongoing. We will be notifying the owners once this is concluded.

Maintenance fee is high, start with reduced fee and increase as we see progress.

Please note that we have the following to take care when we start maintenance.

Vendor contract agreement to support
Uncertainty of how much people are paying
Corpus for repairs, unknown expenses

The above calculation for the proposed maintenance is taking all these into consideration. This is BASIC MINIMUM that is required at CMV. We can't think of anything lesser than this.

Ultimately, the amount we are paying is our own money and we can utilize this as needed. If we see that we are getting steady funds, we can optimize more. If we are seeing the value of maintenance, we can add more services. Without money no one talks of development. As next steps this MC team has ideas how we can make our community a self-serving unit which will reduce maintenance burden. We want ideas on it. Whatever we do next, the baseline has to be security and maintenance that we can trust!

Also in the sale agreement that you signed with Concorde, the maintenance fee was mentioned as 50 Paisa per SqFt.

Why is the maintenance SqFt based and not a fixed amount per plot?

See here for the distribution of plot sizes in CMV. The majority of the plot areas (approx 74%) lie in 0-2500 SqFt range. If we collect fixed amounts per plot as maintenance, then in order to achieve our targets, we will have to fix the charges based on the average plot size in the layout and 74% of the owners will end up paying more maintenance when compared to the SqFt based scheme.

There are 38 (2.7%) owners above 3500 Sqft. MC also considered the possibility of capping these plots at 3500 SqFt. But there are owners having 2 plots equating to e.g 4000 sqft. They would raise a concern as to why MC would not be considering their case.

Also, in future, when full fledged maintenance starts we will need to adopt SqFt based calculations anyways. It will be very difficult at that time to transition smoothly from fixed fees to SqFt based approach.

Also, this is the most accepted method for calculating the maintenance universally. Also, this is what is mentioned in the bylaws.

How will I know how the maintenance funds are used?

As done previously, for each expense, MC will ask for multiple quotes, choose the best and least quote, share with all owners in advance to request for quote, and confirm in selection and decision made. The owners have been always informed via email and meetings. MC will continue to share with all owners regular updates regarding the maintenance fees collections and expenses incurred.

You are aware that the financial audit is currently happening by engaging a CA. This process will also continue to be done yearly. The audit results will be published as part of Annual General Body Meetings.

Any unused funds will remain in the association bank account and will be utilised for future maintenance expenses. Any new expenses that are brought into the maintenance scope will be shared with owners as and when it happens.

Will water be provided?

Concorde has stated that all water lines are in place. However as this is not verified completely yet, maintenance of water tanks and water lines are not being handed over. So, the current maintenance plan does not include water.

Having said the above, please note that Concorde has also stated that water will be made available to individual plots on demand basis if required. So providing water connections is still Concorde’s responsibility. If you require water, we request you to connect with Concorde on an individual basis. MC will support you in this regard if needed.

Appointing a manager will also benefit in this case as well as the manager will be present at the site full time in working hours and can follow up with Concorde better. This way we can speed up the process of water line verification also.

Refer https://sites.google.com/view/cmv-owners-association/infrastructure/water-and-sewage for more updates on water.

Will electricity be provided?

Concorde has received sanction letters from Tamil Nadu State Electricity Board for commissioning of street lights in September 2022. As per Concorde, it will take less than three months to get Electricity into the layout.

Individual plots will need to apply for individual connections once the electricity poles come up.

Refer https://sites.google.com/view/cmv-owners-association/infrastructure/electricity for more updates on electricity.

What is the current scope of Gardeners ?

Gardeners are to start with maintaining the common areas (de-weeding) like Roads, Footpaths and Roadside areas where signage boards are placed etc. Please note that one month time is enough for weeds to grow back. So gardeners will have to start from one end of the layout and circle to back to same end by the end of the month. Note that the CMV property is 140+ acres in size. So, per day, the gardeners will have to tend to common areas lying within approx 4.66 acres of land if they have to cover the whole property in a month. With 5 gardeners, it cannot be guaranteed that the common areas in the entire can be covered in a month. This needs to be re-visited once the gardeners starts working.

Concorde has already deployed security at CMV. Will the association deploy additional security guards?

Concorde has given notice that effective 1st Oct 2022, the security deployed by them will be withdrawn as they expect us to take over. This is being challenged and discussed with Concorde.

Association is planning to take over security from Jan 2023 given that we are able to collect enough maintenance funds.

What is the current scope of Security ?

The plan to start with 3 security guards deployed during day and 3 at the night time. This is the same number of guards deployed by Concorde currently. One Security guard is to be stationed at the front gate, one at the back gate to manage opening / closing of the gates. One guard will be mobile at any point of time. This is the basic minimum security that is required at CMV. We cannot ensure fool proof security even with these many guards, but this is where we should start with.

Can security guards double up as gardener and vice-versa?

6 security guard estimate is as per the current number of guards that Concorde has deployed. 3 at any point of time is minimum, but not sufficient to provide enough security in the layout with multiple openings. If security works as Gardener, gates will be unmanned.

There is also enough work for 5 gardeners. This can be vouched by anyone who has visited the layout and knows the amount of work at site. Also one time de-weeding won't work. This needs to be done regularly. To start with minimum 5 is what association and Concorde proposes. It is not guaranteed that 5 gardeners would be enough to maintain common areas of the entire property. This will be revisited once we invest in tools, gardeners are deployed and once we get a proper estimate of how much work can 5 gardeners do.

