Mumbai: Housing society to pay Rs 2 lakh for ignoring plaints for 7 yrs

Neelima Apartment in Bhandup West, where Sudam Bhogle (inset) resides, is almost 35 years old. Pic/Rajesh Gupta

After fighting for seven years to get repairs done to the cracked beams and columns of his flat, a senior citizen residing in a Bhandup West society has finally got some relief. The Mumbai suburban district consumer disputes redressal forum has ruled in favour of 62-year-old Sudam Bhogle, a resident of Neelima Apartment CHS, directing the housing society committee to pay him Rs 2.05 lakh as compensation for damage to his furniture and for mental harassment.

In 2014, Bhogle had complained to his housing society committee that cracks were appearing in the beams and columns of his apartment. Also, the walls had developed cracks, which were leading to seepage problems during the rains. Bhogle, who resides on the first floor of the 35-year-old building, wrote letters to the society committee requesting them to do the repair work but allegedly received no response.

While the seepage problem started damaging his furniture, he also developed health issues due to excessive humidity and moisture in the house. Bhogle wrote letters to the deputy registrar of the housing society and executive engineer of S ward as well. As the committee did not pay any attention to his pleas, in September 2018 he sent a notice to them. Soon after, the committee assured it would look into the repair work but nothing of the sort happened. Eventually, Bhogle took the matter to the district consumer disputes redressal forum in November 2019.

The forum issued a notice to the housing society committee members and told them to appear or send representation, but as they failed to do so, it decided to proceed with the case in January 2020. The forum screened the complaint letters sent by Bhogle to the committee and pictures of beams and columns of his house. Bhogle further claimed that he had spent Rs 3,67,500 for internal repairs.

Considering the situation of the building, the forum gave its verdict on October 26 this year, directing the society to pay Rs 1.50 lakh as cost for internal repairs caused by the negligence of the committee to Bhogle, Rs 50,000 for mental harassment and Rs 5,000 as cost for the complaint. It has also directed the committee to get the repairs done within 60 days from the order under supervision of a BMC-listed civil engineer.

Committee speaks

Committee member, Narayanan Iyer said, "We haven't received any order from the forum yet, so can't comment on the compensation part. We were in talks with Bhogle to get the repairs done as it's a problem of the entire A wing, but don't know why it turned into a legal issue."

‘Hope they act now'

When asked about the order, Bhogle said, "I am happy that the forum heard my pleas and ruled in my favour. The committee has not being paying attention to serious problems pointed out by me. Let's hope they act now."

Forum says

The forum said in its order, "The situation in this case is the result of the adamant and negligent behaviour of the society officer bearers. If they don't want to function properly or don't want to provide service with a serving attitude then they should call for a special meeting and tender their resignation. Members who truly want to work for other residents should be in the housing society office."