These days, the Wuzhou Longwan residential community in Huaiyin District, Huainan City, is undergoing a change in its property owner committee. After five years serving as the committee director, Chen Wenjun has one clear demand: he absolutely will not seek another term. "You might do 99 good things, but if there's one thing someone is unhappy with, the whole effort can be completely negated," said the man in his seventies. Reflecting on the past five years, he used four words to describe the experience: utterly exhausting, both mentally and physically.
The departure of one committee director highlights a more widespread dilemma. In community governance, the property owner committee is supposed to be the owners' own representative, overseeing property management, managing public revenue, facilitating the use of maintenance funds, and safeguarding common interests. However, in reality, many communities lack such committees, and some efforts to establish one get stuck right from the initial preparation stage. Interviews reveal that among over 5,000 property management projects in Nanjing, only about 800 have owner committees. The situation in Huai'an is similar, with only 139 committees among 1,700 residential communities.
So, what makes establishing these committees so difficult?
The Challenge of Disunity
Resident Zhang Meifang, who lives in the Jinfu Yayuan community in Yijiangmen Subdistrict, Gulou District, Nanjing, recalls seeing a notice for committee elections posted in her building last year, but that was the only time she saw it. "I didn't know the specific process, and I was too busy to pay attention," she said. Visits by reporters found that many residents, like Zhang, have little time to engage with community public affairs. Many younger owners are not even aware that last year's committee preparation efforts ultimately failed.
"Our community is a resettlement housing area with a high vacancy rate and many rental units, making relationships quite complex," said resident Granny Lin. She remembers that during the voting phase for the preparatory group, opinions began to diverge, with some dropping out midway and others opposing the process. According to regulations, the entire procedure must be completed within 90 working days. Ultimately, due to the difficulty in reaching consensus, the process expired and was voided.
Such situations are not uncommon. In one subdistrict in Nanjing, which oversees nine communities and nearly a hundred residential areas, only 16 have established owner committees.
"Mobilizing thousands of households in a community to gather and solicit opinions is extremely challenging," analyzed Qin Lianbin, Director of the Property Management Division at the Huai'an Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau. He noted that some owners adopt a detached attitude, wanting to enjoy the benefits of good governance without participating or voicing their opinions. Yet when problems arise, they are quick to complain that no one is managing things. Without a widely respected, capable coordinator willing to invest significant time, taking the first step is very difficult.
In the Jinchuan Yaju community in Nanjing's Gulou District, Sun Shanlin was pushed into the role of committee director. During a meeting, he pulled a stack of materials from a bag and flipped to an old photo. "Look, this is what the community used to be like," he said. The photo showed a large hole in the roof of a multi-story parking garage, with the metal sheet dangling precariously. The problems weren't limited to the garage; there were malfunctioning fire pump station valves, dilapidated landscaping, and unused vacant spaces, one issue after another.
"Before I retired, I was too busy with work to have time for this," Sun said. But watching the community he had lived in for years deteriorate day by day, he could no longer sit idle. "To be honest, I was forced into taking on the director role."
However, those willing to step forward are not always viewed with trust by other owners. An official from a housing department candidly admitted that in practice, a small number of people actively push for committee formation with personal interests in mind. "Some have their eyes on the public revenue pie, wanting control over parking fees and advertising income. Some are interested in community maintenance projects, wanting to bypass open bidding to award work to themselves or acquaintances. Others have reached covert agreements with property management companies, helping them secure contracts in exchange for personal benefits like waived fees or payoffs."
Since March of this year, a social work department in Yangzhou has researched 117 communities and also found instances of impure motives among a minority of committee members. In one local community, the committee director was found to have misappropriated over 5 million yuan in public revenue, a case now transferred to the courts.
Wang Xinghong, Vice Chairman of the Jiangsu Dasu Community Governance Innovation Research Institute, offers a blunter observation: capable people are often unwilling to take the lead, while those eager to step forward are not always reliable.
