Residents’ body takes over maintenance at Logix Blossom County; builder says ‘illegal’

Over a year after it was formed, the apartment owners’ association (AOA) of Logix Blossom County in Sector 137 on Thursday took over the security and maintenance of the society.

The builder had allegedly been resisting the handover of facilities and has appealed against the AOA’s election process citing illegality, residents said.

However, according to representatives of the developer, the AOA has allegedly taken over the facilities and their maintenance forcefully, which is a contempt of high court orders.

The AOA of the society was formed in September 2021, more than a year ago. According to AOA members, they have been asking the developer to transfer the security and maintenance to the association since then, but to no avail.

“Along with some other residents, the builder made false complaints to the deputy registrar that the AOA was illegal. The deputy registrar passed some orders that we challenged in the Allahabad high court, and the court has asked to maintain status quo. However, it has raised no questions on the legitimacy of the AOA. The builder is only stalling to keep getting the maintenance charges without providing any facilities to residents,” said Neeraj Sharma, general secretary of the AOA.

Residents have also filed several complaints regarding the ongoing poor maintenance of the society with the Noida authority. In April 2021, the authority also conducted an inspection and asked the builder to work on 19 points of concerns that were found deficient in the society. However, no status report has been filed by the builder as yet.

“Handing over maintenance also means transferring the interest free money security (IFMS), or sinking fund, which is a large amount that has to be used for major repairs and damages in the society. Also, for a large society like this, the builder collects almost 72 lakh in maintenance charges every month from residents, but there is hardly any corresponding facility given,” said Manoj Prasad, president of the AOA.

He added that after the HC order in September 2022, the services were taken over peacefully by the AOA, with the support of the local police and after due issuance of public notice in newspapers. AOA members said that the proceedings were completely legitimate, but the builder was trying to barge in with bouncers to halt the transfer.

According to representatives of the builder, however, the facilities as well as the maintenance office were forcefully taken over by the AOA, which has no legal authority as of now.

“The AOA itself is in dispute and the HC order clearly asks to maintain status quo, which means that this AOA cannot take over. They have colluded with the local police and forcefully locked the maintenance office. Our staff has been made to stand at the gates and nobody is being let in. They have also made a parallel account and are asking residents to illegally transfer maintenance charges there. This is clearly contempt of court orders and we will contest it,” said Hemant Sharma, spokesperson, Logix Infrastructure Pvt Ltd.

There are 17 towers in the society, of which occupancy certificate has been provided only to 10 towers as the developer has not cleared its dues with the Noida authority.

The developer, meanwhile, claimed that residents also had dues of over 4 crore maintenance charges. The AOA did not offer comment on this.