BAO Shichang, a retiree, now works as a volunteer worker in his residential quarter to repair lights or waterpipes for neighbours.

　　"I have to," said the man, aged around 60, with a sigh. "Because the property management company of this quarter quit last year, we were obliged to manage the neighbourhood ourselves."

　　The neighbourhood, located in the Minhang District came into being in 1995 when the first buildings went up. As a resident there, Bao is a director on the property owner's board, which was set up a year ago. Now, the daily management work for the community of about 200 households is the responsibility of Bao and four other residents.

　　"Shanghai Shenmao Property Management Company had too many problems here," Bao said. "It charged each household 0.5 yuan (US/data0/apache/share/cgi-bin/publish/doc_add.pl.06) per square metre a month as a management fee, which was almost double that of similar neighborhoods nearby."

　　But what annoyed the residents most was that they did not get corresponding service for their fees.

　　"The neighbourhood has long been like a construction site because the developer, which was the parent company of the property management firm, would sell buildings one at a time as they were completed," Bao said.

　　"After each sale, another new building would be constructed."

　　Although residents asked the developer many times to improve the awful situation, they got nothing out of negotiations with the firm. So, the residents in return decided not to pay any fees to the company or to renew their contracts with it.

　　With tension intensifying between the two parties, Shenmao finally withdrew from the residential quarter at the end of July last year. The company then took the residents to court, claiming that they had not paid fees for four years. The court rejected the claim because the company and residents had not signed a contract.

　　However, the dispute did not end there - the company took away all the files relating to the residential quarter.

　　Earlier this month, Shenmao returned some files to Bao and his management board in the presence of district real estate authorities. But Bao claimed that the residents were still waiting for the more important files still being held by the company.

　　"Until the problem is solved, we will just follow the current management pattern," he said.

　　Service quality

　　In fact, similar problems are occurring all over Shanghai today. Disputes over property management fees are the most common and a refusal by residents to pay the fee is the most popular form of retaliation by residents venting their frustration.

　　"In my residential quarter, security and cleaning had long been poor and strangers can enter easily," complained an old woman surnamed Zhou.

　　"Our refusal to pay the fees worked, and the property management company soon improved their service."

　　Although experts have said repeatedly that this was not a desirable way to solve a dispute, it was the method used by many communities.

　　"From the legal perspective, the refusal to pay the fees has no basis in law," said Shen Yongfeng, a lawyer specializing in real estate issues.

　　However, last year, Shanghai Higher People's Court ruled that if property management companies could not provide the quality of service corresponding to the fees they were charging, residents or house owners could withhold part of the fee. But the court also warned that refusing to make any payment was improper.

　　Property management companies are always embarrassed when they have to face such a situation.

　　To many companies, residents are almost their partners although the two parties may bargain, argue, quarrel and even fight. After all, the companies could not survive if they did not have the residents in the first place.

　　"We will not take residents to court in disputes over the fees even though it has become popular to refuse to pay the money in our residential quarter," said He Guowei, director of a property management company.

　　He believed that they could solve problems through a more thorough service.

　　Vulnerable residents

　　Currently, the city's property management regulations are still under review with fees a key problem.

　　Ma Yun'an, deputy director of Shanghai Real Estate Bureau told reporters from the Youth Daily that criteria will be set. The quality of the service will also be dividedsintosseveral grades, and the fees must correspond to service quality.

　　Residents are usually seen as the weaker party, so it seems that in such disputes, residents always end up being the victims. However, Yin Kunhua, an expert on with Real Estate Research Centre of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, pointed out that many residents required too much, including levels of service beyond what they paid for.

　　"Some people simply stressed the quality of service," he said. "Most of these disputes occurred in residential quarters whose average price is relatively low."

　　Although property management companies have become the target of public criticism, Yin warned that residents should also learn to protect themselves by fighting for their rights.

　　In fact, the property owner's board and property owners' conference are not new to local residents. Property owners can participate in an owners' conference for decision-making, and the board is also elected by the conference.

　　"However, many residents are not aware of the need to protect themselves properly by defending their rights as property owners," Yin said.