Strata Act seizures

Come out with maintenance fees or out goes your furniture, TV, rice cookers . . .

Hardcore defaulters on condo or apartment maintenance payments may have their units raided and the movable items inside – such as TVs, appliances and smartphones – seized by the authorities. The Strata Management Act 2013 gives more power to building management bodies to take action on errant owners, with the backing of local councils and the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry. And the seizures have begun! PETALING JAYA:

Knock, knock, who’s there?

Officers from the Kajang Municipal Council’s Commissioner of Buildings unit and Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry seizing items from a defaulter during a raid at an apartment in Bangi. Confiscated

The answer could be the authorities, here to seize your belongings if you are a condo owner who defaulted on maintenance fees.
The Government is intensifying enforcement efforts against condominium and apartment owners who fail to pay up. And it means business.
In fact, the seizures have already begun. For the first time under the Strata Management Act 2013, five units at an apartment in Bangi, Selangor, were raided in May because of their owners’ failure to settle fees totalling thousands of ringgit.

Movable items like flat­screen TVs, smartphones and even appliances like rice cookers and gas tanks were seized by the apartment’s management body, the Kajang Municipal Council’s Commissioner of Buildings (COB) unit, and the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry.
The items were later auctioned off to settle outstanding fees or reclaimed by the owners who finally paid up.
Such action will be stepped up to get more defaulters to toe the line.

“Similar enforcement efforts, including seizures, will be extended to various locations nationwide,” the ministry’s urban service division senior principal assistant secretary Mohd Syaifulrizal Mohd Bakar told The Star.

In fact, five other raids were conducted so far this year by the ministry, together with the respective local councils’ COB.
Mohd Syaifulrizal said there was no minimum amount of outstanding fees needed for such seizures to be conducted.
“As long as the joint management body (JMB) or management corporation (MC) of a condo or apartment has served a written notice to demand payment from the unit owner, and it is unpaid after 14 days, enforcement can take place.

“The JMB or MC can serve a warrant to the defaulters with the help of the COB and ministry,” he said.
Aside from seizing items, other actions that the JMB and MC can take include filing a summons in court against defaulters and filing a claim in the Strata Management Tribunal formed under the Act.

The Act, which came into effect in July 2015, gives more bite to management bodies in taking action against errant unit owners.
Calling it more comprehensive than the repealed Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act, Mohd Syaifulrizal said the new law had also led to a slight improvement in property management standards.

“The ministry wants more JMBs and MCs to practise better quality management and maintenance to foster a harmonious and healthy living community,” Mohd Syaifulrizal said.

Source: The Star, 5 September 2017

In search of missing funds

Council raids Ampang apartment’s JMB office after it fails to provide documents

THE Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) raided the Joint Management Body (JMB) of two apartment developments in Taman Kosas, Ampang, seizing relevant documents to facilitate investigations into alleged missing funds, during a joint operation.

Abdul Hamid (right) and KPKT Municipality Services Division Strata Management branch enforcement head Insp Mohammad Izzat Hassan (third from right) questioning a clerk at the apartment.

This was following a complaint signed by 20 residents claiming that maintenance funds totalling RM70,000 had gone missing.

A team of 20 enforcement officers from MPAJ as well as the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry (KPKT) Strata Management branch, turned up at the JMB office and seized the documents after the JMB ignored repeated requests from MPAJ for the documents.

MPAJ president Abdul Hamid Abdul Hussain said the council’s commissioner of building (COB) had received a letter from residents on the matter on Oct 18 last year.

“On Nov 30, the council asked the JMB to clarify the matter in 14 days, but they did not cooperate.

“We also made three visits to the apartment, but we did not manage to get the documents we wanted,” he said during a press conference at the apartment.

“The complaints included the lack of maintenance of the building, resulting in faulty lifts, and that the JMB failed to submit audited financial statement to MPAJ’s COB since 2013.

“The JMB has also not held its annual general meeting, which is required under the law,” he said.

The operation was conducted under the Strata Management Act 2013 (Act 757).

The raid was focused on one condominium and six blocks of middle-cost apartments, totalling 520 units.

Each unit is charged a sinking fund of between RM96 and RM183 for condominiums, and between RM9 and RM18 for apartments, monthly.

During the operation, MPAJ requested several documents including bank statements, sinking funds collection reports, expenses and payment reports, bank-in slips, financial reports, ageing lists and minutes of meetings.

“The JMB cooperated, and we will investigate the matter further.

“If there is a case of misappropriation of funds, we will pass it to the police,” Abdul Hamid said.

A JMB representative, who was present during the operation, said the JMB planned to call for a press conference soon to clarify the issue.

Source: The Star 16 February 2017

VANDALISM AT DANAU MURNI CONDOMINIUM

We are sad to see these pictures. Please advise ourselves and children not to spray on walls or signage, burn each lift buttons, vandalise playground equipment or table for BBQ area or break anything at our common area. The cost for repairing will be borne by every one of us. We can use maintenance fees collected for something else rather than doing repair, paint or replace broken equipment.

We are not living in a low-cost apartment. Some of these actions show how worst the mentality of people living here.

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