To provide reference for 354 residential communities in the city, this community received a high ticket through maintenance funding renewal, which took six months of funding | owners | the entire city
"At present, only four owners of Julong Building have not agreed to the renewal of maintenance funds, and all parties will continue to work. Finally, the community property committee will initiate a lawsuit against the owners who refuse to renew the funds," said Zhou Jiwei, Secretary of the Party Branch of the Transportation Park Residential Area, which is affiliated with Julong Building.
In the past six months, in order to promote the renewal of maintenance funds in the community, more than 30 staff members from the Julong Building Property Committee, Property Management, Neighborhood Committee, as well as the Urban Transportation Center, Urban Management, and Police Station of Zhijiang West Road Street, have become core members of the renewal work group. They have held symposiums in the community time and time again to listen to the opinions of all parties, optimize the renewal plan based on feedback, and have paired up with homeowners who have doubts for one-on-one communication.
On July 11th, the Julong Building community held a general meeting of all homeowners and passed the issue of continuing to raise maintenance funds with 100% of the votes and 84.13% of the approval rate. Nowadays, the payment of maintenance funds is being orderly promoted. At the same time, communication with homeowners who voted against is still ongoing.
Multiple parties working together to promote the continuation of maintenance funds
The Julong Building, built in 1996, was one of the earliest commercial properties in the surrounding area at that time. 27 years have passed, and the maintenance funds in the community have gradually decreased, especially after the overall replacement of two elevators in the community last year, the maintenance fund account almost bottomed out. To ensure the daily operation of the community, continuing to raise maintenance funds has become a top priority.
Continuing to raise maintenance funds has always been a challenge for grassroots governance, and many communities are attempting to supplement maintenance funds through daily public income. However, due to the small size of the community, Julong Building has a congenital deficiency in supplementing maintenance funds with public benefits - the community only has one building and 17 parking spaces, and only the advertising fees for two elevators and the parking fees for 17 parking spaces can bring public benefits to the community. In addition, the property fee for the community is only 1.8 yuan per square meter, and the community's public income agreement provides a portion of subsidies for the property. Therefore, the public income that can be added to the community's maintenance fund account every year is only 28000 yuan.
To promote the continuation of maintenance funds, the community has held multiple offline communication meetings with respondents to provide pictures
In order to promote the continuation of maintenance funds in the community, Zhou Jiwei began conducting public opinion surveys in the community from February this year. The neighborhood committee, property management committee, and property management company organized 7 offline communication meetings in the community to collect opinions from property owners; For homeowners who are usually not at home and have no time to participate in offline communication, the neighborhood committee will send a dedicated person to come door-to-door to inquire. Quickly, a variety of opinions were collected: some questioned "where did the previous repair funds go?" Some were worried "what should I do if someone else doesn't pay me?" Some asked "how can I ensure that the funds are used reasonably after paying?"... Many people have a "three no" mentality of "not caring, not trusting, and not taking action.". In response to the various doubts of the owners, the working group patiently answered them through various channels and adjusted the proportion of funding for this maintenance based on feedback.
In the real name homeowner group of the community, enthusiastic homeowners have repeatedly discussed the principles of open and transparent operation of future community affairs, and eliminated residents' doubts about the use of funds by popularizing information such as "Shanghai property mini program can query maintenance funds at any time".
After completing the preliminary investigation work, the working group began to initiate voting for the entire community. In the end, the voting results of the owners' meeting showed that out of 145 households in the entire community, 122 households agreed, 15 households did not vote, and only 5 households opposed.
Community affairs, the key is to do the work of connecting people
On the afternoon of July 31st, in the meeting room of the Neighborhood Committee of the Transportation Park, staff from the Shanghai Property Management Affairs Center, the Property Department of the Jing'an District Housing Management Bureau, and the Zhijiang West Road Street gathered together to listen to the resumption of funding for the "three carriages" maintenance of Julong Building.
Looking back, the key reason why Julong Building was able to pass this issue with a high vote is that it has done people's work well. In the progress of specific work, for homeowners with different opinions, the community implements a "layered" implementation - the maintenance fund renewal working group first selects a group of enthusiastic homeowners in the community, communicates and explains to them in the first round, and then they go to work for familiar neighbors. According to Zhou Jiwei, there were many surprises during this time: there was a family where enthusiastic volunteers from the neighborhood committee and property committee took turns visiting five or six times, but it was no use. Finally, a property maintenance worker completed the work with the accumulated emotions of daily maintenance; Another owner, every time he heard someone mention the renewal of funding, he "moved" out the early events one by one to roast, and never talked about the renewal of funding. On the last day of voting at the owners' meeting, the secretary of the neighborhood committee dialed the phone again with a try and see attitude, and the conversation lasted for over two hours. "I have been here for half a year, and since I didn't know much about the past, I won't say much. Now that we are familiar with each other, feel free to contact me if you have anything in the future..." The sincere words of the secretary finally touched the other party, and the tone and atmosphere clearly eased, adding another supporter to the issue. Later, the homeowner told his neighbor that he was completely moved by the sincerity of the working group.