What is the current scope of Manager ?

Act as POC for the owners at the site, utilising apnacomplex complaint coordination. Apnacomplex complaint box will be enabled for owners.
Responsible to contact owners for contact /email ID validation, membership fee payment and maintenance fees.
Manage people deployed by the owners association at the site like gardeners and security guards. Also help MC with concorde work validation as needed.
Pay Tax on owners behalf. This may save yearly agent fees for tax payments and manager’s services can be leveraged by all members paying maintenance.
Manager duty will be from 9 AM to 5 PM, 6 days a week. A weekday can be given off.

Can we get a supervisor instead of manager?

To effectively coordinate with people at site and monitor them we need someone well educated and experienced at site. The manager required would need to speak English and operate apnacomplex. MC will definitely assess someone who has this minimum qualification and can be negotiated when we get into a contract. Currently the estimate has been taken from one vendor. MC invites owners to help support the cause of identifying vendors if you feel that you will be able to bring someone with the same qualifications at a lesser cost.

For the past 11 months, the work of the manager is being carried out by a small MC team, who are also owners just like anyone, investing more time and effort than anyone. MC doesn't intend to continue this free service and intends to offload this to a proper manager so that this becomes a shared responsibility of all owners at least from the monetary perspective.

Anyone questioning this is requested to take up some of the work that MC will be assigning and volunteer at least 3 to 4 hours every week, every month, throughout the year. Note that current team spends more than this time on weekly basis. Once you start volunteering, you will experience for yourself the need for a proper manager.

Why are we taking partial handover? We should take over only when all amenities are completed.

Concorde agreed to restart the work 3 years back in 2019 (a decision agreed between Concorde and the previous MC) on the agreement that the association had to take hand-over as they complete each item.

Till then it was status quo between owners and Concorde, with Concorde saying that there will be nobody to maintain the works they are completing. Roads, walls, OHT, some parks were built earlier. Roads have weathered, walls have fallen, parks are not maintained. Weeds have grown. It was a a never ending circle of "owners demanding" and "Concorde redoing things". Subsequently, it leads to owners frustration for not seeing progress and Concorde losing momentum as they will not be seeing efforts from owners to start maintaining.

After the agreement between association and Concorde, we have seen positive response from Concorde in completing the pending works and in the 2022 we have seen these efforts accelerated. Any profit organisation (Concorde here) would want to invest effort where they foresee a positive outcome. Concorde is supporting as they are seeing positive support from the owners association.

Going back and saying to Concorde that we will take over only after everything is completed will be like undoing the efforts of the last 3-4 years of the association. Concorde will also lose trust in the association and they will take a step back and will not make any further progress.

If we take over now, Concorde would not complete the work.

Please note that association is taking over only completed work from Concorde. As of now, it is only security and maintenance of common areas. This is not full handover of the project.

MC team is interacting with Concorde who have shown genuine interest to complete work. This is how we are seeing continuous ongoing work at the site in from Jan 2022. If you do not have this faith then best would be to join us for their meetings. MC can invite a few of you when we visit next time. Let MC know your interest to join.

What about Clubhouse? Why don't we take legal route?

Why do we need to go legal when Concorde is supporting? Maintenance is a part of the process when we own any property.

For us, the clubhouse is of a lower priority.

In case clubhouse is the sole concern, we as owners can look at Legal options after Concorde completes the basic infrastructure work. Else we lose the opportunity to get the basics done too and get entangled into a long term legal battle with an influential builder. Owners don't have time to visit the layout or to the Concorde office. We would not get support from anyone to follow up on legal work or pay for legal expenses. So this option is out of question right now considering other priorities on development and work that MC has.

Further details regarding clubhouse will be updated here.

Invested in the land for long term investment. Why do we need gardeners , security etc. I see value only in a completed clubhouse and other amenities.

This is not everyone's view. However, even if we have a completed clubhouse but we have not matured in our maintenance process, there will be no usage, it will turn into ruins quickly if people don't build houses and are available to start using it. Same applies for STPI machinery / parks. They require security and assurance of regular maintenance before we can go-ahead.

What if I don't pay maintenance ?

Please note that every owner is bound to follow the decisions taken in association meetings as per the bylaws. Association will also make sure that no sale of plots can happen without clearing the dues to the association.

Every owner is welcome to join the volunteer team/ management committee and experience for yourself and provide constructive ideas and support instead of just questioning and denying the association progress.

It is no longer an option "NOT TO PAY MAINTENANCE" if you want betterment of the society. We have waited for 10 years and now that we have gathered momentum, if we abandon this initiative at this stage, we may be discussing this again in the next 10 years. Will regret seeing layouts near or farther away from us are prized more than Concorde.

It is not right to think:

Let others build, I will wait for my plot value to appreciate at others cost
Let others pay Maintenance, I will wait and watch

People are our strength, let's make this happen together !

What if we don’t get 30-35% of maintenance payments by December 2022?

This is the worst case scenario. From the meetings that we had with the owners, we are optimistic that this scenario will NOT arise.

However, in the worst case, if we don’t get the funds, then MC will have to believe that the majority of owners are not interested in the joint development of the layout with Concorde and MC doesn’t have the support for its planned activities. The future actions/plans of the MC will be revisited at that point of time.

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