Bhoomi Kamat
I had given my flat on rent from Dec 2007 – April 2010. My society had charged me 100% of the maintenance charges. My maintenance charges went up from Rs.1200 to over Rs.2000 per month during that time and I was always paying double the amount as NOC.
The secretary maintains that everyone has to pay that and everyone has been paying without any noise. We kept our payment on time and paid in full every month for all that time since we were out of the country and my uncle was handling the bills.
When we relocated back to Mumbai in May 2010, we started living in our flat in May 2010 , the NOC charges stopped.
I recently found out (in 2013) that the NOC charges cannot be more than 10% of service charges. I wrote a letter to the society to refund the excess amount charged to me during the period I mentioned above. They flatly refuse and still continue to charge 100% to others who are renting.
The society is starting to collect the repair fund from August 2013.
My question is – Can I ask for refund for the amount I paid 3 yrs back ? Is society bound to refund the amount by law?
Can I stop payments to repair fund and ask the society to adjust the refund amount?
I C Naik
Firstly it is not advisable to adjust disputed refund to society demands. This is not permissible. Moreover you are deciding the dispute in your favour. You are the complainant and you are the judge.
Secondly you need to have a copy of the bye laws of your Society. This is because there are a few things you need to know accurately. The NOC for a let out flat is 10% of the Service Charges which are defined in the Bye laws.
Any excess is an incorrect demand and wrongful collections have to be refunded without any time limit.
The difficulty is you have to take help of Cooperative Department. You have to take following steps.
1.List out heads of Service Charges from Bye Laws.
2.Ascertain amount spent under those heads for the concerned period and compute per flat service charges .
3.Calculate excess payments i.e refund anount.
4.Send a final letter to Secretary with these calculations and ask for refund with in 15 days failing which you will write to the Registrar for his approval to your filing suit agaimst Society for Refund in Consumer Court.
5.File an application to grant you permission to go to District Consumer Court.
6. After a month or so file an RTI application to find out what did Registrar do as regards your application. Normally Registrar may sit on it and not reply,
7. Registrar will write to society if they were ready to settle.
8. If society keeps quiet Registrar will give you permission.
9. Go to District Consumer redressal Forum. It is not expensive. You file your complaint your self personally. Do not engage a lawyer.