"There is no one correct way to be a person, there is no fixed format, and the biggest characteristic of Julong Building is that different people play different roles." Luo Ning, a member of the property committee, was one of the first residents of the community. At the age of 77, she served as the leader of the building for more than ten years and participated in three population censuses. She has a thick notebook at home, handwritten recording of detailed neighborhood information. Based on this record, for some homeowners who are busy with work and cannot meet in the community, enthusiastic volunteers directly sent the voting tickets to their workplace. "Leaders of treasure houses like Aunt Luo are of great help in carrying out mass work," said Zhou Jiwei.
The handwritten notebook of Luo Ning, a member of the Industry Committee and the leader of the building, contributed to the successful continuation of fundraising. Photo by Xie Feijun
Correspondingly, the opinions of the owners have also changed the agenda. In order to increase the acceptance of the owners, the voting agenda of the owners' meeting will adjust the proportion of maintenance fund replenishment from 100% to 50%. "The amount of money to be paid is reduced, and the owners' understanding and acceptance have greatly improved. The property management company has also made a budget. As the elevators in the community were replaced last year, 50% of the renewal cost can support the daily maintenance of the community for 10-15 years."
In the review, Chen Peiqi, Deputy Director of Zhijiang West Road Sub district Office, mentioned that the choice of Julong Building regarding the timing of maintenance fund renewal is not the best. Continuing to raise maintenance funds has always been a difficulty in grassroots community governance. Julong Building has chosen to continue raising funds after completing the replacement of elevators, which invisibly increases the difficulty of this work. It is understood that in order to improve the success rate of continuing raising funds, some communities may choose to prioritize the work of continuing raising funds before the major repairs in small areas. Last year, two elevators in Julong Building repeatedly malfunctioned, and at that time, the "three carriages" also made great efforts to promote elevator replacement. If we had chosen to vote on the renewal of maintenance funds at that time, there would have been some homeowners, especially high-level homeowners, who would have agreed to the renewal in order to replace the elevator. At present, there is a community with a size of over 400 households in Zhijiang West Road Street that will also face further funding for maintenance. We will combine the experience of Julong Community to promote it in the future.
Related to public interests, fundraising is not a personal matter
Recently, the continued fundraising and payment of maintenance funds in Julong Community are being orderly promoted. At the same time, the commentary work for the 5 homeowners who voted against is still ongoing, and currently, another homeowner has changed their mind and expressed willingness to pay. "Try to persuade as much as possible, but the worst-case scenario is to give an explanation to all homeowners through judicial channels," said the committee member attending the seminar.
Members of the follow-up work group have visited multiple times to communicate with the property owners about the interviewees providing pictures
According to the maintenance fund management measures, if the balance of maintenance funds in the community is less than 30% of the initial fundraising amount, each district's housing management bureau will issue a warning. Housing maintenance funds are known as the "pension" for houses, but due to the special nature of the use of the maintenance fund account, "as long as one household's balance is insufficient, it will affect the allocation of deductions, thereby affecting the full payment of the community's engineering funds.". So, whenever this work is initiated, the goal must be to complete the payment 100%. Therefore, implementing the continuation of maintenance funds has always been a challenge for grassroots governance.
The reporter learned from the Shanghai Property Management Center that there are still 354 communities facing difficulties in continuing to raise maintenance funds throughout the city. "The case of this community is very representative. The problems raised by residents and the ways in which various parties overcome difficulties are of great reference value to other communities. The plan of the property committee to resort to law is also a knowledge popularization for all residents and the general public of the community." Zhang Bingjun, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Property Management Center, told reporters that maintenance funds involve the public interest of the community, and some owners' failure to continue raising funds is equivalent to damaging the interests of others. In recent years, many industry experts have called for refusing to pay maintenance funds to be included in personal credit reporting, which is indeed necessary to put on the agenda. ".
In fact, the use of maintenance funds in each community affects the quality of living and market value of the community, and abuse or non use is not advisable. "Some business committees are too cautious about using maintenance funds. They believe that holding onto this money for the people is maintaining the community. However, like people, the community does not undergo daily physical examinations and maintenance, and the problems that can be solved with a small amount of money eventually turn into major repairs. Zhang Bingjun frankly stated that allowing maintenance funds to be abused or not used is not conducive to the development of the community, such as fire protection renovation and elevator maintenance. Communities that lack maintenance for a long time have to spend a lot of money on overall renovation, which actually consumes a larger amount of maintenance funds.". "The owners of the community must understand that reasonable use of maintenance funds, ensuring the safety of housing facilities, and ensuring a high-quality life, is definitely necessary to use maintenance funds in daily life."
27 years have passed, and the exterior facade of Julong Building community still needs to be renovated. Photo by Xie Feijun
The Maintenance Fund Management Department of Shanghai Property Center also pointed out that due to the difficulty of raising funds after the maintenance funds are depleted, they are also exploring the mechanism for daily fundraising. In addition, further optimization will be carried out in response to the situation where the insufficient balance of maintenance funds in individual homeowners' accounts may affect the full payment of project funds in the community.
