You are not alone!

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/Streets/Saturday/Stories/2279152/Article/index_html

Complaints aplenty from Menara City One residents

Nuradzimmah Daim

KUALA LUMPUR: Many would give an arm and a leg to live in the heart of the city, but the residents of Menara City One Condominium feel they don't have much to boast about.

They have numerous complaints about the management of the building in Jalan Munshi Abdullah, near Jalan Masjid India, which also houses 49 shoplots on the ground floor.

Lack of maintenance, poor lighting in the carpark, cracks in the building, noise, air pollution and open burning near the entrance to the car park are just part of the long list.

Another problem, says senior bank manager Pang Teng Lee, is that he and other owners are still waiting for their strata titles.

He said the 10-year-old building was initially maintained by developer City One Sdn Bhd, but was handed over to City Hall in 2003.

"City Hall has done nothing about our titles.

"And we have been paying our monthly maintenance fees but we have no access to the accounts.

"We hope the joint management committee formed in April will help and be more transparent about what is happening."

He said nothing was accomplished at the first meeting between City Hall and the committee because the audited accounts were not given to the residents.

Irene Tan said she was concerned about the safety of the residents as any vehicle can access the car park.

"And because of the condition of the building and the fact that we don't have strata titles, the market price of our units has actually dropped from the original RM200 per square foot."

The exasperated residents have asked Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun to help.

He visited the building and arranged a meeting with the joint management committee.

Committee chairman M. Ramanathan said the maintenance and running of the 502-unit building was being done properly.

"We are doing our best. But the residents are close to RM6 million in arrears on their maintenance.

"If the residents don't pay, how can we maintain the building?

"We check all contracts with service providers and welcome suggestions and feedback on service providers from residents. We have nothing to hide as we are also residents here.

"We have applied for the strata titles, but there is a caveat that needs to be removed before we can proceed," he said.

RA representation in MBPJ

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/6/26/central/21649859&sec=central

Thursday June 26, 2008

PJ folks rue ‘incomplete’ list

FRUSTRATED and furious – this aptly described what Petaling Jaya residents felt about the list of councillors for their city.

“The Pakatan Rakyat promised that there would be residents represented in the councils but looks like it's not to be. We were hoping that at least one councillor would be a Residents Association (RA) representative but they are merely following the earlier government by having political appointees,” said All Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Residents' Association Coalition (APAC) committee member Mohamad Umar Peer Mohamad.

Mohamad Umar: ‘Residents’ needs would be brushed aside.’

APAC secretary Liew Wei Beng was unhappy because despite all the hard work they had put in fighting for the residents' cause, they were once again sidelined.

Condominimum, Apartments and Highrise Committee (CAHC) chairman Tengku Nazaruddin Zainudin said he received many calls from residents, questioning why there was no RA or Rukun Tetangga (RT) representation in the council.

“We question the political appointees because none of them have been actively involved with the council or with residents.

“Have they even attended a full board meeting before? Have they ever gone to the ground to see what residents are facing?” commented Nazaruddin, who has been staying in PJ for about 40 years.

Tengku Nazaruddin: Received many calls from residents who voiced their dissatisfaction.

“It's ironic because the council runs on the assessment paid by residents but in the end, the political parties decide who should represent us,” said Liew, also a PJ resident for about 40 years.

“We want people who can solve issues. We will continue to be the watchdogs and make sure PJ residents are taken care of,” said Nazaruddin.

“The NGO appointees would be more interested in policy-making issues, not our drainage or traffic problems,” said Liew, who is also Taman Mayang Jaya residents association chairman.

Umar said that like before, residents' needs would be brushed aside.

“There won't be much change and we would continue to see developments taking place around PJ. Before this, we have been termed as opposition when we fought for our rights and sadly, we're still going to be an opposition,” said Umar.

As the list is yet to be finalised, he hoped that the state government would reconsider their list.

Liew: Very disappointed with the list of councillors.

Should the councillor list remain as it is, Umar said they would carefully monitor the councillors throughout the first year.

