Sobha Palm CourtApartment Owners' Association
What the association has signed, and what it has not

Contracts and commitments

Two contracts are two-thirds of all spending. Neither was tendered. One was never signed. The other was never signed by the association. Here is each commitment as it stands.

ServiceProviderCost per yearContract positionWhat the MC is doing
Facility management: housekeeping, gardeners, technicians, estate managerSobha Ltd (facility division)₹98 L incl. GSTNo signed contract. A draft MOU from January 2026 exists, unsigned, with no price in it. Sobha bills salaries at cost plus 13% PF, plus a 15% fee, plus 18% GST: about ₹28,500 per staff member per month for 27–31 staff.Interim agreement being completed on this draft, with a rate card, for October–March; then a tender with residents' ratings as the benchmark. Sobha bids like anyone else.
Security: 22 posts (2 supervisors, 18 guards, lifeguard, lady guard)VEX India Securitas₹72 L + GST (≈₹85 L)Agreement dated 16 Oct 2025, term to Nov 2027, signed by the agency only; the association's signature block is blank. Bills by the day worked. Deployment fell to 81% of contract in July and 76% in August.Written position on the reduced deployment; the agreement's own attendance penalties applied; retender with a specification written from the survey (language, turnover, block posts, basement rounds).
Lifts and UPS maintenanceLift contractor₹16 LHalf-yearly contract, ₹8 L paid in June and December. Lifts were the lowest-rated service in the survey. ₹6.75 L was spent on batteries last year while some were under warranty.Monthly uptime log from October; root-cause report on the worst machines; contract rebid on uptime with penalties.
Sewage and water treatment operationSTP/WTP contractor₹9 LCost has doubled in two years (₹4.7 L to ₹9.2 L). Residents report odour near Wing 1 and in basements.Odour audit; retender with odour standards and a chemical schedule.
ElectricityBESCOM₹60 LUtility; no contract to negotiate. Corridor and staircase timers reported faulty.Timer re-commissioning; energy audit; solar feasibility to come back to the General Body.
WaterBWSSB₹22 LNew Cauvery connection; a permanent line item from this year.Meter and leak audit; maximise treated water for gardens and flushing.
Waste collection, pest control, consumablesVarious≈₹11 LMonthly arrangements without rate contracts. Pest control was the second-lowest-rated service.Annual rate contracts with three quotes; pest vendor's schedule audited; drain-line treatment added.

Two things owners should know about the Sobha arrangement

The deposit. When Sobha returned the corpus in 2023–24 it kept ₹91 L. Sobha treats this as its security for the facility service, and since June 2026 it has been adjusting its unpaid monthly bills against it and re-crediting them when the association pays. Its ledger shows about ₹75 L; the association's books show ₹90 L. The bye-laws do not permit association funds to sit with a developer; how and when the balance comes back is part of the interim agreement now being negotiated.
Purchases. Under the working arrangement, Sobha's estate manager buys consumables and spares on the association's account. That is where last year's monthly bulb purchases and above-market prices, noted by the Sub-Committee, came from. The purchasing and accounting policy is being reviewed, and a revised policy will be put to the Special General Body Meeting for approval.

A tax point that affects the numbers

The association is registered for GST. Security services bought from a proprietorship by a registered body are taxed under "reverse charge": the association must pay the 18% itself, and the agency should not charge it. The agency has been charging it, about ₹1 L a month, and the association has been paying it. The Managing Committee's tax adviser is computing what the association owes directly since November 2025 and what it can recover or set off. The net cost is small; the interest and the paperwork are not. It is mentioned here because it will appear in the accounts and owners should not be surprised by it.

The rules being written

  1. Every contract worth more than ₹25 L a year goes to the General Body, whatever the monthly bill looks like.
  2. Three quotes above ₹25,000; vendor identity and bank account verified before the first payment; no payments to personal accounts.
  3. A contract register with renewal dates and a 90-day tender trigger, so nothing rolls over by default again.
  4. The association issues its own contract form; vendors sign ours.
Updated 15 September 2026. Accounts to end Aug 26; deposits as at 7 September 2026; survey August 2026. Published by the Managing Committee. Questions: spcaoa@gmail.com