This creates a paradox: without a committee, public revenue often remains under the long-term control of the property management company. Owners find it difficult to inquire about how much is collected, how it's spent, or whether it's been misappropriated. Even if they want to pursue legal recovery, they face obstacles due to the lack of a legal entity to bring the suit. "In recent years, successful cases in Nanjing for recovering public revenue have almost all involved existing owner committees," Wang Xinghong noted.
The Challenge of High Procedural Barriers
Having someone willing to step forward is just the first step. After Chen Wenjun took that step, he faced a procedural tug-of-war lasting three years.
"When establishing the first committee, we used a representative assembly model. First, we selected 43 owner representatives from the 43 buildings, then these representatives voted to elect seven committee members," Chen recalled. He said the hardest part of the entire preparation process was the waiting. The required materials were inherently cumbersome and needed review by relevant parties. Regulations set time limits for approvals; exceeding them meant starting over. "After three years of this back-and-forth struggle, our committee was finally established."
Regulations stipulate that establishing a committee requires a joint application from at least ten owners submitted to the subdistrict office. After verification, the subdistrict should organize the formation of a preparatory group within 60 days. This group includes representatives from the subdistrict, the community, the development unit, and owners, with owner representatives constituting no less than 60%. The list must be publicly posted in prominent locations within the community. After formation, the preparatory group must draft the community management regulations, owner assembly rules, and committee operational rules. These are then put to a vote at an owner assembly, finally leading to the election of committee members.
These procedures are not superfluous. The management of public revenue, applications for maintenance fund usage, and the signing and disclosure of property service contracts all involve the interests of every owner. Strict procedures are precisely intended to prevent a minority from manipulating such matters. For example, preparatory group members cannot simultaneously be candidates for the committee. Qin Lianbin explained this prevents anyone from "acting as both referee and player."
However, the more standardized the procedures, the higher the demands on ordinary owners and the organizational capacity of the community. Sun Shanlin still remembers the hassle during the committee transition: "One public notice after another, plus signatures and contracts."
Communities also find it challenging. A community party secretary in Nanjing stated frankly that older, smaller communities with many elderly residents have to follow the same procedures as large new commercial housing developments. "Increasingly standardized procedures are a good thing, but for long-time residents, just gathering materials and filling out forms can be enough to discourage participation."
Reporters found that understanding of the establishment process varies among some officials in different regions. "Many people don't fully grasp the rules of procedure, leading to inconsistent interpretations and chaotic implementation," Qin Lianbin pointed out. He emphasized that the core basis for establishing and operating a committee remains the legally filed "Owner Assembly Rules of Procedure" and management regulations within the property management area.
"The threshold for establishing a committee is not low," Wang Xinghong noted. He believes that preparatory group members, transition and re-election team members, committee candidates, and even the formally established committee itself all require professional training. While provincial and municipal regulations exist, implementation is often insufficient, and many owners are unaware of their rights, obligations, and operational rules.
The Challenge of Significant Resistance
Often, committees do not emerge naturally during calm times. They are born from accumulated pressure: escalating parking disputes, intensifying property fee conflicts, urgent fire safety hazard rectifications. It's only when these pressures reach a certain point that owners are pushed to consider forming an organization. But precisely because of this, committees can easily take on an adversarial tone from the start, leading to tense relationships with property management, developers, and even subdistrict and community authorities.
Several interviewees admitted that many property management companies are reluctant to see committees established. Without a committee, the property company holds more initiative in deciding how public revenue is used, how maintenance funds are spent, and how service contracts are signed. Once a committee is formed, it means someone will audit the accounts, supervise service quality, and potentially even propose changing the property management company.
"In reality, external resistance comes from multiple levels," Wang Xinghong analyzed. Some developers refuse to provide the necessary drawings and documents for preparing the owner assembly, or abstain from voting on their retained properties and unsold parking spaces, creating artificial barriers. Some property companies are uncooperative with preparation work and may even resort to extreme measures like surveillance, threats, or sabotage, such as tearing down notices posted by the preparatory group or distributing anonymous materials to smear enthusiastic owners. In January of this year, during preparations for the first owner assembly in a Nanjing community, some owners who had signed up as candidates were visited at their workplaces by strangers "inquiring about their situation," while others received anonymous complaint letters, later verified as false.