SS4C and SS4D Residents Association (RA) chairman Ravinder Singh said politicians should be concentrating on politics and interests of the nation on a larger scale.

“Why are they meddling around in our local councils? Politicians are just here for a temporary period while we're staying here. We need a long-term representation in the council be involved with the developments that take place in our neighbourhoods,” said Ravinder.

Commenting on the disagreement between Pakatan Rakyat parties and even within the parties itself regarding the councillor lists, Ravinder said: “After 100 days in office, they are still complaining about their needs. What about our needs?”

SS20 RT chairman Eileen Thong said it was a wise decision not to have RA and RT representatives in the council.

She said that residents still had a voice through monthly MBPJ meetings between MBPJ heads of departments, councillors and resident representatives that were chaired by an assemblyman.

“It would have been hard to pick RA or RT heads to sit in the council because there are so many in PJ itself. How are you going to pick one to represent all residents? There would be a sudden surge of people who would want to get into the post with personal agendas. This would have been an unhealthy situation,” she said.

Kelana Jaya MP Loh Gwo Burne said he did receive complaints that there were no RA representatives in the council.

“They should have some sort of representation because they make up the majority of people in Petaling Jaya,” he said.

Protection for JMC

as published in http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=23483

Give condominium panel members more protection

WITH the implementation of the "Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act 2007" last year, owners of apartments, condominiums and other buildings are required to form their own management bodies.

The Management Body then appoints a Joint Management Committee (JMC) to carry out the functions of the body, namely the management and maintenance of the building and common property as provided under the Act. While the Act seeks to protect JMC members from criminal liability for offences which may be committed by them, it does not protect them from any civil suit brought by the owners/occupiers for damage or loss.

Members of the JMC are placed in a posi-tion of trust to carry out of their duties and responsibilities to the owners and can thus be sued and be made liable to owners or other occupiers for any loss or damage due to negligence or oversight on their part. The circumstances under which such a suit for negligence (even if done in good faith), arising from the maintenance and management of the building and common property, can be brought are numerous and varied. As the tasks undertaken by JMC members are largely voluntary in nature and carried out in their spare time, the Act should accord them some degree of immunity from civil action.

A logical safeguard would be for the JMC to take out a separate insurance of indemnity to protect itself against potential negligence suits. There is no reason why the premium should be paid by JMC members from their own pocket; hence the question is whether it can be lawfully paid out of the Building Management Fund.

None of the provisions of Section 22 (3) of the Act – which sets out the purposes for which money in the fund can be utilised – seem to allow for such payment. As this premium may impact heavily on the fund and thus impose an additional financial burden on the owners, it would perhaps be best to accord JMC members legal immunity from civil suits.

This protection would then encourage more owners to serve on the JMC, without which it would be difficult to imagine owners readily willing to do so.

Ajit Singh Gill
Kuala Lumpur

Sounds Familiar? - The problem is everywhere!

Residents tired of shoddy maintenance
REENA RAJ and SITI FATIMAH MD SAAD

THE repairs to the lifts servicing the Taman Miharja Phase Two apartments are entirely in the hands of the residents. A spokesman for Hokawai & Associates, which manages the 15-storey buildings, said if the residents want the lifts to be repaired, they should settle outstanding maintenance fees.

He said Hokawai was the sixth company to manage the place in the past 15 years.

Phase two comprises 10 blocks and poor maintenance had resulted in only one working lift in each block.

“And when the remaining lift breaks down as well, there will not be anything left. And that’s not all.

We have outstanding payments with Syabas and TNB, again because of the indifference of the residents.

Two weeks ago, a joint management committee was set up to discuss how best to address the problems.

A resident, Puah Kim Lai, said his latest bill reflected an outstanding charge of RM110, despite him having paid all his bills promptly.

He showed Malay Mail receipts of his previous payments until April.

“I never received the bill for May.

The next thing I knew, I got a bill for June and in it was an outstanding charge,” he said.

