August 1, 2013
In the interest of keeping the entire community informed, SCMC is submitting this Monthly report on its activities during July 2013. SCMC welcomes constructive criticism, suggestions for enhancing the quality of our campus life through better maintenance and upkeep.
Outcomes
1. The takeover of maintenance from L&T with effect from July 1 has been smooth and without any disruptions whatsoever.
2. We fully discharged our obligation of paying Rs 50 lakhs to L&T as per the Court order.
3. Our community has responded splendidly to our requests, alerts and follow-up actions by paying the ad hoc maintenance charges. For June 2013, we have achieved compliance by 89% of the 1998 apartments.
4. Closed down the temporary garbage yard.
5. Cleared major blockages in storm water drains and sewage lines
6. Conducted one fire drill in the C Cluster.
7. Successfully replaced the erstwhile Security/ House Keeping contractors in spite of threats, even while ensuring that as many of the workers who wanted to continue in South City were so accommodated.
8. The staff of JLL supervised the improvements in the CA II site to make it suitable as a playground. This work should be complete in a day or two.
9. We have finalized almost all the AMC and other contracts
10. Introduced some processes for NOC/MIMO and we are fine tuning it.
11. We have begun to relocate Notice Boards in blocks to better/ more readable locations
12. Introduced a Daily Management Report (DMR) to be submitted by JLL's property manager as the primary method for keeping track of maintenance activities of the complex. We are fine tuning the format. Once finalized, it will be automatically posted every day in our google groups for perusal by all residents.
13. We have contracted with 'Apna Complex' as the software vendor to set up the software platform to manage all IT needs of maintenance- including notices/payments/ receipts; apartment wise accounting; asset management; handling complaints; financial accounting; etc...
14. We have fully documented the status of our assets/ maintenance practices/lacunae etc and reported the same to L&T, with a demand that they make suitable amends in cases where they have been clearly amiss as the maintenance provider. Some of these are very serious and we will take appropriate action if not acted upon by L&T within a reasonable time.
15. We have created FDs for appropriate amounts out of our savings bank account to earn better returns on our surplus cash.
Lessons
1. No monthly collections should be allowed anymore. From now on, we should stick to quarterly collections in advance.
2. Financial penalty and DG disconnection are very effective and appropriate measures to improve compliance.
3. We should never get involved in landlord- tenant arrangements for maintenance payments.
4. We must be extremely careful before allowing any internal modifications of apartments. Prior certification of structural safety by a competent agency must be insisted upon.
5. AMCs with lift OEMs suffer from exploitation of monopoly behaviour by OEMs and we must be very demanding and alert as customers
6. More than service levels of visible services like security/ housekeeping who are our favourite whipping boys, it is the service levels of AMCs for technical services which are crucial for the safety and reliability of our services.
7. Common areas are no one's areas, unless specifically monitored.
8. We need to be very careful before issuing NOC/MIMO. We must insist on at least a week's prior notice by the intending mover, to ensure that we check up and satisfy ourselves that everything is in order.
Plans
1. Try and dissolve SCMC at the earliest possible time by ensuring maintenance is passed on to Owners' association under a proper legal process.
2. Though our first month of marriage with the residents appears rocky in the email world, we are convinced we are still enjoying the honeymoon period. Therefore, we propose to get as many things as possible done in the interest of the community.
3. Getting several promises made by L&T regarding maintenance related aspects implemented- for example, rewiring of DG connections in B1, B5 and C3.
4. Reporting to the Court on our progress as Receivers and seeking suitable directions
5. Finalize plans for treatment of service tax and appointment of an auditor.
6. Setting up accounting, control, and auditing documents/ systems/ processes
7. Finalize SLAs to be monitored and certified by volunteers in each block - covering Security, Housekeeping, Upkeep of common areas like corridors/ stair cases, terraces, lift lobbies; water supply; DG support etc. - this will be insisted upon before we release payments to JLL.
8. We will be sharing vendor information across several neighbouring apartment complexes through an initiative by BANA. This will help us in being better informed and gaining bargaining strength with our vendors...
9. We are seriously exploring setting up our own wet waste processing systems towards becoming a ‘Zero’ wet waste garbage generating community. We are studying the system set by Christ University for possible adaptation to suit our community requirements.
Efforts
1. If we really want to run a democratically run, responsive and responsible operation, a Complex of our size needs at least 100 part-time volunteer residents in various forms/ time commitments/ areas of expertise and interests/ contacts with service providers officials and politicians.
2. We therefore seek the active participation and contribution of individual residents. We shall continue with our policy of maximum transparency and address legitimate concerns expressed by residents. We are encouraged by the generally positive response from residents and shall try our best not to be deterred from our task by the few provocative voices repeatedly targeting us.
R. Rajagopalan
Member, SCMC