However, in the more than 20 years since the establishment of the first property management committee in the mainland in 1991, reports on the difficulty of establishing property management committees and performing their duties have frequently been seen in the media.

[Editor's Note]

In the 1990s, a wave of commercial housing reform was surging, and "owners" became a new social group, and the owners' committee (hereinafter referred to as the property management committee) was born in the right time. However, in the more than 20 years since the establishment of the first property management committee in the mainland in 1991, reports on the difficulty of establishing property management committees and performing their duties have frequently been seen in the media. Although the Property Law clarifies the legal status of property owners' committees with the height of the legislation of the National People's Congress, the development of property owners' committees in various places has not yet emerged from the dilemma. Recently, People's Daily has sent multiple reporters to interview and verify and consult experts and scholars, review the development history of property owners' committee, focus on the development difficulties of property owners' committee, analyze the deep-seated reasons, and launch a series of reports on "Seven Questions about property owners' committees" to conduct constructive discussions on common problems. At the same time, the reporter also conducted in-depth research on new measures to support the development of property management committees in various places and new practices of property management committees in some communities in performing their duties, and discussed which successful experiences are more conducive to promoting the positive development of property management committee work.

News review:

Asked the property management committee: 10 years after the promulgation of the "national regulations", how are the lives of property management committees in various places?

"It's been 5 years, and the property management committee has finally been established. But what should I do next?" In the narrow office of the property management committee of Jinyinghui Community, Liu Yong and Mo Guangli, two members of the property management committee, looked at each other. When talking about the process of establishing the property management committee, the two of them both used "unbearable to look back" to describe it.

"Every time you vote, you have to run door to door for at least one month. In addition, you have set up voting points to vote and entrusted voting by phone, WeChat, QQ and other means. After many twists and turns, all the owners' voting was collected." Recalling the experience of the Preparatory Property Committee at that time, Liu Yong still remembers it vividly. According to him, from the establishment of the Preparatory Group to the final establishment of the Property Committee, they called on all owners to vote three times in total, which took three years.

With the development of cities, there are more and more commercial residential communities in various places, and owners' awareness of rights protection has become stronger and stronger. Establishing an owners' committee has become a natural choice. However, the difficulty of establishing a property management committee in Jinyinghui Community is not an individual case across the country, and it is common to establish a property management committee. There are still many communities that are not so "lucky" and are still struggling to establish a property management committee with difficulty.

A few days ago, the People's Daily "Local Leader's Message Board" homeownership committee message collection activity was launched. In just 10 days, nearly a thousand feedbacks on property management committee issues and related suggestions from netizens across the country. Among them, "difficulty in establishing" has become the most frequent topic. The community property management committee has been unable to be established for a long time. What is the crux of the problem?

Flowchart of the preparation of the first owners' meeting of the property owners' meeting of the property owners' committee incubation center in Wuchang District, Wuhan City. Intern Liu Hanxi Photo by

The owners have low trust and participation. The property management committee encountered a "touch"

"When we established the property management committee, we have many obstacles and difficulties. Everyone thinks that there will be tricks in establishing the property management committee, and they all think it is a fatal flaw." Zhao Xi'an, director of the property management committee of Chengdu China Railway North City Huafu, said.

In various places, because community owners do not trust the property owners, there are many cases where the property owners ultimately find it difficult to establish.

Hefei Binhu Century Community staff introduced, "First, when registering for candidates for members of the owners' committee, there are not many owners who actively sign up for participation. Second, there are not many owners who actively participate in the voting election, and a lot of mobilization work is needed. The main reason is that the owners' trust is not high."

Coincidentally, Zhang Qiuguo, the head of the property management committee of the Wuchang District Civil Affairs Bureau of Wuhan City, also said that the distrust of residents will cause great difficulties in the process of establishing a preparatory group. "As government departments, of course, we want to choose a property management committee that serves everyone well, but residents do not think so. The residents think that 'the person I recommend should represent my interests', which has caused the candidates for property management committee to be uncertain for a long time, resulting in the delay in the establishment of the work."

In this regard, some experts suggested that the use of the rotation or lottery system may break the deadlock of owners' lack of enthusiasm for participation in community public affairs due to low trust."Try to change the consistent 'voluntary election' method, and directly require owners to participate by promoting lottery participation or take turns to participate, which can effectively improve the embarrassing situation of no one participating. Over time, it can enhance the enthusiasm and representativeness of owners' participation to a certain extent."

In addition to the low participation of owners, "difficulty in defining the identity of candidates for membership of property owners" has also become a mountain between owners and property owners' committees.

