I am the secretary of a three-storey apartment building with flats ranging from 1,654sqft, 1,250sqft to 854sqft and 400sqft. All of us contribute Rs 500 every month to pay the security personnel, the sweeper and the electricity bill for the common metre. How should we charge flat-owners when some repair work or painting has to be done?

Anup Kumar Sinha Roy, Lake Gardens

You can either divide the cost among the flat-owners or the monthly bill can be increased to build a corpus, which can be used for repair or other works.

Our housing cooperative society cannot agree on the annual maintenance fee. The executive body has said the charge should be based on the area of a flat plus parking space. Each flat-owner has a parking slot. My contention is that the society is looking after the common areas and utility and emergency services, not individual flats. Ours is an higher-income-group complex comprising flats of different sizes.

Can the society ask for maintenance charge proportionate to the size of a flat?

Can it demand maintenance charge for parking space (covered or open)?

I am a retired employee who depends on pension alone and can’t afford to pay such a high maintenance fee.

Swaraj Sinha, Howrah

The society can ask for maintenance charge proportionate to the size of a flat because that is the practice.

The car parking area can be included to calculate the fee. It is only fair that the owners pay up. If you do not own a parking slot, you will be spared.

I bought a flat in Sodepur, North 24-Parganas, sometime back and will register it in May. My promoter says I have to pay Rs 50 extra as stamp duty per square foot as my flat has marble flooring, which puts it in the luxury bracket. Is my promoter right?

Abhijit Mondal

Subregistrars tend to value a flat higher if there is marble flooring. However, the Rs 50 figure seems arbitrary. The charge will depend on the valuation done by the subregistrar and the stamp duty will have to be paid accordingly. You should ask the promoter to give in writing the extra burden and then get the figure cross-checked at the subregistrar’s office.

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Sambit Saha, Business Telegraph, ABP Ltd,
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