Senior Citizens in Mumbai Robbed at Gunpoint in their own Home

Jun 24,2015 / By Team Commonfloor Groups / No Comment

In a recent incident reported by the Times of India (http://goo.gl/qoVYAR) that took place in the first week of June 2015, where a senior citizen who was alone at his home was exploited by a person who posed as a gas agency executive has left many shaken.

The incident occurred between 2.15pm and 3.30pm when the accused charged on Sridhar Bhate (the victim) and overpowered him. He tied Bhate’s hands and legs with a nylon string which he was carrying and at knifepoint robbed him of valuables worth rupees 40,000. Fortunately the accused left without hurting Bhate. But not always are victims so lucky and many a time they are grievously injured and even murdered. Like it happened to a senior couple at the end of 2014 when Nauseer Irani (76) and his wife Nargis (74) were murdered in their flat in Palghar – Mumbai. The New Indian Express (http://goo.gl/dpivPV) reported that four unidentified persons had forcibly entered their house murdered them and debunked with a total of rupees 4.9 lakhs from the house, mostly in the form of jewelry. The incident happened during the afternoon and it was discovered only the next morning.

Domestic Help Drugs and Robs Resident in Mumbai

Jun 24,2015 / By Team Commonfloor Groups / No Comment

Domestic helps, while being a boon to working professionals to give them some respite in their hectic lives, are often known to be accomplice in robbery/ murder of their employers for money and valuables.

Recently in Khar, Mumbai as reported by the DNA (http://goo.gl/Xz3Nh0), a domestic help had attacked and robbed his employer, an elderly couple, of valuables and fled. Police are finding it difficult to trace the person as the couple only knew his first name and no other details to trace their address/ origins. This is not the first time that such daunting incidents have come to light. Many times these house-hold helps or drivers/ babysitters allow their acquintances to enter the house with the intention of robbing the residents. Police are typically clueless as victims are unable to provide any details of their domestic help, apart from just first names and a few basic details. It’s also a myth that this doesn’t happen in gated communities.

Recent break-in in Koramangala’s upscale housing society grips residents by fear

Jun 22,2015 / By Team Commonfloor Groups / No Comment

Crime is increasing each year and it ranges from snatching to burglaries, to murders and much more. The recent one left the residents of the upscale Raheja Arcade miffed. Raheja Arcade is located in Koramangala III Block and mainly houses those who hold mid and senior level positions at top corporates. Raheja Arcade is guarded round the clock but in spite of such high level security (or so it seems) an unidentified gang broke into the compound in the wee hours of Thursday and walked away with a huge sandal wood tree which had grown very close to the main entrance.

Police after the primary investigation says that the gang must have entered with a battery operated saw through the rear end of the building. But what both the police and the residents are still unsure of, is how did the gang even get to know about a sandalwood tree which has grown within the compound, and secondly how can these miscreants enter such a guarded complex.

This is not the first time that such an incident has taken place in Bangalore. The first week of March this year saw Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd. being struck by a similar incident. The only difference being the gang held hostage the security guards and within minutes walked away with the 15 meter tall sandal wood tree. Police say that these incidents cannot take place without the help of insiders – either security guards themselves or people who work as drivers, maids, gardeners and the like in the complexes and hence are regulars, pass on such information.

Have you thought of how to deal with a similar situation if it occurs in your housing complex? But it’s said precaution is better than cure so won’t it be better to safeguard your housing society against such untoward incidents? Well here are some of the things that you can undertake for a safer community living.

Maintain Visitor Log :- Do make sure that all visitors, vendors and staff are strictly tracked for their entry/ exit through various gates. Their basic detais ( Name/ Number etc) should be tracked while entering the premise. Also make sure they are not fudging their identities.
Background Verificatiion of Staff :- All staff (full time or part-time) must have background verification done, before being hired. Ideally, any full-time staff should have gone through a round of police verifications through a neighbouring police stations, else you may never know whome you might be employing. If a staff is hired through an agency, insist them to get it done before employing the staff.
Maintan Staff Database :- It’s important to have a copy of their identity proof (Adhar card, pan card , voter ID card etc.) and a verified mobile number maintained for each Staff( Private of Office) who’s entering the premise on a regular basis. If possible, issue them Badges with their photographs so that it’s easier to identify their movements.
Managing Resident Guests: - Have a defined process alerting residents when they have a visitor and don’t let anyone in without taking authorization from the resident via Intercom/ phone numbers. If suspicous, have a security guard escort the guest till the residents door.

Do you know of any Smarter way to secure the premises? Feel free to share with us in comments.

P.S :- By the way, do watch out for this space and we might be coming out with a really smart solution to handle this.

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.

maintenance Right Step uncategorized

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