Bengaluru, which was once not only famous for its mild weather but also for its cost of living, has drastically changed in both respects over the decades. Costs of daily living have become inflated for the residents and they are bearing the brunt. Of late, one of the emerging issues that has been causing pressure on financing in costs of living is increasing apartment utility bills.
The construction of gated communities and apartment buildings is characteristic of the fastest-changing city in terms of the number of residents. The prices with respect to these property management services which include security, maintenance of common areas and all other activities have increased, with all factors relating to water, power and security also increasing.
A retired resident of a luxury flat in Jalahalli who did not give her name reported that the cost of maintenance has kept going up for the last two years. “Every month, we are required to pay maintenance charge of ₹6,273. It was about ₹5,967 few months back which again was a lot. There has been a lack of supply of water for a long time during this hot summer and I have noticed a rush for water tankers causing the apartment’s association to keep increasing the maintenance charge all the time,” recalled the resident.
Water rates have also seen a hike of 50 pc in the case of an apartment in J P Nagar 4th phase, as told by one resident of the apartment. “We have resided here for over a decade now, and our apartment maintenance charge has been very affordable. However, since March this year, there has been a rise in water depreciation, which is included in the monthly maintenance bills, of not less than 50%,” the resident said. “The water expenses were for every resident between ₹400-450, each month but after summer, water expenses increased to ₹800-1,000 monthly” she further stated.
Insufficient visiones
At one of the apartments in Turahalli, which has about 1,120 units, planning according to the locals is the biggest folly of the builders which has now resulted in water scarcity and elevated maintenance costs,“ Our apartment is not older than five years and we rely mostly on water tankers because we are overusing the ground water”.
7-8 borewells were dug when the apartment complex was built, but only two years later, the ground water has already run dry. The more the occupancy increased over time, even the ground water level decreased. “RWH systems are just a tick mark for the builders, catchment areas are not designed properly, there is spillage or there is no direct flow into the catchment area and residents have to spend more time and effort to install good RWH systems,” she added.
Because of this reason the residents of the apartment complex have been relying on the water tankers for close to almost one year. Water supply agencies hire their water tankers on long term contracts only, they ask for many months of commitment because they are worried that after good rains their business will shrink. “As to whether we still consume the same amount of water tankers or not, every single day without fail, we are billed the same amount of fees. For our case, the average monthly maintenance charges for our apartment previously was around ₹6,000 but since the hot season, it went up to maksimal ₹8,000-₹9,000 (coupled with the area of apartment occupied by our household) at its peak. In that case, Around ₹2,000 is taken per month from each household for water supply,” he added further.
Some resident dwellers also mention that the maintenance charge has gone up because security agencies have increased their rates.
“Finding security personnel is always a challenge and one of the aspects that even brings liability to a project but before the pandemic it was easy. Most of the security personnel are from the North-east, and more so, they seem to have stayed either in their small towns, the pandemic relocated many of them and still seems to have a belief in the smaller towns. Young local security guards are hard to come by, and even when agencies deploy localites, most of them are over 45 years old and cannot take the strain, be it physical or ‘boredom,’” said Deepak Nayak, another resident in an apartment block in Turahalli.
Some guests, delivery personnel,
He highlighted that there are many guests, delivery men and men visiting the apartments for other reasons a few in a minute which calls for very active personnel manning the security. They also possess the basic educational qualification required for the routine activities of application and registration book maintenance at the entry gate. “Such personnel are chargeable at higher rates. Because of the high importance of the security and operationality of the building, we chose to accept the decision, which is around ₹500 additional per unit per month, in addition to the maintenance of ₹3500 we already have,” added Deepak.
Priya Ramesh, who has lived in a gated community located in Whitefield for many years states that the situation is no difference in their community, “In the last one year only, we were made to pay almost 20% more on our apartment maintenance fees and the cause is the increasing prices of the security services. We were already enjoying the extra levies that were priced for the aqua in this season. The security agencies we employ are over charging us due to understaffing and escalation of prices. We surely do respect our safety, but it is rather discouraging to have such sudden and steep price increases,” she said.
However, Santosh, the manager of Garuda Security Services operational for over three decades in Bengaluru, bears a contrary view. Santosh says that contrastingly from other parts of the country, “very nominal amount” is charged by agencies in the city to provide security for the apartments. “There are minimum wages prescribed by the government for security staff. No apartment in Bangalore is willing to pay an amount which would cover this. Our business survives only because of most of the structural measures taken up a delivery, at this price, possesses little elements of risk than where compliance with the salary conditions set by government imposes upon us,” he said.
Larger apartments require more than two security staff as minimum for every apartment. Although we do not charge a lot for this service, for the apartments who do not want to dish out a reasonable amount of money, it shall come to compromises, we shall not be able to employ bright young people who will be willing to do more than send greetings from the gates. The lowest amount we get paid,he emphasised, is of the order of ₹ 20,000 per personnel. Of this we try out to give as their salary close to ₹… 14,000 is the sum given to them, the rest is taken up by their medical plans and other such financial schemes,’ he said.
Santosh states that there are almost ten lakh Security Officers in the state Karnataka which are much more in number than the Police. He states that if the government calls for the correct funds, schemes and policies for security guards, then more younger and educated will want to join the role.
Electricity bills too
In an interview with The Hindu, Satish Mallya, who is the Vice President of Bangalore Apartment’s Federation (BAF), declares there is definitely an increase in maintenance charges for apartments from March this year, since there is a shortage of water in the City of Bengaluru. He adds that even security services, like many other manpower driven services, are bound to increase and so the rates for these services will follow suit.
“However electricity bills have been the ower and the big muscles that have been considerably added to the maintenance charges, in more than most if not all apartments For example between 45-56% of maintenance cost in most apartments metropolitan are caused by growing electricity cost for the common area usage. We have been advocating the usage of solar panels for electricity, and till now 100-120 apartments have installed them. It will be a huge capex up front but after five years the apartments won’t have any electricity costs for the common area, which will account for 50% of their maintenance cost,” explains Mallya.