"The qualification of the property management committee candidate is difficult to determine, a preparation group for disbanding a certain community in Huizhou" "Dissatisfied with the identification of the owner's identity, and it is difficult to establish a property management committee for a community in Jinan for ten years." "The four people do not meet the identity of the property management committee, and the application for establishment of the property management committee was rejected." For a long time, due to the fact that houses are rented, house transactions are not transferred, and houses inherit property for children, it has always been difficult to define the identity of candidates for property management committee members. "Don't know who the real owner is" has become a common problem across the country. For example, in Yinchuan, according to the Yinchuan Property Management Regulations, candidates for membership of property management committees must be the property owner or their spouse. This regulation makes it necessary for each community to verify the candidates through household registration during the preparation process of property management committees, which increases the workload and difficulty of work for the preparation work.

The developers and property owners obstruct, "It really takes courage" to establish a property owners' committee

finally "handled" the owners, and the establishment of a property owners in the community also has to face obstruction from developers and property owners.

Chengdu Chenghua District China Railway North City Huafu Qingxiucheng Community established a property owners' voting site. Photo provided by Zhiqiang Community staff

"On the day we sang the ticket, we found that an unidentified person arrived at the scene. We told the community security guard, but the security guard ignored it. Just when we were reporting to the street office, we found that someone destroyed our tickets on the spot. We retrieved the surveillance video and found that the person came in from the property management office, and the camera at the door was also turned around." Recalling the experiences during the establishment of the community property management committee, Huang Huiming, deputy director of the property management committee of Chengdu China Railway North City, was still full of emotion. Fortunately, the torn votes accounted for only a small number and did not have much impact on the voting results. The community property management committee was finally established.

Similar situations have also occurred in the Huaao Central Community in Beijing. According to media reports, the first owners' committee of Huaao Central Community automatically expired due to "expiration" in 2004. For eight years thereafter, due to the lack of a legal property management committee, Jiao, a former property management committee member, was responsible for all matters in the community. During this period, property personnel repeatedly clashed with the owners due to problems such as "Beijing Zhongyuan Huaxia Property Management Co., Ltd. settled in the community without any public legal procedures".

In early 2017, the Community Construction Section of Zizhuyuan Street Office of Haidian District People's Government issued an announcement that the establishment of a property management committee in the community was once again put on the agenda. "The ballot box was robbed, and the volunteers who collected the ballots were also intimidated." According to the owners of the community, during the election, people continued to destroy, forge the owner's authorization, and even impacted the invoice site.

In comparison, the establishment process of the property management committee of Cuiweiyuan Community in Hefei City is more difficult, which can be described as twists and turns. According to Zhang Hua, director of the community property management committee, in 2015, the community established a property management committee once, but because some members had bad intentions about public funds, the property management committee, which was established less than half a year ago, declared "bankruptcy". They learned the lessons of the last time when the property management committee was established for the second time and are currently maintaining a good deal.

"The property management committee was established twice, and the developer and the previous property company both interfered with it." Recalling the establishment of the property management committee these two times, Zhang Hua couldn't help but be angry. It turned out that during the establishment of the property management committee, the owners saw internal information of the community and found that some public housing had been rented out by the developer for several years. According to the " Anhui Province Property Management Regulations ", property service companies shall not change the purpose of property service housing without the consent of the owners' meeting. The income generated by property premises is used to repair and maintain common parts and common facilities and equipment in the property management area, and the remaining part is used in accordance with the decision of the owners' meeting.

"Previously, the owners did not know that the income from property housing has always been collected by developers.Once the property management committee is established, we will definitely take back the income from these public housing units, so the developer is unwilling to set up property management committees and set up many "levels", such as not providing relevant materials. "Zhang Hua said.

In addition, in order to continue to obtain property housing income, the developer rented it to surrounding merchants at an extremely low price, with the lowest monthly rent of only 4 yuan per square meter. Some merchants were worried that the property management committee would increase rent after the establishment of the property management committee, and quarreled with members of the property management committee many times. One of the merchants even had conflicts with Zhang Hua at the instigation of the developer. Seven or eight people rushed to Zhang Hua's house and refused to leave until the police incident subsided.

In March 2017, the property management committee of the Haikou Haidao Sunshine Phase II Community registered and filed with the Xiuying District Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau. According to Mr. Lu, director of the property management committee, the property management committee was obstructed by the property management committee when it was established. "The notice posted by the owners at the entrance of the community was torn off by the property management committee on the grounds of "stopping". The conflict was resolved after coordination between the neighborhood committee and the street office. "Mr. Lu said.

"The reason why many communities want to establish property management committees is because the property company has low service level, but if you want to establish property management committees, it may hinder the interests of property management companies and developers. It is conceivable that there will be resistance. "A relevant person in charge of the Property Department of Haikou Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau said.

"Relevant departments" are often accused of not paying attention to or not acting

In 2016, Haikou City issued regulations that by 2017, the communities in Haikou where property management committees will reach more than 80%. This has allowed the owners of Haikou Fuhai New City to see the hope of establishing the third property management committee.

