Friday, February 19, 2010

Liquidators?

Group in a dilemma over five-storey building
By CHOONG MEK ZHIN


mekzhin@thestar.com.my

A five-storey building in front of Sunrise Park Apartment has been causing a headache for the Joint Management Body (JMB) of the apartment and the foremost issue being whether or not the building was even under its jurisdiction in the first place.

“We do not know who developed or owns the building. Currently, the ground floor is occupied by businesses and the upper floors by foreign workers,” JMB chairman Yong Wee Tat said.

Yong said some people from the building throw their rubbish at the collection area of their apartment, particularly the blocks behind.

“The building’s rubbish disposal system is not good.

“They have a place in the building where they are supposed to throw their rubbish but no collector ever goes there to pick it up,” Yong said, adding that they feared the rubbish would attract rats and cockroaches.

The lane between the apartment’s wall is very narrow, with one side allotted for parking, further narrowing the space and making it difficult for rubbish collection lorries to pass through.

Yong said the JMB was formed in May last year and since then they had written three letters to the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ), requesting information about the building.

“We want to know who developed the building and if it is built as a shoplot office or shophouses because it could be used for the wrong purposes,” Yong adding that they needed to know who is to be responsible over any untoward incident at the building.

He added that Kumpulan Bertiga Development Sdn Bhd, the developer of their apartments, had gone into liquidation seven years ago and since then, apartment residents have been paying their maintenance fees to the liquidator company.

“We have had many problems pertaining to poor maintenance that have never been addressed such as one of the elevators being out of order for years, badly built roads within the apartment grounds and the exterior walls that need painting,” Yong said.

The JMB was formed due to the suggestion of the area’s MPAJ councillor Tan Hua Meng whom the residents had turned to when they had had enough.

“During the annual general meeting, there was no presentation of a financial report and we do not know how the previous maintenence fees we paid was used.

“The liquidator, however, claims that we owe them about RM600,000 in fee arrears,” he said.

Since the JMB took over maintenance of the now 15-year-old apartments, they discovered that the components that is needed to run the elevator had disappeared and all that is left is the elevator box in the shaft.

“We have since locked the rooftop and carefully maintained the only lift that remains,” Yong said.

The apartments consist of two low-cost apartment blocks and one medium-cost apartment block with the former having to pay RM33 in maintenence fee and the latter RM47 every month

Monday, February 8, 2010

From Down South

ANyone has any comments on this?


Dear Sir,

Recently we had a meeting with the management of developer on the issue of having an office to run the daily operation of JMB. JMC memebers are of the view that developer should have built an office for us but the developer management said they had no obligation to bouild an office for since there is no rule or regulation stating so.

Is there any advice from you on this issue? Or is there any act or regulation that we can refer to as a supporting document so that we have better grounds to request for an JMB office from the developer?

Thursday, February 4, 2010

How many to a unit? Condo = student"s hostel?

College and condo management in a dispute
Story and photo by LIM CHIA YING


chiaying@thestar.com.my

SPARKS flew when the Le Chateau 2 condominium Joint Management Body (JMB) and Nirwana College clashed over the maximum number of students that should be allowed to stay in the condo units.

The dispute arose after the JMB reintroduced the use of residents’ cards on Tuesday which limited only five people per household as decided by the annual general meeting held by the JMB last year.

Nirwana College, which is renting some of the units at Le Chateau 2 for its students, had placed between eight and 10 students per unit.

This has become the cause of contention with the Le Chateau 2 JMB after its new policy was set.

The JMB claimed that the overcrowding of units created a nosiy atmosphere for the rest.

They also alleged that some of the students misbehaved by gathering at the corridors particularly late at night.

On Tuesday evening, students who came back from their classes found that they could not enter the condominium premises, and sat stranded outside the compound.


In discussion: Maran (facing camera, second from right) talking to some of the JMB members and residents.

A student, who declined to be named, said they were from outstation, and had thought it was a hostel for students instead of a condominium.

JMB chairman Foong Chin Fee said the house rule was implemented on Jan 25 after it was unanimously agreed during their September AGM that there will be no more than five people to an apartment.

“Our JMB then issued residents card from October last year to Jan 1 this year. And when the house rule was implemented on Jan 25, a group of about 10 men stormed in to intimidate and threaten us.

“We lodged a police report at the Brickfields police station that same evening with a footage of the incident on our CCTV,” said Foong.

During Tuesday’s confrontation, a few men in blue had stationed themselves inside the condominium while awaiting the arrival of the college management.

As soon as one of the college representatives arrived, he told the students to go inside the condominium.

The man, who identified himself as the college managing director Maran A.K.Kannan, said the Deputy Housing Minister in 2006 had already decided on this particular issue and claimed that the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) had also agreed that a small apartment unit will house eight people while a bigger one houses 10.

“The DBKL came to measure the built-up area of the apartment and this issue had been resolved then. We have a letter issued by them on this,” he said.

Maran, who came together with his administration and operations director S.N.Thanabalan, said the students are from poor families hence the college was helping to rent the units on their behalf.

“We have also signed the tenancy agreement in 2006 for this, so you cannot just bar my students from coming in,” he told the JMB members.

“If you wish, you can send us a lawyer’s letter and we will counter sue.”

Maran later said being a college, it was not cost-effective for them to just have five students per unit.

Foong said the JMB would still proceed with their house rule.

“If he claims to have the Housing Ministry’s approval letter, then he should have brought such an important document to show us today.”

When asked what happens to families with more than five members, he said the family concerned could write in to apply to waive the condition.

“We want to prevent our condominium from being turned into a students’ hostel,” he said.