The dilemma of ＂three lost＂ in urban residential area-the imbalance of rights： how can the owners win when fighting with the property？
In our country, most urban communities are composed of closed communities composed of high-density assembled houses, and each community is inhabited by thousands or even tens of thousands of people. With the intensification of population mobility, the community composed of strangers is completely different from the traditional rural community, and it is also different from the unit compound based on colleague relationship. Here, the binding force of acquaintance social rules is greatly weakened, and the large-scale and high-density living style makes various contradictions and disputes increasingly high, and new governance mechanisms and models need to be established urgently.
It seems that all kinds of contradictions and disputes in the community are mostly small problems, but in fact, the small problems that have accumulated over time and repeatedly have had a great impact on the living quality and living standards of the people. At the moment when the city is pursuing connotative development and vigorously improving people’s sense of happiness and gain, the community where we live every day should not become a forgotten corner and let "wrangling" be staged from time to time.
To this end, the editorial department of the semi-monthly talk organized reporters to go to Sichuan, Hainan, Jiangxi, Yunnan and other places to conduct research from three dimensions: residents and property, residents and community services, and sort out three major dilemmas: unbalanced rights, out-of-control disputes and service disability, which will serve as a pulse for the management of residential quarters.
Thematic planning and editing: Yuan Bixia Xu Xicai
The dilemma of "three lost" in urban community — — Unbalanced rights: how can the owners win when fighting with the property?
Half-monthly talk with reporter Zhao Yeping, Lu You, Yi Xuru
Compared with organizations, individuals are always in a weak position. This is reflected in the contradictions in the community. Residents in the scattered community can’t have an equal dialogue with the property company at all, and some behaviors of the property company are obviously unreasonable, so they can only bear it. If this imbalance persists, some contradictions and disputes will accumulate, which may even lead to mass incidents.
"Buy a suite with your life savings, and then spend money on the property to toss yourself!" Some owners have issued such a sigh.
Property VS Residents: Highlighting Five Contradictory Focuses
In almost every community, there are contradictions between residents (including owners and tenants) and property in one way or another. According to the statistics of 12345 citizen service hotline in Haikou City, Hainan Province, in 2017 and 2018, the hotline complaint type data ranked first, and most disputes originated from inadequate community management and chaotic charges. Government departments spend a lot of administrative resources to deal with these disputes, but they often end up without results.
Half-monthly interviews with reporters found that the current contradiction between residential residents and property mainly focuses on the following aspects.
Focus 1: Property charges rise at will, and owners default from time to time.
Recently, a residential property company outside the South Fifth Ring Road in Beijing informed the owners that the property fee rose from 2.18 yuan to 2.68 yuan, which triggered some owners’ resistance. "The property company claimed that after telephone and household consultation, it reached a unified opinion with most owners, but in fact some owners did not know." The owner, Mr. Chen, said that the property also held a "revenue and expenditure briefing meeting", but the accounts were not audited by a third party and were unconvincing.
A property manager told a reporter who talked for half a month that property is a small profit industry. Many times, once the owner delays paying the property fee, it is easy to cause the enterprise to lose money. So sometimes, in order to ensure their own interests, some property companies will force owners to pay by stopping handling water and electricity bills.
Focus 2: Public infrastructure needs to be repaired and replaced, but the cost is unclear.
Since 2016, located in a residential area between the First Ring Road and the Second Ring Road in Chengdu, elevators often break down. In April this year, the property company in the residential area posted a notice saying that the property company had funded the maintenance of elevators for several years, and the maintenance cost reached 425,000 yuan. This news caused some owners to question. Liu Jiabin, deputy secretary of the Party branch of the community, told reporters in half a month that at that time, some owners felt that the maintenance fund of 971,000 yuan had been used in the past three years. Why did it generate more than 400,000 yuan in advance expenses?
Focus 3: Community public assets are abused for profit, and the income and expenditure are unknown.
There are some assets owned by the owners in the community, and property companies often use them to obtain income without the owners’ knowledge or consent, and the whereabouts of expenditures are unknown. Take advertising revenue as an example. Most of the light box advertising and elevator advertising resources in the community are sold by property companies to advertisers, but the revenue is rarely announced to the owners, and most owners don’t know where the revenue is used.
An owner of Lehuo Gongyuan City Community in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province told reporters that there are 10 buildings in the community, each with two stairs and three billboards in each staircase. The owner directly removed the advertisement of the building where he lived, and the property was monitored to find the owner. The owner believes that the elevator is a public space and cannot be used for elevator advertising, and requires the property to announce the use of billboards. Finally, the property did not install billboards in this elevator, and never gave relevant financial information.
Focus 4: Parking charges are chaotic and management norms can’t keep up.
