Lift Repairs and Maintenance

In many Societies up till now, if there were shopkeepers/members on the ground floor they were exempted from paying the maintenance and repair charges, of the lift since they were not using it at all. Whereas some of them did not charge any amount to the members residing on the ground floor and sometimes even to those members residing on the first floor, on the ground that they hardly made use of the lift. This thinking on the part of the Society is understandable because neither the shopkeepers nor the members residing on the ground or the first floor would generally use the lift.

Some societies which were formed many years back had even passed a resolution that under no circumstances the members residing on the ground floor and on the first floor would ever be called upon to pay the maintenance and the repair charges for the lift.

Now the situation under the Model-Bye Law has substantially changed. Under clause 67 (a) (iv) of the new Model Bye-Laws it is stated that each and every member of the Society shall have to pay the expenses for the repairs and maintenance of the lift including the charges of running the lift equally irrespective of the fact whether the members use the lift or do not use the lift at all.

It's important for us to understand that what was the necessity of incorporating this Clause in the Model Bye-Laws? It is obvious that no members can be prevented from using the lift at any time if he wishes to do so. A member residing on the ground floor may not use the lifts most of the times as it is not necessary, but if he wants to visit any member on the upper floor, he cannot be prevented from using the lift. A resolution cannot be passed by a Society that the members residing on the ground floor and the first floor, and the shopkeeper would have no right to use the lift of the Society at all.