Monthly Archives: Apr 2014

Smart Residential Living

Everything You Need to Know About Paying Property Tax in Bangalore (2014-15)

Apr 30,2014 / By / No Comment

Rupees--600x600According to the notification issued by BBMP, you can pay your property tax through cheque, demand draft, Pay Order, or online using your credit card or through your Netbanking account (ICICI, HDFC, AXIS or IndusInd).

You can make the payment directly in BBMP Help centres or BangaloreOne centres anytime between 9.00 a.m. and 12.30 p.m. and again between 3.00 p.m. and 7.00 p.m.

Following are some important pointers regarding the payment of Property tax:

  • The tax rates remain the same for the financial year of 2014-2015 as the previous year.
  • If entire tax is paid before 30th April, you will earn a rebate of 5% on your incurred tax amount. If tax of 1st half of the year is not paid before 30th May, you will be charged an interest of 2% per month after that.
  • In case of payment in installments, for interest-free payment you need to make the 1st payment before 30th May and the second before 29th November.
  • If your tax details starting from 2008-2009 to 2013-2014 are available online, you can pay your BBMP property taxes online using your credit/debit card through the BBMP website. In this case, no transaction charges will apply. You will need your BESCOM & BWSSB connection R.R. Numbers or Meter Number while filling the online form.
  • If you have an assigned Khata or PID number, you can pay your property tax for the financial year 2014-15 through Cheque, DD, Pay Order or by using a Credit/Debit card at Office of the Assistant Revenue Officer or at BBMP Help Centres. If you don’t have a Khata can use separate forms/returns and pay similarly. People who have not paid taxes since 2008-09 can file their returns and then pay like the others.
  • If you don’t have an authorized revenue layout or don’t have an Occupancy Certificate/Ownership/Title Deed, you can pay register your property in B Register at the Office of the Assistant Revenue Office and pay your tax under the Self Assessment Scheme.
  • If the sum of your incurred tax and Solid Waste Management Cess is less than Rs.1000, you can pay at the Office of the Assistant Revenue Officer or at BBMP Help Centers in cash.
  • The Self Assessment Property Tax applications/return form and Solid Waste Management Cess application form are available at the Office of the Assistant Revenue Officer/ BBMP Help Centres. The Solid Waste Management Cess can be calculated on a yearly or half-yearly (proportionately) basis and must be paid while paying property tax.
  • BBMP has already issued a tax assessment notice to owners who haven’t made the payments from 2008-09 to 2012-13. Only after clearing the current outstanding due amount, you can pay property tax for 2014-15.
  • If you pay a property tax of over Rs.15000 by DD/Pay Order, the payment receipt is issued immediately. If you choose to pay the same by cheque, the receipt will be issued after the amount is realized. In case the amount is less than Rs.15000, the receipt is issued right away. In case you opt to pay your tax online, the payment receipt will be issued instantly.
  • Banks that allow you to make property tax payment over-the-counter: Canara Bank, Corporation Bank, HDFC Bank, IDBI Bank, Induslnd Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ING Vysya Bank and Yes Bank.
  • Property owners have to fill out one of the two forms – Form IV or Form V. For more details on this, visit http://www.karnataka.com/govt/bangalore-property-tax or directly call the relevant zonal office number.

Bangalore Zone Office Number Control Room Numbers:

AC/JC/DC (Yelahanka) 2297 5935 / 2297 5949 2363 6671 / 2297 5936
AC/JC/DC (Mahadevapura) 2851 1166 / 2851 2229 2851 2300 / 2851 2301
AC/JC/DC (Dasarahalli) 2297 5901 / 2297 5902 2839 4909 / 2839 3688
AC/JC/DC (Rajarajeshwari Nagar) 2860 4652 / 2860 3827 2860 0954 / 2860 1851
AC/JC/DC (Bommanahalli) 2573 2628 / 2573 5608 2573 2247 / 2573 5642
AC/JC/DC (West) 2297 5601 / 2346 4648 2356 1692 / 2346 3366
AC/JC/DC (South) 2297 5701 / 2297 5731 2656 6362
AC/JC/DC (East) 2297 5801 / 2559 5239 2297 5803

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Smart Residential Living

How To Manage Situations When Residents Do Not Pay Maintenance Dues

Apr 28,2014 / By / 8 Comments

Handle Residents Who Don’t Pay Maintenance_P1Collecting dues in a perfect world is un-challenging, in fact fulfilling. You get up early in the morning, stretch your arms, take a big yawn, shake your head and get ready for a work-filled yet lovely and successful day.
But snap back to reality!
You get up, stretch your arms and take a big yawn only to see it quickly fade when you’re reminded of your job of the day-COLLECTING MAINTENANCE DUES!!

And why do you exactly dread this day every month? Because some people simply forget it every month, and some detest the idea of paying their dues.
Now, the question is- How do you remind them to pay for the community services they avail, and what measures do you take if they refuse to pay?