With the popularization of urban cars, parking spaces are becoming scarce resources. In many cities across the country, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, it is not uncommon for some property companies to raise the price of parking spaces at will. Disputes caused by parking chaos and parking difficulties are staged almost every day in some communities. "There are always other people’s cars parked in the parking spaces that my family pays for." Mr. He, who lives in Binjiang Community, Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province, said, "The property always says that it should be standardized, but there has been no movement."
Focus 5: The collection of water and electricity charges failed to facilitate the people, but instead "pitted the people".
In some communities, residents’ utilities are collected by the property, which is a good thing for the convenience of the people. However, due to management loopholes or abuse of charging power in some property companies, many disputes have arisen.
Xin Chen, director of the industry committee of Fuxiang Jiayuan Community, Haikou City, Hainan Province, still remembers that once the property management company of the community used the water and electricity fees paid by the owners to pay their employees, and the water supply company and power supply bureau that were owed water and electricity fees often "stopped supplying water" and "cut off electricity" to the community, so the owners had to stay in hotels in married with children. Some owners who know what happened blocked the door of the community and refused to let the property manager leave, "forcing" him to solve the problem.
The establishment of the operation industry Committee faces
"eighty-one difficult"
Why are contradictions and disputes frequent? Insiders and grassroots cadres believe that the fundamental reason lies in the imbalance of rights between property and owners. Without an effective owners’ meeting and industry Committee, the owners are like a mess. Hiring a property company, dealing with the relationship with neighborhood committees and protecting the rights and interests of owners are all difficult to express their opinions, and there is also a lack of channels and platforms to solve problems.
According to a survey conducted by reporters in the past two months, although property management measures have been introduced in various places in recent years to encourage the establishment of industry committees in residential quarters, many industry committees in residential quarters have suffered from "dystocia" or even "abortion" due to the unfamiliar policies of owners, contradictions between owners and property companies, low social trust of strangers, and too complicated establishment procedures. Under the game of interests of all parties, the establishment of operation committee is facing the "eighty-one difficult".
According to Article 12 of the Regulations on Property Management in the State Council, the formulation and revision of the rules of procedure of the owners’ congress, the election of the owners’ committee or the replacement of the members of the owners’ committee, the selection and dismissal of property service enterprises, etc. shall be subject to the consent of the owners who account for more than half of the total building area and more than half of the total number.
"Hundreds of households and thousands of households should reach ‘ Double half ’ (More than half of the area and more than half of the owners) is very difficult. " Xiao Jiangtao, president of Haikou Owners’ Committee Association, said that some communities in Haikou have struggled for nearly 10 years and failed to set up industry committees.
According to reports, the proportion of the establishment of the industry Committee in Haikou Community is only 13.4%, and the proportion of the establishment of the national community industry Committee is not high, and the proportion in Beijing is only 25%.
Xiao Jiangtao believes that the deep-seated reason for the difficulty in the establishment and operation of the industry Committee is that the competent government departments are unwilling to intervene, do not know how to intervene, and have no ability to intervene.
According to an industry insider, according to the current law, street offices and township governments have the responsibility of guiding and supervising the establishment of industry committees in communities, but in fact, guidance and supervision have become examination and approval. Because this work is not linked to the political achievements of streets and towns, it can be done or not, and it is thankless, so it often becomes resistance rather than help.
In addition to being unwilling to guide and supervise, the competent government departments still have the problem of being unable to guide and supervise. Take Haikou as an example, there are 4 people in the Property Department of the Housing and Construction Bureau of Haikou City, and one deputy director of the residential insurance center in each district is in charge of the property. There are dozens of communities in each district, and there are no full-time property management personnel in the street office.
"The community only maintains stability, and it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t go wrong." A person in charge of the community industry Committee said that the neighborhood Committee will come forward to repair the road water in the village, but the road water in the community can only be responsible by the community itself. In 2018, the community built a cultural and sports activity center, and the industry Committee didn’t have enough funds, so it sent representatives to the neighborhood Committee and the street office to apply. The answer was: "How are you qualified to come to us for money?"
Owners "fight alone" when preparing for the establishment of the industry committee. After the establishment, the industry committee is still "fighting alone". How to negotiate with the property company and how to formulate the rules of procedure are all left to the members of the industry committee to explore. Those with strong ability will be handled well, while those with poor ability will often be "criticized" by the owners. As volunteers, the members of the industry committee serve the community free of charge and are under great physical and mental pressure.
Xiao Jiangtao said that the main reason why it is difficult to establish and carry out the work of the industry committee is that the industry committee is a new thing, and China’s commercial housing has only developed for more than 20 years now. "As an individual, the owners now have to work with corporate enterprises such as property and developers ‘ Fight for benefits ’ , even if it is the interests that originally belonged to the owner, it was strongly attacked because it broke the previous interest circle ‘ Fight back ’ 。” (Participating in writing: Yao Ziyun)