RWA Grievances

Atul Sharma President, PARWA (Parsvnath Platinum Residents Welfare Association)

Construction Quality: Parsvnath Platinum, Swarn Nagri, Greater Noida, was handed over in two phases – low rise in 2005 and high rise in 2007. The houses in the low rise are already facing problems due to bad construction quality. Some of the houses in the high rise have also started showing signs of poor construction. The poor quality of construction is most evident in the drainage system in bathrooms due to which there is heavy seepage in most flats. The internal roads were never completed and are in a shambles. The exterior paint is already peeling off. The lifts in the low rise break down every day. The construction and maintenance anomalies are enumerated below.

The Roads: The roads within the complex were never fully finished. The last round of carpeting was not done at all. When the high rise was built, behind the low rise, heavy trucks carried construction material, and damaged the roads. The RWA asked the builder to carpet the road and Parsvnath Developers promised to do it by first week of November 2008, and then went back on the promise and said – the road will not be built! Residents have fallen and injured themselves due to the bad roads.

Exterior Paint: The exteriors of the low rise, have started showing signs of peeling paint, and it is just over three years from the day it was handed over. Should paint quality be so poor that it peels off before five years? Exterior paints have a life of five to seven years. What paint has Parsvnath Developers used?

Lifts: The lifts in the high rise are of good quality. The lifts in the low rise are not fit to be called lifts. For a block of eight apartments, there is one lift, which can hardly take two adults at a time. The lifts are mostly out of order. The maintenance agency is a sister concern of the builder.

Seepage & Damp Patches: Seepage from bathrooms and kitchens above is a common feature. The underground pipes used are of extremely thin section and have collapsed, in situ, due to which water seeps out and spreads in patches. Floors have been ripped and new pipes put in, at the cost of the residents. Builder makes profits, we pay for their faults. We pay to get trouble. Is this not a serious lapse by the builder? Imagine a leaking kitchen or bathroom roof and a fully damp wall in your bedroom. The bathroom fittings used are also of extremely poor quality.

Doors & Windows: The doors and windows are of such unseasoned quality that they expand during the rainy season and create a nuisance for the residents. They also warp and become difficult to close.

Club: The Club and Swimming Pool were built by the builder by converting one flat into a club. The area is absollutely inadequate for a complex with 239 dwelling units. Woefully short on space, the builder charged each owner Rs.20,000 as lifetime membership charges and has now locked the club saying we need to pay annual charges of around Rs.5,000 for club usage. The builder wants to continue to fleece the residents. The club should have been gifted to the residents by the builder because this was a facility promised, in their brochure, but now it lies under the builder’s lock and key.

Maintenance and Handing Over to RWA: The builder, Parsvnath Developers Ltd., appointed its sister concern, Basundhara Properties Pvt. Ltd., as the maintenance agency for three years. The agency managed the complex, which required little maintenance since it was new, for three years. The RWA fought for control but the builder refused to recognize the RWA. Once this new team took charge of the RWA from 14 September 2008, the builder and its maintenance agency started to sweet talk to the new committee into taking over the complex. The plan was to make the RWA take-over, in as-is-where-is condition, because the complex now needs funds for maintenance. The builder and its maintenance agency wanted the RWA to increase the maintenance charges, by about 50%, and give it a new contract. Only under this condition did they want to hand-over control to RWA.

Threatened Pull-Out without proper notice: The maintenance agency sent a letter to the President asking him to take-over on 15/11/2008. The RWA refused to accept the letter. The next thing the maintenance agency did was to threaten to stop all services from the afternoon of 18/11/2008, giving less than 24 hours notice to the RWA.

The present position: The present position is that the RWA is managing the security, gardening, housekeeping etc. because the maintenance agency pulled their people out. A couple of guards from the old agency are still there because they say their dues have not been cleared by Basundhara Properties. The maintenance agency refuses to hand over the keys to the major installations in the complex to the RWA, though the RWA has employed electicians, plumbers etc. to look after water and electricity. The maintenance agency (Basundhara Properties) staffers threaten to stop the supply of water and electricity. They are trying to get back the contract by threatening to leave, then not leaving, and refusing to hand over charge to the RWA. The RWA stands firm in their resolve to bring the wrongdoers to book. Criminal, civil and consumer cases will be filed, in consultation with legal experts, to protect the rights of the owners/residents and to get them their due. The builder, Parsvnath Developers Ltd. and its maintenance agency Basundhara Properties Pvt. Ltd. have failed miserably in meeting the expectations of 239 families in Parsvnath Platinum. They will have to pay for their misdeeds and acts of omission and commission.