  • Prevention is better than cure, so you can send them SMS/email reminders well in advance so that maintenance dues do not get lost in the long list of bills to pay (You can use CommonFloor Groups for the same).
  • If a resident has not paid his maintenance due till the decided due date, you may give a written notification of 12 days extra to make the payment, and then a grace period of 3 days.
  • If still not paid, discuss with the Management Committee and send a notice to the defaulter.
  • Post this, you may pass a resolution during an association meeting and send a legal notice to the defaulter after consulting an advocate.
  • An interest of 12% per annum may be charged on the default amount from the due date to the payment date.
  • After this, committee may withdraw community borne facilities such as tanker-water, or generator power supplied during a power-cut, or both. In this case, re-connection of services shall be made only if and when full default amount has been paid along with interest incurred. For re-connection of services, defaulter has to additionally pay some amount as penalty.

PS: The above mentioned points are suggestions, and not laws. Please consult your lawyer before implementing any of the above.

Some wise words of advice:
When you set your community’s by-laws, do it carefully and make sure you add a clause on steps/measures to be taken in case a resident continually/regularly defaults  on paying their due maintenance amount..

All said and done, remember what the amazing Spider-Man had once said-
‘With great power comes great responsibility.’
So, keep that in mind and keep up the hard work!

Here is a fun video that we made on this topic, do share it with your friends!

If you have effective ideas regarding this subject, or experiences you feel others can benefit from, do share them with us in comments!

 

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Product Updates

Custom Bulk SMS to be suspended During Election Silence Period (Starting 48 hours before election day to end of election day)

Apr 14,2014 / By / No Comment

To comply with the guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India, no custom bulk SMSes will be allowed to be sent from one party to the other through CommonFloor Groups starting 48 hours before the date of election in your respective cities.

This will not apply in case of SMSes under other categories that have a preset template such as Reminders, Complaints or Invoice/ Receipt of payment.

Bulk custom SMSes will not be sent to a given location starting from 48 hours before the election day of that location (state or union territory) to the end of the election day.
Visit the link below to know exactly which dates will be impacted:
http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/GE2014/Schedule/Home.htm

Also, remember you have a role in shaping your country to become the way you dream it to be. So, do exercise your right to vote to build a better nation for you and your future generations.
Note: Bulk SMS within this duration will not get delivered. Bulk SMSes of a political nature will be marked as spam.

 

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Smart Residential Living

10 Reasons Why You Need an Online Portal To Manage Your Residential Complex

Apr 9,2014 / By / 1 Comment

10-Reasons

Moving into a great residential complex is often not the beginning of the great time we hope to have. Maintaining what is good is equally important, else an otherwise great living experience can go sour in no time. It is very essential that the residents are well connected with each other, and the day-to-day administration is seamless.

Read on to know why you need an online portal to manage your residential complex and make it a great place to live in!

1) The kick-start: When you move in, your neighbours have your back. A regular milkman, good handyman, reliable maid, you cannot find all these on your own easily. A portal where you can start discussions with neighbors comes in very handy when you move in.

2) Connecting with neighbours: We all have seen neighbours become an extended family over time. It is important you find like-minded people you can depend on. Share hobbies, make tea-time visits, borrow things, arrange baby-sitting, find friends for your children, community living always makes life better. An online portal helps to find them, you can’t be knocking on very door, can you?

3) Complaints redressal: When residential complexes have hundreds of units, everyone has some issue or other at any point of time. How is it possible for your managing committee to track them and resolve them in time? And for you to check the status of your complaint? An online portal helps to assign, track, and escalate complaints.

4) Maintenance dues: For residents, its difficult to remember when to pay dues and how much. For managing committee members, reminding residents, collecting dues, tracking defaulters, and settling excess or deficit is a pain beyond description. An online portal helps send SMS reminders. Payments can be made online and hence easily tracked, and settlements are very easy.

5) Credible Accounting: It is hard to find people with great accounting knowledge and plenty of time at hand, to manage accounting in a residential complex. In such a situation, a portal that is specifically designed so that any resident can manage your community accounts and also be able to handle financial audits, is a great asset.

6) Finding and Managing vendors: If you are a resident, it helps if you can find a plumber or electrician, that someone known to you has already hired. For the management committee, it becomes very important they have contacts, payments, receipts, and contracts in place so that operations run smooth. An online portal can do all this in a few clicks.

7) Events: Don’t we all love fun events and need meetings? You can organize birthday parties or community new year celebrations, send online invites and SMS reminders. Need a quick meeting of all residents to close an issue? Door-to-door is simply an outdated and intrusive method.

8) Using Amenities: The amenities like club house, tennis court in apartments are limited, and it becomes difficult to manage conflicts for use. An online portal helps you book amenities online as needed, and also helps your committee with maintaining them.

9) Polls: Whether to go for waste segregation or rain water harvesting, decisions like these need common consensus before they get implemented. Using online polling helps you arrive at a consensus peacefully.

10) Managing Staff Access: Not every staff member in a committee needs access to all confidential data of your residential complex. An online portal helps managing committee members to regulate staff access levels so that important information is safe, irrespective of staff joining or leaving the management.

Once you have all these 10 factors in place, residential living actually transforms to a well-managed community living. Do share with us what are the main challenges you face in your residential complex, and you could find a solution!

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