Another resident, who only wished to be known as Lim, said that the management office’s operating hours makes it difficult for them to pay the bills.

“They open from 9 to 5 while I work from 8am to 6pm. As such, I always miss the office hours.

“However, when I asked the management to open their office on weekends, they refused,” he said.

Residents also voiced their displeasure on other issues such as the indiscriminate parking of motor- cycles in front of the ground floor unit apartments, the presence of rats due to uncollected garbage, the poor quality of water, leaky water tanks and overall poor maintenance of the surrounding area.

Meanwhile, Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai, adviser to the joint committee, said: “I’m sure if we all work together, an amicable solution can be found,” said Tan.

“The problem is most of the residents are tenants and the unit-owners are the ones who have not been paying the maintenance fees.”

Apartment Owners in a Limbo

Pitfalls await unwary apartment owners now that they are starting to manage their own common properties, writes LEE SIEW LIAN of NST online - columns dated 2008/05/04

APARTMENT owners are trapped in the middle of a roiling dispute over who should control the lucrative business of property management.

With an estimated RM600 million in annual fees at stake, the long-standing battle has left owners in a bind over who to appoint to help run and maintain their communal properties once they take over from developers.

While the two groups of property players slug it out, state governments are dithering over who to appoint as building commissioners, the officials who should be best placed to decide on the issue.

This leaves the country's 1.2 million apartment owners with little guidance over what to do and few safety nets to catch them if they make a mistake.
Because regulation of this industry is inadequate and dotted with loopholes, apartment owners are now exposed to major risks, including financial disaster.

"It's a daunting and confusing task," says Veronica Gan, president of the Bangsar Heights Residents Association, which will soon form their own management corporation.

"What we need are some guidelines on the best practices to adopt or how to negotiate. The only material we have is from the House Buyers Association, but it's not really enough."

"There are many pitfalls during this transition period," says Chang Kim Loong, honorary secretary-general of the national HBA, "But no one's looking out for the consumers."

Thousands of joint management bodies (JMBs) were supposed to have been set up this year, giving owners of flats, apartments and condominiums a say, together with developers, in how subdivided properties are run.

JMBs are interim bodies for the years before strata titles are issued and owners' management corporations (MCs) set up to take over from developers.

One of their biggest responsibilities will be to appoint someone to manage their common property, from the grounds and lifts to corridor lighting and swimming pools.

Almost overnight, a huge and lucrative industry has opened up.

"If unit owners paid an average of RM50 in monthly maintenance charges, it would mean RM50 million a month, RM600 million a year," says Kumar Tharmalingam, secretary-general of the International Real Estate Federation (Fiabci), in Asia Pacific.

The Board of Valuers, a statutory regulator, says owners should appoint only property managers that it has registered. But a lobby group, the VAEA Joint Action Group, insists that there is no such restriction.

The VAEA refers to the Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Act 1981, the statute that governs the board.

The Joint Action Group has players from different industries as members, ranging from the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association (Rehda) to apartment management corporations and the Associated Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCCIM). Fiabci Malaysia, which Tharmalingam used to head, is also part of the group.

The group reads the law differently and asserts that by definition under two other Acts, the owner bodies and corporations escape the effects of the Valuers Act.

They claim the two Acts -- the Strata Titles Act 1985 and the Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act 2007 -- allow owners' committees to appoint what they call managing agents.

"Anyone with the right experience and ability can be a managing agent. JMBs and MCs can appoint any one they see fit to manage their properties," says Datuk Teo Chiang Kok, See Hoy Chan director.

Their problem with the Valuers Act is that it effectively allows only registered valuers to become property managers. They say this makes the property management industry a monopoly for just a few hundred registered valuers.

"But it is the free market that should decide," Teo says.

Board of Valuers president Datuk Abdullah Thalith Md Thani says anyone involved in managing and maintaining property should be properly regulated and well-qualified.

"I want to open up registration to anyone who is interested. It's a misunderstanding."

