Encroachment of Common Space and Duct Space on our floor
All of our neighbors have encroached the common space on our floor. Out of the three, two of them have encroached the duct area by converting it into a storage room and then built safety doors to extend their apartment space and the third has taken up about 8-9 feet of the common space and built a large safety door and occupied the space. All of this was done in our absence in 2021 during the peak of the COVID pandemic while we were in another city during the lockdown.
When a meeting was held within the housing society around the end of 2021 the committee mentioned that this construction was done without the permission of the society and the committee will not and cannot take any action and told us to take legal action against our neighbors at our end. My parents decided not persuade this matter further as getting into legal action will supposedly incur a lot of time as well as money. Also, during the meeting, the rationale provided by one of the neighbors was that there are other people in the building who had made this and then proceeded to shifting the blame onto us indicating that we are at fault for not allowing them to do so earlier. There were also health issues given by the neighbors as pigeons entered from the duct area and the occupied common area, which frankly makes no sense to us as the windows could have simply be kept closed for dealing with that or a net could have been put as well. Their accusation was we did not allow them to put the net (which isn't true as it was never discussed) which is why they did this.
Personally, I am not satisfied with not taking any action and I do wish to take action against my neighbors against this illegal construction after a few years when I have more personal time. In the meantime I had some questions and would appreciate your insights on the same:
1.) Are the committee members of the housing society not allowed to take any action in this case? If so, then what is the point of even having a committee? I found this to be very strange
2.) If legal action is taken by us against our neighbors what is the duration taken to get the justice on this matter? Is it true that it will take several years and alot of money? What would be the range in terms of the costs incurred if legal action is considered?
3.) Are there alternatives to legal action in this case, such as, writing to the fire department, electrical department, municipal committee (BMC) or any other legal body for demolition of these illegal construction?
4.) Is there a set time period by which action is required to be taken after which it is too late? Currently we are too busy with our professional lives to be involved into this matter and would like to take this matter up a few years from now when we are in a better financial and professional position. We expected the society committee to take a swift action but that unfortunately did not work out.
I would really appreciate your guidance on this matter. Thank you for your time.
Asked 10 days ago in Property Law
Religion: Hindu