Collecting 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!