DDA plan to maintain flats draws flak from owner associations

The Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) plan to maintain its flats for 30 years after allotment has come under flak from the umbrella body of the city’s apartment owners associations.

The Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) plan to maintain its flats for 30 years after allotment has come under flak from the umbrella body of the city’s apartment owners associations.

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The DDA had decided that it will take care of the maintenance of its flats for 30 years that are allotted as part of the upcoming housing scheme, 2014. For this purpose, the land owning agency will charge each flat allottee Rs 1.3 lakh separately to create a corpus that will take care of maintenance issues.

It plans to create a corpus of Rs 300 crore that will be put into an account and the interest from it would be used to maintain the 26,500 flats that are part of the scheme.

Authority vice-chairman Balvinder Kumar had told Hindustan Times that the authority would take care of the common areas and facades of these flats, which are usually neglected by residents. The DDA will take care of not only civil work such as repairs and painting but also lectrical fixtures.

The Federation of Delhi Apartment Owners Association, an umbrella body of all apartment owners, including both DDA flats and group housing society flats, however, feels that the DDA’s move is in violation of the law.

“First of all, by charging Rs 1.3 lakh from each allotte, the DDA is indulging in monopolistic trade practice,” said Sanjeev Kumar, president of the federation.

“In all its earlier housing schemes, the DDA had handed over maintenance to the apartment owner associations of the successful allottees. Why should there be any difference for the new scheme?” Kumar said.

“We have seen that more than association gets formed at many apartments, which results in fights and disputes. Maintenance can only be handed over in safer hands and that is why DDA has taken the onus of maintaining the flats itself,” said a senior DDA official who didn’t wish to be named.

“The idea is to have better maintenance of these apartments for the benefit of residents and if the majority wants to take care of maintenance by associations, that option too can be worked out,” he said.