Different ways to calculate maintenance charges in the housing society

You own an apartment but have you ever wondered about how the maintenance charge is calculated. Most of the homeowners have a misconception and they do not know the exact way of this calculation. This article will help you with step by step discussion, so keep an eye on this article till the end.

When you are into a flat or apartment, at the formative step the society will decide about its charges to be collected from the homeowners. Given below are the points that will guide you about the calculation of the charges.

The amount to be collected

The very first step in this situation is to decide how much amount is to be collected. The amount that is to be collected from the society will be utilized for ongoing maintenance of the society as well as for the repairing damages that would occur in the future.

The rate is fixed by the general body which is subjected to a minimum of 0.75 percent per year of the construction cost of each unit. Thus from the above lines, we understood that this can be charged on the basis of sq ft. The sq fit basis shows that it is an indirect indication of the construction expense of the apartment.

Apart from the expense of repairs, there are also other charges on which the society maintenance cost is calculated. They are service charges, expense on the lift, and maintenance of lift, sinking fund, parking charges, water charges, and insurance charges.

All the above factors add up to the maintenance cost of the society.

The basis on which the society charges would be shared

Once the particular amount has been decided, it is now time for the association to decide the basis on which the charges of the society will be divided and shared by each of the apartment owners. Mentioned below are the various ways of calculation.

Per sqft charge

Per sq, ft method is extensively used for the calculation of the maintenance charges for the societies. On the basis of this method, a fixed rate is levied per sq ft of the area of the flat.

If the rate is 3 per sq ft and you have a flat of 1000 sq ft then you will be charged INR 30000 per month. The positive side of this cost calculation is that it makes the calculation easy and fast.

But when talking about the cons this method turned out to be quite unfair for the owner of the large apartment and villas.

Equal maintenance

When the sizes of the apartments are the same and cannot be differentiated then this method is imposed, the total charges will be collected per month and then it will be divided by the number of units. The resultant amount will be charged from the homeowners.

The positive side of this process is that this is easy to calculate when the size of the apartment in society is almost the same.

Hybrid method

In this process, the first part includes a fixed charge among the homeowners while the other is calculated on the basis of the area they own. Among the above methods, this method is known to be the fair method of calculating the maintenance charge.

This article was enough to discuss the detail about the maintenance cost of the society. From next time you will be fully aware how your housing society calculates the maintenance cost that you pay.

Older Articles New Articles