Saturday, January 10, 2009

Nicholas Phuah wrote:

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL THE GUYS THERE. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!



With reference to the above blog written by Mr. Chan, I would like to suggest the following:-



1. Check your house rules carefully to ensure that there are preventive and protective clauses. If not, urgently prepare additional clauses to tighten control.

2. While it may not be legal to prevent owners from renting out to any tenants, there are other laws and bylaws regulating the no of occupants per unit.

3. The JMC/MC can ensure that all owners and tenants must comply with the house rules.

4. The JMC/MC must be strong in ensuring the policy must be enforced. You must have a strong property manager and security to back you up.

3 comments:

Hoe said...

Hi Nicholas,

Thanks for the feedback

1) The current house rules addresses these issues but I realised that there are grey areas, i.e. subject to individual's interpretation. I have prepared some amendments to tighten up these grey areas

2) By tightening up these grey areas and harsh penalties (we bar the lift access card and charge money to unbar them), we hope to "make life difficult" for trouble-makers

3) The JMB works closely with our appointed management agent and security company to ensure compliance.

4) In addition to JMB and management agent, I have support from the owners who stay here via a private discussion group set up specially for residents of this condo.

We hope to pass the resolution on the amendments this month and enforce the rules accordingly once we have circulated the amendments of the House Rules to the owners.

The next step from this will be to figure out how we can "choose" the types of tenants allowed here without the legal implications

Nicholas said...

Hi Hoe..A belated Gong Xi fa Cai to you, Jan & "Princess" Callie.

Anyway as to your comments,-

1. Ensure that your amendments are vetted by some professionals,eg. lawyers, property professionals. Sometimes I have come across "house rules" amended by overzealous JMC/MC members. As a property consultant, I advised them to be careful as there are other laws besides Act 663 and Act 318, eg. Local Gov. Act, Street & Drainage Act etc, which needs to be considered.

2. Be also careful in "making life difficult" as there are certain rights even for such people. Please be reminded that the JMC/MC can sue and be sued. That is why I also advocate all JMC/MC to establish SOP to be approved at AGM/EGM. We have assisted several JMC/MCs in such SOPs. These willl serve as rules and guidelines to assist the management operate smoothly without fear or favour.

3. The JMC must work closely with them to succeed. The MA would advise on all operational issues and JMC shall decide on policies, directions etc.

4. You appear to have a lot of time to be able to attend to all these issues. Many members of other JMC/MC are so tired that they want to resign or leave to a professional to resolve their problems.

We have just assisted a JMC to settle an AGM. Believe me it took some time to "educate" or convince many owners on the right action plans.

You cannot "choose" the types of tenants but you can ensure their behaviour is in keeping with your acceptable standards of living in an environment of peace, security and morality. These should be in your house rules.

Hope the above is of some help.

Regards

Nicholas

Hoe said...

Hello Nicholas,

Thanks very much for your advice.

We have discussed this in our JMC meeting last Friday and decided to seek legal advise on the amendments ... just in case.

To avoid complications, we are seriously considering calling an EGM to let the residents decide on the changes themselves. If it comes to that, I'm fairly hopeful we can get majority vote to pass these amendments.

Actually, I don't really have a lot of spare time. Then again, I do need to protect my personal interest invested in this property. Being in the JMC helps me to do just that