We have received an advisory notice from estate office about following some guidelines to keep the complex clean, safe and one of the best in this area, to maintain aesthetic beauty of campus, to avoid inconvenience/accident to other residents as per laid guidelines in UP apartment act and our own model bye-laws.
The notice says:
(a) Kindly do not put your wet clothes on the railing of balconies for drying. It spoils the railings, at times water drips down to lower floors from wet clothes, increases dampness in balcony walls, does not match with the image of the complex and is in contravention to the existing provisions of U P Apartment Act 2010.
(b) Kindly do not keep anything, like flower pots, idols, shoe racks etc in the lift lobby, in front of your flats, which may block the rescue operations in case of fire etc incidents.
(c) Also do not put flower pots on the wall of the balconies, which may accidentally fall and cause damage and injury to the lower floor occupants.
(d) Kindly do not throw any garbage, water or spit from your balcony since it creates problems for lower floor occupants.
You all are requested to kindly extend your best cooperation in this regard.
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However, the model bye laws or UP apartment does not clearly define the extent and type of punishment, and estate office or RWA/AOA have seen adopted arbitrary and inhuman methods of cutting electricity or water to put pressure on residents to follow the rules.
So, the questions are:
1. Do we believe in these guidelines?
2. Are they practical?
3. Is the punishment of cutting electricity/water until you follow is justified?
4. What is the best practice to make people follow on issued guidelines? Is it monetary fine? what if they do not pay?
These questions are also good for us to answer to handle it now with PCW and later on by our own RWA/AOA.