Legal Question in Real Estate Law in India

Dear Sir,

I live in an apartment called Ramaniyam Rhythmm apartments in Chennai. The association is currently not registered. In short, the association does not exist in the eyes of the law.

I had taken the post of Treasurer of this "informal" association, with the understanding that we will be registering soon and my own actions were governed by the by-laws that were supposed to be executed for our association.

I found the strange practice of the President "Satish Byravan" of this informal association not depositing his maintenance money through "cheques" and he claimed to be giving cash to supervisor for day today activities and adjusting his maintenance through that. As a treasurer I found this behavior strange because then there will not be any audit trail for maintenance payments.

I insisted that people actually pay maintenance through cheques, otherwise it is difficult to have an audit trail and in any case, it will be difficult to figure out whether someone has actually paid their maintenance dues. This same person claimed that he had paid some Rs 15,000 in cash towards maintenance to a supervisor who is no longer here ( the claim cannot be verified). I found this "cash" dealings strange.

I insisted on people paying maintenance through cheques and settling their cash dealings separately.

I also want to see whether this gentleman has actually paid maintenance in the past - Please see email chain below...

On a separate email, this President mentioned in writing that assocaition cannot be and need not be run according to bye-laws.

I decided to step down from my treasurer role, rather continue in this morally flexible environment, but I would like to see whether I can use RTI to see whether he has actually paid maintenance.

There has been no audit. I would like to know what legal rights I have to protect my interests, so that I can be sure that the money is not swindled, the office bearers and their relatives ( this gentleman has several relatives as owners in the same complex) actually pay maintenance like everyone else.

I will very vulnerable, as they have gamed the system. Because the association is not registered, there is no accountability, but they have ample authority to do as they please.

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We are not talking penalty here. We are talking of proper systems in place.

Rajeshwari has sent out amount owed to her and also paid the maintenance dues separately by cheques. So this is doable.

No point digging up the past, but from Jan-Mar quarter onwards, I would like transparency.. Actually from the time period starting from the new bank account, I want this systems in place.

Ravi will issue a receipt and against this, we can issue a cheque to the people who have lent money in case of emergency.

Maintenance cheques should be clearly trackable. Adjusting it against cash makes it difficult to track.

Supervisor does not have the right to adjust maintenance cheques against anything.

On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 8:42 AM, Satish Byravan wrote:

Dear Venkatesh,

Is this going forward or for the current duration as well? I prefer going forward because (a) handing out cash to office bearers - in the absence of a bill - from association accounts is unwelcome - whatever the pretext or context (b) these cash handouts have been provided in times of dire need and when asked by support staff representing the association. I don't want to be penalised for doing something that was not of my own volition.

My suggestion, therefore, is for all office bearers to take it up individually with the supervisor and obtain a receipt for the amount paid and this must be adjusted against maintenance dues.

Best Regards,

Satish

Sent from my iPad

On 13-Feb-2013, at 4:29 AM, Treasurer RRWA wrote:

Dear all,

From the time the new bank account is operational,

We will be paying all maintenance payments through cheques.

In the past, some of us, including me have helped out Ravi with petty cash for diesel and other such stuff. Hopefully, going forward, we manage the bank account well going forward and such petty cash helping out can be minimized.

Please note that maintenance cheques should still be paid in full for appropriate amounts. There will be no "netting -off" of the cash with the maintenance payment.

Rajeshwari has sent me the details of cash owed to her from RRWA on account of petty cash helping. In case, any of you is owed anything by RRWA, please have it in record, latest by this weekend.

Thanks for your co-operation.

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On 13 February 2013 12:44, Treasurer RRWA wrote:

I take up specific roles.

I see the drift here, where titles are just mockery. Titles are mockery is fine, but actual roles are mockery here. That is not fine with me.

I do not take up such roles. I take up specific roles with clear boundaries.

I took up this role, with the hope that the role definitions will be defined by by-laws. That doesn't seem to be the case.

I resign as treasurer, as of this moment.

Ravi or anyone else can come and collect the papers from me.

With this mail,

I have formally communicated my resignation to the committee.

On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 9:35 AM, Satish Byravan wrote:

Dear Venkatesh,

I have written to you on this topic in another email as well. My point is just this.

If all of us take a position that we will ONLY use what is stated in the Bye-laws as our terms of reference, many of what we are doing today will take about 5 times longer or more. I sincerely believe that we should forget our titles and responsibilities and work together on most common issues. That way we can help each other do our jobs better and faster. Hence the need for meetings and efforts at consensus building.

I would also like to add that decisions made by an individual in his/her capacity as an office bearer may impact (adversely, at times) the overall upkeep of the complex. In professional organisations, we may fire the person responsible for a poor decision, what do we do here? Getting him/her off the post may be looked at as a reward. So, it becomes extremely important that we try to build a consensus on most issues so that everybody's view is heard and considered. While it might appear to be wasting precious time, it is the only way I can think of where we can ensure thought integrity in an association such as ours. And, thought integrity MATTERS. (emails are not good means of discussion - in case you've not found it out in your professional career).

Regarding the ad-hoc nature of our meetings, I have been largely responsible for that and apologise for it. If, we can evolve a system that lets us meet when we have to, I am happy to comply.

Having said all this, I believe that my time is valuable as well and there are umpteen ways I can use it. So, please be aware that the intent here is not to kill time without any purpose or to discuss and talk for the sake of discussing and talking.

Sent from my iPad

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