Property Taxes slated to increase with BBMPs proposal to include common area as well for computation

Jun 19,2015 / By Team Commonfloor Groups / No Comment

Are you tired of the high property tax, that you have to pay every year? Unfortunately, this will only increase further with BBMP proposing a plan to charge property tax on the common areas in commercial and apartment complexes. Common areas are playgrounds, swimming pools, gardens/lawns, parking spaces etc. All this while, flat owners in a way were paying less tax, says BBMP, as taxes were only being calculated as per the carpet area which is the actual usable area minus the wall thickness. However, since the common areas are used by all on an overall basis, the tax thus paid is comparatively less.

Considering this fact along with BBMP’s need for a higher influx of revenue where they are eyeing a 40% increase, they have planned to charge the common areas used by property owners in their gated communities. Also, club houses and community halls would be taxed separately as communities rent these out for functions and other commercial purposes. In other words these will be treated as any other commercial building and will be taxed in the same manner, the way any supermarket or a mall is charged for property tax.

If you are still wondering about calculations well here’s an example. If you are living in a community with 20 flats, each having a sq ft area of 10,000 for which each flat owner is paying tax individually. Now there are common areas like store room, gym, lawns etc. which all together takes up a sq ft area of 15,000. This 15,000 sq feet area would be proportionately divided among the 20 flat owners.

BBMP is currently only doing the required surveys and has ordered all the tax inspectors and revenue inspectors in each ward to survey the apartment complexes and ascertain the quantum of payments that requires to be made. The survey has already started in Mahadevapura and Bommanahalli zones and will soon reach the other parts of the city. Also, BBMP is studying the tax calculation on common areas made in other metropolitan cities before bringing about this move in a full-fledged way.

However, many apartment owners are not taking this change happily and feels that maintenance already covers the tax on common areas.

Do you think BBMP has made a fair move or is it unnecessary? Do let us know your thoughts on this in the comments section below.

Source:http://www.deccanherald.com/content/483211/tax-likely-apartment-pools-parking.html

Money Manager Discounts Feature Added

Jun 17,2015 / By Team Commonfloor Groups / No Comment

With CommonFloor Groups, Treasurers can easily apply discounts either for single invoices or for bulk invoices. Purpose is to waive off a certain amount of the invoice raised, if required, so that it no longer shows as a Receivable from that house.
Path: Money Manager > Income> Single/ Bulk Invoices

Note: Discounts can only applied for unpaid invoices.

Click on the discount button and you’ll get a pop up box. Enter the discount amount, discount date and the reason for discount. Discounts can only be accessed by level 3 (L3) and level 4 (L4) admins who are the property managers and treasurers.

Once discount is applied the system will consider the invoice as partially paid and you can filter the status of the invoice as discounted and view.

This discount will now show in your ‘house statement’ and also on the ‘transaction report’.

To access the ‘House Statement’ click on Money Manager then Income and you will find ‘House Statement’. Here you can look for the invoice for the month where the discount had been applied against your house number. (In our case it would be July 1st 2015 for house A,A0102). The Discount amount imposed will appear in the Credit of the house statement.

Note: The outstanding amount of that invoice and outstanding amount for the house will decrease with respect to the discount amount.

Money Manager> Income> House Statement

As mentioned above this discount would also show up on the Transaction report. Select the Ledger of ‘Discounts on Invoices’ and here the transaction of Discount is shown as a Debit (this is the other ledger impacted by the discount entry).

Once discounts are applied both SMS/email will be triggered to the resident of the house.

Money Manager>Report> Transaction Reports> Choose Ledger>Discount on Invoices (in this case)

Lastly, to delete enter into the particular house and click the ‘delete’ button. Access it from the ‘House Statement’ option and put in your house number.

Earth caves in under one of Bangalore’s posh high rises- 32 flats evacuated

Jun 16,2015 / By Team Commonfloor Groups / No Comment

People living in high rises have one nagging fear, their building being one of the firsts to collapse in the face of an earthquake. June 15th was one such day for the residents of the posh Queens Corner Apartments. Tremors were felt and with vivid images of the Nepal earthquake still fresh it was found out much to their dismay that a large section of the compound wall had collapsed along with a huge tree which even created cracks on the building. The collapse has affected not only apartments of Queens Corner but also the houses in the neighboring Income Tax Colony.

The reason is stated to be a huge excavation which was done very close to Queens Corner for the construction of a 20 storey building by Legacy Projects. However, residents are also saying that a large pipe which is close to 15 inch in diameter has been leaking for more than 10 days which had been left unattended in spite of making repeated complaints to the BWSSB and this has resulted in the earth loosening further caving in the earth and hollowing out a major section of area. So there’s this one enormous pit dug out by Legacy Global Projects Pvt. Ltd. for an apartment complex in the adjoining plot and the huge crater just below Queens Corner due to the earth caving in. The hollow which is about 15-feet deep just near block C of Queens Apartment have sacred the residents out of their living dreams and 32 flats of an entire block in Queens Corner apartment, Queens Circle were evacuated along with many residents of the affected Income Tax Colony. Residents evacuated from Queens Colony has either moved to hotels or homes of relatives while residents of the Income Tax Colony has been shifted to guest houses.

Lal Mirpuri, president of residents’ association of Queens Corner stated that repeated complaints had been made not only to BWSSB for fixing the leaking pipe but also to Legacy Projects just after they had dug out the huge pit which had resulted in cracks in their building. As per Defence News India, He also claimed that the association members had made several requests to Legacy Projects for building retention walls in the pit they had dug but all in vain. However, Legacy Global Projects claimed that the large concrete pylons they had built against the mud wall had also collapsed in the accident.
Legal action has already been taken and the builder has been booked under section 336 of the Indian Penal Code for an act endangering life or personal safety of others.

What would you do if something like this happens near your housing society? Any proactive way to deal with such situations?

Source :- http://goo.gl/jDfoHR

Monthly Archives: Jun 2015

Property Taxes slated to increase with BBMPs proposal to include common area as well for computation

Money Manager Discounts Feature Added

Earth caves in under one of Bangalore’s posh high rises- 32 flats evacuated