Q: Three flats in the top floor of our four-storey building have their personal terraces. These flat owners do not include the terraces while calculating maintenance charges collected on an area basis. As these spaces are exclusively owned and used by them, shouldn’t these areas be included in the calculation of the maintenance charges? We are not registered under the Apartment Ownership Act.

Name withheld

A: Maintenance charges, their assessment, mode of payment, etc. are usually sorted out by mutual agreement and discussion in most buildings unless there are any specific statutes governing them. If maintenance charges in your building is collected on the basis of area, you should have made the three flat owners liable for charges relating to the terraces right from the beginning. Imposing additional charges upon them now without holding a meeting and taking their consent would be arbitrary.

Q: My father bought a flat in a co-operative housing society and made my mother the nominee. After his demise, my mother applied to the society and was granted membership. Can my mother nominate my brother (my only sibling) excluding me as the heir to the property? Will I have any right to the flat?

Saumitra Basu, via e-mail

A: If your mother nominates your brother you shall have no right to the flat since the provision of the West Bengal Co-operative Societies Act, 1973, supersedes any other law. When a member of a co-operative society appoints one of his heirs as a nominee, other heirs will not be able to challenge the same.

Q: I have a commercial tenant at an old tiled shed. Since the reconstruction of the shed four years ago, the tenant has stopped paying any rent. He is also not replying to my letters. How can I resolve this issue without filing for eviction?

Dipak Chandra, Calcutta

A: If your intention is to proceed legally then you have no option but to send your tenant a legal notice to quit the premises on grounds of default of rent as well as other grounds provided under the West Bengal Premises Tenancy Act. If in spite of the notice your tenant does not surrender the tenancy you have little choice but to file a suit for eviction.