There is another, more subtle layer of resistance. In terms of their defined roles, subdistrict, community, and supervisory authorities are supposed to provide guidance, supervision, and assistance for committee formation. However, in practice, some localities place more emphasis on "supervision," weakening "guidance" and "assistance." A grassroots worker admitted that some areas are concerned that after a committee is formed, conflicts might become more visible and governance burdens increase, leading to a lack of proactive promotion.
On the other hand, in reality, a few committees, once established, do not cooperate with subdistrict and community authorities, even turning their community into a sort of "independent kingdom." This makes some grassroots units more cautious about promoting the formation of new committees.
Wang Xinghong also stated that the key issue lies in whether the committee itself can operate according to laws and regulations. Committees that follow legal procedures, operate transparently, and maintain positive interactions with subdistrict and community authorities generally receive support from local governments. Conversely, if the establishment process is flawed, operations are chaotic, public revenue usage is opaque, or even corruption occurs, it will inevitably face opposition from all sides.
The Challenge of a Heavy Burden
The difficulty of establishment is surpassed by the difficulty after establishment.
During his first term, Sun Shanlin led the committee in repairing the entire garage, revitalizing waste land, cleaning up basements, and pushing for fire safety improvements. He realized the role required a "jack-of-all-trades": technical knowledge for fire safety, understanding regulations for maintenance funds, management skills for dealing with property companies, and interpersonal skills for communicating with owners.
Chen Wenjun shares this sentiment. He led committee members in making demands to the property company: repairing pavilions, installing benches, solving drainage issues. The community's property fee collection rate rose to over 90%. He consistently emphasized that committees and property management are not inherently adversarial. "Property companies providing good service and owners paying fees proactively is a virtuous cycle." However, speaking about his feelings over the past five years, he expressed deep fatigue: owners tend to blame the committee for any dissatisfaction; if community owners are uncooperative, subdistrict and community authorities easily suspect the committee is instigating it from behind. "Caught in the middle, receiving no pay, covering my own transportation and communication costs, even facing threats. Waking up at two or three in the morning with my mind full of community issues, my health is really somewhat depleted. So, for this transition, my stance is clear: I can serve as a committee member, but I absolutely will not be director again."
In many other places, where committees are difficult to establish in the short term but conflicts urgently need resolution, the most common alternative is to form a property management committee.
Previously, in the Zhongtian Youshi Meidi community in Bochi Subdistrict, Huai'an Economic Development Zone, two attempts to elect an owner committee failed because the number of voters did not reach the required majority. Community Party Secretary Lu Zhong explained that according to relevant regulations, in such cases, a property management committee can be formed instead, with a significantly simplified process. First, solicit opinions from each building to nominate candidate owner representatives. Then, post this information on community bulletin boards, elevator entrances, and owner WeChat groups. Next, have owners vote to select seven representatives. After multi-channel publicity with no major objections, the seven representatives are confirmed without needing to pursue a high voter turnout rate. These seven, along with representatives from the community, subdistrict, police station, urban management, and other parties, form a 13-member property management committee. After filing, it is considered established. Lu Zhong became the director of this committee.
To date, Huai'an has established over 1,400 such property management committees, covering nearly 90% of communities, with plans for full coverage this year. "The original intent of the property management committee is as a temporary, transitional organization. The ultimate goal is still to guide the establishment of a formal owner committee, achieving owner self-governance," Qin Lianbin explained.
Wang Xinghong analyzed that grassroots governments tend to favor property management committees because they are easier to manage and relatively controllable. They don't require complex elections; the subdistrict or community can appoint a few active residents or party members to form one, making the operation simple. If problems arise, accountability is also more straightforward.
Given this, how much space is there for the growth of owner self-governance in communities of strangers? Wang Xinghong suggests that through the joint efforts of grassroots governments, communities, social organizations, and owners themselves, a continuous atmosphere of neighborly interaction should be fostered. Turning a community of strangers into an acquaintance-based society is more conducive to enhancing owners' self-governance capabilities. "This process may be slow, but it is the most reliable foundation for owner autonomy."