He says he had proposed to amend the Valuers Act, but intense resistance from developers and other property players forced him to drop the matter. Thalith is president by virtue of his post of director-general of the Valuation Department under the Ministry of Finance.

Thalith agrees with most industry players that the Act's provisions for regulating property managers are inadequate, and enforcement patchy.

But he worries that those who appoint the so-called managing agents could be courting financial disaster arising from mistakes, negligence and dishonesty. Those registered under the Act would be required to obtain professional indemnity insurance, he points out.

The HBA, a voluntary organisation which represents home owners, agrees owners are exposed even if these unregistered managing agents had adequate indemnity insurance.

Chang, who is honorary secretary, argues that the insurer could repudiate liability and refuse to pay up since the managing agent is not a legitimate property manager registered with the Board of Valuers.

Indeed, the same could happen to owner bodies themselves, the JMBs and MCs, he says.

"The relevant statutory provisions do include prosecutions and the right to sue, but this is hardly any protection at all to owners. There are too few preventive measures." The HBA favours tighter regulation and compulsory licensing of property managers. "Lives and properties are entrusted to their care, control and management," Chang says.

He also urges the board to grant amnesty to competent but unregistered property managers, to encourage them to register.

"It's similar to the drive that was extended to unlicensed real estate agents some years ago."

Fiabci's Tharmalingam agrees, saying the board has, by inaction, allowed unlicensed property managers to flourish for 20 years: "They now have the right to exist."

A valuer by profession, he goes even further to say the JMBs and MCs should also be registered. Registering these owner bodies would offer a safety net to individual unit owners, he explains: "Those who serve in the (executive) committees have a responsibility for the (financial) performance of the JMBs and MCs. If the board is prepared to regulate property managers, then it should take responsibility for the JMBs and MCs too."

The problem is the laws governing stratified properties have been drafted and amended piecemeal, leaving loopholes that expose apartment owners, Tharmalingam claims.

"It's a solvable problem, but cooler heads must prevail."

A Response

submitted by kiew

Reading your Blog on Palm Spring Condo, I suggest that the JMC member approach the Ministry of Housing and Local Government Enforcement Department at Damansara government Office Complex Block B, 3^rd Floor Pusat Damansara. The Developer in failing to provide the required audited annual account on the management of the Condo has violated the law under the Housing Development (Control and Licensing) Act 1966. The failure to provide accounts later that 2005 when it is now 2008 is not acceptable. If the JMC file a complaint the enforcement division can then take action.

I suggest that the JMC get hold of the Act that can be bought from Book stores in the country for detail and better understanding of their position and term of responsibility and rights.

On the issue of religious picture and symbol hung outside the doors of resident, you said that we living in a multi-faith country needs to exercise tolerance. Does it then means we need not have sensitivity as well! Our approach to the Commissioner of Building PJ Office seems to have an evasive response in view of the sensitivity of the issue. The Condo management was told to handle it as well seen fit. I think there must be some official ruling on such an issue, like keep pets in Condo.

On water charges, all I hope for is a fair deal in water charges not free water. Water fro the sky is free. However treated water has a cost to bear and I DO NOT SEE WHY IT CAN BE FREE. Who then is to pay for the treatment?

The present charge on water for strata buildings is not fair as apartment and condo dwellers have to pay premium rate while richer landed property owner pay less. There is some thing not right with our law here. Our law is meant to be fair and just. Where is the justice here? All I can hope for is a change in the law making every consumer equal in the eye of the law and thus equally treated. I hope Edward can help bring this to the State Government and change the law as required. Water is a state matter and can be handle each state at a time. I hope Selangor can take the lead..

Tips to Save Costs

I just came across this - must have missed the part for people living in high-rise property. Tengku, you ada tanam sayur?

"[People] need to be thrifty in their life. If they have some spare land near their house, they can start planting vegetables. For those staying in high-rise like apartments, they can use the pots or the hydroponics method".
This great piece of advice was mouthed off by Mohd. Yusuf Abdul Rahman, the communications director of FOMCA.

