GURUGRAM: Residents of Palm Grove Heights , Sector 52, are aghast with the developer for clubbing their electricity invoices with maintenance bills.Almost all residents of the housing society pay their power bills in advance, as they get power not directly from DHBVN but from a single point connection that the builder, Ardee Infrastructure Pvt Ltd , draws from the discom. Residents alleged that by clubbing the power invoice and maintenance bills, Ardee has siphoned off credit meant for power supply to “manage maintenance”, which is explicitly prohibited under Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) guidelines. The builder isn’t transparent about the maintenance expenses either, they alleged.Calling it a “breach of trust,” residents said their struggles with Ardee go back to the date of possession. “Initially, we faced a lot of problems with possession. We were supposed to get possession in 2009, but ended up getting our flats in 2016,” said Nishant Dudha, joint secretary, Palm Grove Heights RWA. “Now, for the past three years, we have been paying maintenance charges of Rs 3 per sqft, which is far too high compared to the services they offer.” Residents met the builder in January this year and raised their issues. “We had been documenting the deficiencies that the complex was suffering from and expressed our concerns to the management. Despite their assurances of speedy action, the boom barriers are still non-functional and the facade is not being repaired. They think maintenance is just providing water, electricity and sweeping,” said Pankaj Mishra, a resident.On April 10, residents got a shocker. “The builder announced an increase in the common area maintenance charges to Rs 3.07 per sqft. The new bills also clubbed the electricity invoice with common area maintenance charges. They extracted the amount from our prepaid power connections and justified the action saying it would be considered as maintenance charges,” said Naresh Khushlahani, RWA president.On April 14, residents again met Ardee management and submitted a list of demands, including reversal of wrong credit and re-issue and separate bills.The management promised response in 3-4 days but no response has come till now, residents said. They are now considering legal action. Calls to Anil Hasija, associate vice-president, Ardee Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, didn’t elicit a response.

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