We've been talking about the mess that the maintenance fund was used to, and there's a lot of input from the back office. Some say “not that we want it, that the owner does not sign it, that the equipment cannot wait, that there is only an emergency”, and others say “the process is too complicated to be complained of with little irregularity”. Today, instead of scolding the black industry, let's talk about the maintenance fund's “old age money” and how it works legally, efficiently and without losing its back。
A lesson for a property manager: savings, lost work, paid off
In 2024, zhang, the property manager of a small district of jiangsu souzi, had an emergency. The elevators in the sector suffered severe wear and tear and required urgent replacement. The use of the maintenance fund required a vote by “two-thirds” of the owners, but zhang felt that the process was too slow and feared that the owner of the elevator would file a complaint, and then approached a familiar vip company to replace it and replace it with a signature form for the owner。
The owner later found the signature identical, suspected of forgery and sued the property. The bsa investigation confirmed that some of the signatures were not signed by the owner himself. The property company was fined, chang was dismissed, and the company was paid a partial fine。
After drinking with his colleagues, zhang said, “i felt too slow to go, afraid of something, and saved three days and lost eight years of work.”
This case illustrates the case that “fast” does not amount to “right” in the matter of the maintenance of the fund. The procedure was wrong and it was wrong to do it as quickly as possible。
The two paths used by the maintenance fund must be clearly separated
Article 278 of the civil code stipulates that the use of maintenance funds is a matter for the collective decision of the owner and shall be voted upon by the owner, who has more than two thirds of the area and more than two thirds of the population. This is the normal path。
But there is no waiting. Such as the sudden stoppage of the elevator, the extensive fall of the exterior wall and the breakdown of the fire-fighting facility, the building was burned when the owner signed it. Article 218, paragraph 2, of the civil code also provides for use in emergency situations: in case of emergency, maintenance of the building and its ancillary facilities is required, and the maintenance fund may be used by a general assembly of owners or a board of owners in accordance with the law。
The key is to prove “emergency”. Property must retain evidence: failure reports, site photographs, videos, opinions from third-party testing agencies, and determinations by competent authorities. In the case of tinless, the old zhang had lost sight of no evidence of “emergency” and had jumped the voting process。
So, the first thing about real estate is that it's normal, it's conventional; it's urgent, it's evidence。
Physical exercise guide: four steps, no pits
The first step is to get the groundwork solid. Tables and maintenance records for equipment facilities such as elevators, fire protection, network, etc., are regularly tested to convert “maintenance” to “maintenance”. A number of problems were identified at an embryonic stage where no maintenance funds were available at all. Even if it does, the usual test reports are the strongest evidence。
Step two: owners vote for less. Don't sign, don't falsify, don't make "default consent". There are now electronic voting systems in place in many places, such as the chengdu wisdom program, which can be voted on by the owner's mobile phone. It was both compliant and efficient, and property was saved from running。
Step 3: transparency in tender procurement. The money of the maintenance fund is spent every cent. The public tender that allows for open tendering compares the three to three. Request for quotations, contracts, receipt and inspection reports, all of which are available on file. It doesn't matter what the price is. Just make sense. The reason for the problem with the changsha case is that the conversion price of 6,800 is 25,600, and the owner is not a fool and can find it on the internet。
Step 4: the whole process is marked and transparent. From failure detection, detection reports, voting results, solicitation documents, construction process to acceptance settlement, documentation and visual information are required for each link. These are protecting both owners and the property itself. If a complaint is filed in the future, it will prove itself innocent。
What if the owner doesn't cooperate? Communication works better than communication
Many property owners complain: it's not that we don't want to go through the process, it's that the owners don't cooperate. No meeting, no vote, no property。
The problem is indeed widespread. The solution is not to bypass the owners, but to change the way they communicate. Instead of a cold notice on the bulletin board, the owners, the public sign, and even door-to-door explain the “why” “what is the benefit of repair” and “what is the risk of not repair”. In zhejiang lake county, where a small area is located, the property manager sends photographs and test reports of the wear and tear of the elevator wire to the owners' community, accompanied by a short video explaining risk, which resulted in 70 per cent of the owners voting for approval on the same day. It's not that the owners don't reason, it's that property doesn't make sense。
If the owner does not cooperate, the property can be coordinated with the community and street organizations. Don't be so hard on yourself。
Property companies themselves need to be clean
The maintenance fund was taken away, and in many cases it was not the grass-roots manager who wanted to be greedy, but the company that put pressure — low collection rates, low profits — and “recovered” from the maintenance fund. But it's not gonna work. The company should establish an independent internal audit mechanism to regularly spot the use of maintenance funds on projects. Chongqing has a property company that has been asked by third-party auditors to audit the maintenance fund accounts on the project on a quarterly basis, resulting in an advance discovery of a problem of false maintenance prices by the project manager and timely cessation of losses。
Article 271 of the criminal code, entitled “personal appropriation”, deals not only with the manager of the household but also with the owner of the company. The company had ordered the forgery, and it could not escape。
At the end
The maintenance fund is the “pension money” of the house and the “high pressure line” for property work. You touch this line, you lose your job, you go to jail. In turn, if the money is managed and used well, it is the best opportunity for the property to win the confidence of the owners。
Owners are not born opposite. You have clear accounting, transparency and reason, and most owners are willing to cooperate. Nine out of ten of the properties that were sued by the owners were lost on “procedures” rather than “prices”。
So, front-line property, don't get bored. Those signatures, announcements, marks that you feel are “excessive” can save your life。