(the above taken off niamah.blogspot.com - patrickteoh's blog - Thank you, sir!)

FIRE ALARMS - food for thought...

submitted by:
Derek De Souza

Warga CAHC, this makes good information. Worth spending some time to look into this issue. Comments please.

It is with great sadness that I inform you all of concerns on safety within the PNK building, looks like all efforts to emphasis on safety has fallen on deaf years, yet again. Let me bring to your attention some outstanding issues currently affecting our condo, pertaining to the fire alarm system.

Firstly, it is with deep regret that the authorities at Bomba do not carry out regular routine checks. I address this issue, because I have in the past five years made no less than 5 complaints to Bomba with regards to the state of affairs of our fire alarm system. I always question the need for such systems to be installed and the regulation which makes it a requirement of the building by-law acts. Why should a fire alarm be installed in the first place??? The answer is simple, it is used as an early warning to detect potential fire hazards that may cause loss of life, property and what not!!! Why do people treat safety lightly??? Good question, the answer is simple....everybody believes or tends to ignore the possibility of such a fire ever being able to take place in their premises. Well we all hope it never happens, anyway right!

Please note that the current situation of our fire alarm system is in bad condition. We have a sophisticated addressable fire alarm system, which is supposedly much better than conventional or semi-addressable systems. The sad thing is this, the system tends to breakdown frequently and all in the name of ignorance towards the suggestions I have offered in the past, which is to reinstall all the addressable transponders accordingly and which shall ensure that such potential failures are lessened or removed completely. Back to the situation of our fire alarm system, please note that the main fire alarm panel in the guardpost is totally shutdown and the one in block 6, connecting blocks 4,5 and 6 has a problem with its network card. What this means is that there is no network communications of the current status of the fire system. In the event a call point is triggered to alert fire, this information will not be communicated back to the main control panel to trigger the relevant bells. The other most glaring situation is the conventional fire alarm panels installed at the Pencawang Elektrik room where our electrical transformers are installed (PE 3 and PE 4), which are totally dead or non-functional. Even the gas discharge panel for the Halon Gas is also broken. I do hope that in the interest of safety, God protects us in the interim period that the system is non-functional. The manager of our condominium seems to feel that this outstanding issue is either irrelevant to him or our safety. We should communicate such poor building managers in our forums so that such management companies do not get any other buildings maintenance contracts in future. Call me if you want to know which company.

I sincerely hope that something is done by Bomba soon. In my list of email distribution, I have included the email address of Tuan Edwin Galan Teruki of Bomba whom is the person in charge of enforcement. I do hope tuan, if you see this email, you will help send some enforcement officers to our condominium i.e. Puncak Nusa Kelana in Jalan PJU 1A/48, Petaling Jaya to investigate and if possible fine the building manager.

With that, I end my message with a prayer to God, that he protects us all in the interim period that our fire system is down, due to the excellent management services provided by a team of morons. "Dear God, please protect us from fires and ensure the safety of all our tenants and residents. Please make Bomba realise their responsibility towards the people and let them send someone to check on our problem. Most importantly, God, please send a message through the thick skulls of the morons that manage our building on the importance of safety and early detection of potential fires. We ask all this in the name of God! Thank you."

Palm Spring panel formed - are you in the same boat?

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/6/10/central/21456096&sec=central

