Colive — Grievances related to Colive Hilton, Threatening emails, and baseless dues

Address:	Colive Corporate Office, No. 755, BBMP Katha, Kote MR Plaza First Floor, 95/3, Marathahalli Outer Ring Rd, Doddanekundi, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560037
Website:	www.colive.com

I sent the following complaint to the company with no luck at getting a reply from them. Now they are threatening to send a legal notice without giving any explanation about how the amount they are demanding is justified.

1. I started living in Colive Hilton on 31st August and stayed there till 30th December 2022. There I faced a lot of issues due to which I came to work from home in October and November while still paying your company rent. Here are some of the many issues that I have faced during my stay at Colive Hilton -

2. There is no direct communication between the tenant and the manager. The person who claims to be the manager of the property does not have any power or authority. Even for petty issues, he would suggest raising a service request that costs the tenant unnecessary costs.

3. During the initial days, the lift did not work, When I went to book the room in early August, the sales manager promised that the lift issue would be resolved before the move-in date and showed the room on the 3rd floor. On the date of check-in, I was given the room on the 5th Floor rather than the room which was promised, with the lift still not in working condition, due to which whenever I had to go to my room or to go out of the building, I had to climb up or down five floors every time. Even when the lift used to work, it used to get stuck while going up or down due to which I myself got stuck in it a few times.

4. The electricity bill for a small room with bare minimum usage was charged around Rs. 1100 per month. I don’t know how my usage amounted to Rs. 1100 when most of the time I remained out of the room and city. Moreover, the manager said that the usage is divided among everyone, wherein their staff was not included. And this staff was actually the one using up most of that. Also, there was no mention of the electricity bill to be paid by us as told by the sales manager. When I asked them about why I was being charged electricity bill, they said that there have been some changes in the rules. Hence your people don’t even know what the customer will be charged for and as a norm when no other PG is charging for electricity, I as a customer gets fooled by your misleading policy. For the first month my electricity bill was Rs.274 which shot up to Rs.1156 from the next month. How is this increase of four times possible within a month when I wasn’t even in the premises.

5. I was being charged Rs.236 extra for Wi-Fi for which I contacted the manager but none of your property managers gave any reply. Manager just said that it’s a part of the policy and that from now on there will be additional charges without any proper explanation. I tried to raise a request but there was not any category which addressed my problem.

6. Food was supposed to be there twice daily except on Sunday. But in the morning, it became a race amongst everyone in the PG to get the food as there was a lack of quantity every single day. After raising multiple service requests and contacting your Growth Manager Mr. Siddhant, the quantity was never made sufficient. Though in the service request resolution, it was always said that your issue has been resolved and the quantity will be increased. The timings of the breakfast were supposed to be from 7:30 – 9:30 a.m., here the breakfast was always finished at 8 a.m. and for a person who had to work during the night, this timing completely ruined our schedule as I had to wake up early to eat breakfast and sleep again.

7. For small issues like the LED bulb in the room not working, or water not coming through the tap, we had to raise a service request for which you are charging Rs. 250. It never made sense that a thing that we have not broken, why should we pay extra to get it fixed.

8. When clearly, it’s the responsibility of the PG to take care of the bedsheets I kept on raising service tickets but had to use the same bedsheet for 4 months as there were no more bedsheets available for change as per your local staff.

9. The sales manager promised a Table and Chair at the time of booking when I will move in. The staff kept those things in their own room but always said that the company is running low on stock and I never got mine. Moreover, the lock in my cupboard was not working from day one for which I asked the manager to get it fixed, but didn’t fix it and asked me to raise a service request which would have again cost me money to fix things that were already broken before I even checked in and even notified them on day one.

10. In October, the water supply stopped. Luckily at that time, I was not in the PG, but many residents kept complaining about this issue on the WhatsApp group of the PG, after which the resolution the management came up with was to make the WhatsApp group Admin only and no one else was allowed to message. Also, during this period, electricity was cut in the building as your company did not pay the electricity bill, which made everyone suffer.

11. In December, local staff took the only room key I had to get a duplicate key made. I was left without a key and locking the door before going out was not an option due to which for 10 days I had to leave my room open whenever I went out. Whenever I tried contacting the management for the keys, either the staff cut the call or rudely asked me what is so precious in my room that I want to protect. As the lock of the cupboard was also not working, it created a lot of issues.

12. Even the managers kept on changing. There was no certainty. One manager used to promise one thing and the next day he was transferred. Three managers were changed within the span of just one month.

13. All these issues affected me mentally and physically as there was no proper food, lack of promised services and cleanliness was also not regularly done. We had to call the cleaner every time and that too maybe once in ten days we got the room cleaned. After facing all these issues, I told the manager that I will have to leave the property in an emergency as I was not feeling well. He said that if I vacate before 31st December, my security money will be confiscated as the damage for not serving the notice period of January to which I readily agreed and left on 30th December after making sure that no dues were left before leaving and I had to pay nothing.

14. I vacated and handed over the keys of my room and left the property in broad daylight with all my luggage before your property staff only after telling them and after confirming that no dues were left on me and also asked them to check if everything in room was in place and the same can be confirmed by CCTV of 30th December 2022.

15. When I am resting in my home town company started sending me emails like recovery goons as I had looted your property if there is some issue it can be informed, I have provided every single correct personal detail and then your company is sending threatening emails like you will ruin my CIBIL score or send me a legal notice for the 23k.

16. Your company has calculated that I owe you around Rs.36, 389 and after adjusting my security deposit of Rs.13, 000, it would come to around Rs.23, 389 without providing any details or calculation formula of rent charged and electricity charges or other charges.

i. As email dated 16th Feb, 2023, you have charged Rs.17, 709 as RentOS. I am unable to understand when I had cleared rent up to December, 2022, then where does this figure come from?

ii. You have charged Rs. 2430 as electricity charges for vacant room in this bill whenever in the bill of January 1st, 2023, the electricity bill amount was Rs.1154.

iii. There is mention of some separation charges amounting to Rs.3250. What is this for?

17. When I am trying to reach out to your customer care, or the managers, nobody is responding or if by chance company staff are picking up the call, you are not giving the reply. I paid the rent within the due date for 4 months straight and even for the 2 months I didn’t stay in the property, I duly paid the service charges and electricity bill even though I didn’t use anything.

18. If you do not stop threatening me like this, I will also have to take appropriate legal action available under the law of the Land.

19. I made sure that I had no dues before leaving. Now I came to know through various social media and complaint portals that hundreds of other tenants have faced similar issues where they are sent threatening emails and asked to pay made-up dues or in other cases, the security deposit was not returned.

20. I tried joining the zoom call under the escalation tab (for which I can provide a screen recording), as on the page it was mentioned that we can directly contact higher management. But as expected, the zoom meeting link is not working. We tried every single way possible to contact the company but failed to get any response.

You are requested to look into the above matter and resolve the issue at the earliest.