According to Zhu Nai, a resident of Fuhai New City Quan introduced that after the second property management committee expired, some owners believed that the first two property management committees were not very effective, so they were not active in establishing the third property management committee, which led to the community being unable to establish the third property management committee from 2011 to 2016.

"According to the relevant procedures, our community first applied to the Haidian Street Office, and then established a preparatory committee, with only the last step away - the street office to guide the establishment of the property management committee. But it was this last step, which took more than half a year. "Zhu Naiquan said that the Haidian Street Office was responsible for tutoring the establishment of the property management committee of Fuhai New City Community, but it has been dragging it down and not fully promoted. Until the end, many owners no longer have the energy to participate in the matter. At present, a group of people in the community are preparing for the property management committee, and it has not been officially established until now.

Xi'an Jintai Holiday Huacheng Community was faced with the situation of not being clear who will be managed, let alone establishing the property management committee. A few years ago, Jintai Holiday Huacheng Community, located in Yanta District, was classified as high as The community's ownership problem has become a "unsolved case" in the new district. The community owner told reporters that in order to consult on the establishment of the property management committee, the owners went to the Xi'an Hi-tech Zone Management Committee and the Yanta District Electronic City Street Office many times, but both sides said that the community was not under their jurisdiction.

At the Yanta District Civil Affairs Bureau, the staff took out relevant documents and said that the community is within the planning scope of the high-tech zone and is planned and constructed by it. The high-tech zone should be responsible for the community establishment and subsequent management of the community. The staff of the Xi'an Hi-tech Zone Management Committee also took out documents, saying that Jintai Holiday Flower City is not Their management. The Land, Resources and Housing Administration of High-tech Zone also gave the same reply. Fortunately, the community was officially divided into management by the Electronic City Street Office of Yanta District in 2018, and the ownership issue that bothers the owners was finally settled. At present, Jintai Holiday Huacheng Community is preparing to build a property management committee.

Owners spontaneously established a property management committee. It was a good thing for the owners to set up a property management committee, but it was delayed due to the disregard of attention and inaction of relevant departments, which also led some owners to sue the "relevant departments" in court.

According to the media According to reports, on August 23, 2017, a special trial attracted attention. The owners of the community in , Shanklin Town, Xi'an, disqualified the four owner representatives on the grounds that "had been arrears of property fees" and litigated the Tanjia Street Office to the Xi'an Railway Transport Court.

It turned out that in early 2017, the Tanjia Street Office agreed and promised to assist Shanklin Town Community in establishing a property management committee preparation group. According to regulations and procedures, after joint selection, the community owners selected 4 representatives to enter the preparation group.But then, these four representatives were announced by Tanjia Street Office to cancel the candidate owner's representative qualification for failing to pay property fees in a timely manner and defaulting on property fees.

The owners believed that this practice harmed the rights and interests of the owners, so they took the Tanjia Street Office to the Xi'an Railway Transport Court. On August 25, 2017, the Xi'an Railway Transport Court pronounced a first-instance verdict, determining that Tanjia Street Office issued restrictions on the conditions for owner representatives among the members of the preparatory group, reducing the legitimate rights and interests of the four owner representatives, which was an abuse of power. The owners were determined to win the case.

Recently, the reporter visited the community to investigate and found that although the case was won, due to new differences within the owners, no owners submitted relevant materials again. The property management committee of Shanklin Town Community has not been established so far.

Experts analyze the reasons for the difficulty in establishing the property owners' committee

"Why is it difficult to establish the property owners' committee? This is an old topic, and it is still an old topic until now." Regarding the reasons for the difficulty in establishing the property owners' committee, Bi Wenqiang, a lawyer at Beijing Shengting Law Firm, analyzed from multiple levels in an exclusive interview with a reporter from People's Daily:

At the legislative level, there is no clear definition of the rights and interests of the owners' meetings and owners' committees; the cost of organizing the establishment of property owners' committees in many communities is too high, the community has a large population and a large scale, and the owners' organizational capabilities are weak. There are also certain flaws in the government governance level: the management of property management committees is neither important nor professional enough, which is mainly reflected in the lack of attention to departmental establishment and personnel arrangement, passive inaction or active actions. The obstacles from property companies and developers make the establishment of a property management committee tantamount to "striving to the tiger." In addition, there is no support for owners' organizations in judicial practice. One of the important manifestations is that until now, the corresponding property of the property management committee is not clear and it is difficult to be included in the category of legal persons.

"From the above reasons, the administrative management link is a bull's nose, which may be more important than the legislative link and the actual organization link." Bi Wenqiang believes that there are indeed many obstacles to the establishment of the property management committee, which requires thinking from the perspective of others and seeking direction in collision and running-in.

(Zeng Fan, Yu Xinyi, Zhao Yue, Han Chang, Xiao Luxin, Mao Lei, Ji Yu, Wang Hongjiang, Wang Bo, Mu Guohu)