RESIDENTS of Palm Spring@Damansara in Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya, have set up a joint management body (JMB) and want the developer to hand over the management of the property to them.
According to Palm Spring joint management committee (JMC) sub-committee member Richard Siew, 50, the commissioner of buildings (COB) had issued a certificate endorsing the setting up of the Palm Spring JMB.
The certificate was issued by the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ), signed by PJ mayor Datuk Mohamad Roslan Sakiman as the commissioner of building.
“The certificate is dated April 5 because that is when the JMB was formed. The management should have stopped collecting maintenance fees from the residents from then on but it has not stopped doing so,” Siew said.
The residents are unhappy that the developer has not acknowledged the formation of the JMB under the Building and Common Property Act 2007.
JMB secretary Richard Wong, 44, said they were not satisfied with the way the maintenance fees and sinking fund were handled.
“We requested to see the accounts, but till now, they have only given us the accounts for 2005,” he said.
Takeover: Anwar, holding the certificate issued by the commissioner of buildings, requesting to see Ho. However, Ho was not available.
Wong said they hoped the developer would join the JMC so that they could manage the funds together.
Last Wednesday, the committee had arranged to meet building manager Samuel Ho but he was not in the office at the agreed time.
The committee then asked three PSD Management Services employees to leave so that it could lock the grille leading up the office.
“We're not terminating the services of PSD. We're just locking the office up for five minutes, which is symbolic of our takeover of the property management,” said Palm Spring JMB chairman Anwar Monawar, 49.
When contacted, Ho said the PSD was merely an agency to carry out the management and maintenance of the property.
“We're a neutral party and residents should settle their dispute with the developers,” Ho said.
According to Section 11 of Building and Common Property Act 2007, the joint management committee must include the developer and between five and 12 property owners, chosen during an annual general meeting
Roslan said the matter is being looked into.
Developer Muafakat Kekal Sdn Bhd declined to comment for the time being.
Regarding the accounts, Ho said any resident must submit a written request to examine it.
“The accounts are privy only to residents of the building, and not just anyone,” he said.

JMB - Roles & Duties ( an experience by a member )

This was sent in by Seng Teck Lim

It was advised by the developer that the committee shd appoint a mgmt agent to do the day to day business of running the place as the JMC members or at least the majority are all working people; there is no way the JMC can run the place. Who will run the office to prepare billing and collect payments during office offices, do banking, attend to residents complain or supervise the various suppliers of services (security, cleaning, etc)

However Subsection 11 (1) states that the JMC may perform the Body's dutes and conduct the Body's business on its behalf and may for that purpose exercise any of the Body's powers (one of which is appointing the mgmt agent).

We are in the second month of collecting payments without problems and paying suppliers prompltly as well as we have sufficient cash flow.

We have two accounts - one for maintenance charges and one for sinking fund and the authorised signatories are the 3 principal office bearers (Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer). We have rules for operating the accounts ie 2 signatories are required for amounts not more than RM2K and 3 signatories for amounts greater than 2K. The Day to day banking in of cash/cheque collections is done by the mgmt agent who put 3 staff in the office (Building mgr, an accounts/admin clerk and a technician) which shd be sufficient for a medium sized condo of about 300 to 400 units. Also the management agent is overall in charge of all other service providers like security, landscape/gardening, cleaning, lift maintenance and supervising engineer/chargeman etc.
Then the managment agent need to deal with certain statutory requirements like
-- licence from the energy commission on the LV/Genset
- licence for the lfits
- annual inspection of fire equipment to satify Bomba requirements etc
How will an average JMC member know what to do? It will only be prudent to appoint a mgmt agnet to handle it for you.

In 2 cases where i am a committee member, we find the fees paid to the mgmt agent were cheaper than what the two developers had been charging us for managing and maintaining the property.

But if your condo has lots of retired people who are willing to serve; you probably can run the mgmt office on your own but you need people of varied background/skills who are knowledgeable with not just the Building and Common Property Act but also other related Acts.


Of course the JMC must insure its building against Fire & related risks like landslide etc.
But there may be other insurances that you must think of such as public liability insurance etc. In the second condo where I was involved in, we found thatt he condo had fire insurance policy only, When queried, we found that other isnurances were covered by the developer's overall group insurance policies. So we had to buy these other insurances once the JMC was in effective control ( their group insurance will not cover us) as they are needed to protect the interests of all owners.Example you bring in a guest to the swimming and he slipped and fell and was badly hurt. He decides to sue the JMB for RM1M for negligence in not providing railing or non-slip flooring etc; what will the JMB do if you have not thought of public liability insurance. Then are at least 3 others that you shd consider.

There will be 101 things to think of if you want to manage on your own.

Anyway it had been an interesting and wonderful experience being a member of two such committees - 1 a MC and the other a JMC. A friend who is on JMC of his condo has asked me for some advice as well and I have learned some interesting challenges at his condo. I found that his committee basically did not know where to start and I gave him some of my notes to help him. Perhaps someone shd write a book for the many JMC out there trying to manage their property --- a layman perspective

House Rules - (from a member)

I need your help.
I need to draw up a set of house rules for my jmc.
Hope you are able to salvage a soft copy from somewhere for my reference and adaptation.
My developer, is a super con man, swearing that they have been giving me a set wth every document they send me.

ANYONE CAN LEND A HELPING HAND?

Water Issues

A forum between residents of Pandan and Ampang was held between Syabas on 10 May 08 at MPAJ office. Present was YB Iskandar Exco for Housing. CAHC was represented by Datuk Karim and Sazali Hashim.
1. Selangor government has been asked to legislate the migration of water meters and billing i.e make it mandatory for SYABAS to read and bill the meters individually, without going thorough a third party.

2, Third party should be eliminated i.e the management. SYABAS also said that many apartments and condos have not submitted their request for migration. AND they also found out that though residents have signed up for migration, the developer or the management did not submit the forms to SYABAS. One example was a developer in Puchong who admitted not submitting the forms because they do not want the migration.Therefore, residents are asked to check again with the developer. If action was not taken, residents association should take the initiative to do the following: 1. go to the Syabas office in charge of your area and get the necessary forms 2. Residents to fill up the forms, give them back to the Residents Association.

3. RA then submit the forms direct to SYABAS without going through the developerAt the last meeting with SYABAS, they said that the developer should submit the forms, but because developers have not been submitting the forms, RAs can now do it.First check with the developer if they had submitted the forms or not!!!

House Rules - Religious Practices ( question from a member )

I wonder if you can provide some advice on the violation of House Rules or By-laws whereby individuals living in aCondo decide that it is his right to hang religious figure portrait or symbols above the door of their unit outside their unit that cause offence to his neigbours. What can and should be done in such a case as religion is a sensitive issue in our multi-faith and religion country.

Can you give your view on such a matters and circulate it among other Condo email sites for advice and discussion.

I personally have no problem on whatever religious symbol other have but when there is an objection of fear or offence what then?

Request for removal resulted in fierce objection from offending individual.

Hope to hears some response .

Puchong Intan

from http://www.mmail.com.my/Current_News/mm/Friday/Hotnews/20080530102100/Article/index_htmlRESIDENTS of Puchong Intan Apartment want a speedy solution to their woes and reckon their Member of Parliament, Gobind Singh Deo, would be the person to deliver. They have several outstanding matters to resolve with the developer, Max Benefit Sdn Bhd. Since the residents seem to get nowhere, not even with the Subang Jaya Municipal Council, they have enlisted Gobind’s help. There was a meeting among the three parties — the residents represented by the Puchong Intnan Joint Management Board (JMB) - two weeks ago. The council was represented by its secretary Slamat Hamzah and Commissioner of Buildings Nor Azmi Mohd Rosli.According to JMB secretary Baharun Ngah, the issues discussed during the meeting were inadequate parking, spoilt lifts, outstanding Liquidated As cer tained Damages (LAD) payment and the hand-over of accounts.A new meeting was fixed for end May.When contacted yesterday, however, Baharun said there was no news from either the council or developers.As such, they decided to get Gobind involved.Said Gobind: “There are two aspects to this, which are the LAD claims and the condition of the apartments. I advised that the two should be dealt with separately."“The LAD issue seems pretty straightforward. So, I don’t understand why it has not been paid yet.” The apartments were supposed to be completed in 2002 but was extended to 2004. However, residents received their keys in June, 2005.Gobind intends to meet with Max Benefit and MPSJ after receiving a list from the JMB on those involved and the problems.