Arena Green unit owners air their grouses

By CHARLES FERNNADEZ
charlesf@thestar.com.my


RESIDENTS of Arena Green in Bukit Jalil are claiming that the management corporation (MC) has mismanaged the sinking fund.

They claimed that Arena Green Management Corporation, a subsidiary of Raine, Horne and Zaki Property Management, has not informed the unit owners on the use of the fund, totalling about RM500,000.

The residents also voiced their displeasure with the MC for not serving notice to the owners before any transaction.

Resident Ron Yuen said it was a requirement for the management committee to inform the owners but procedures were not followed.


Plenty of things to say: The residents waiting to attend the AGM.

“The residents would want to know how their money is being used and for what purpose,” he said at the annual general meeting of the MC recently.

He said according to Section 41 of the Strata Titles Act 1985, the management corporation should inform the residents on the jobs carried out every year.

However, he added that the MC had claimed that the expenditure was necessary for the management of the six apartment blocks.

The residents also opposed the MC’s decision to increase the service charges and sinking fund paid by the owners from the current 0.09sen per sq ft to 0.13 per sqft.

Yuen said in most cases owners had carried out their own repairs to their units and maintenance of the blocks was low and therefore there was no need to increase the service charges and sinking fund.

There are 1,240 units in the six blocks with the owners of the smallest unit paying RM61.20 per month.

During the AGM, a new committee was elected to look into the accounts.

The MC’s head of property services, Vijayakumar Ponnusamy, said it was only appropriate that the service charges were increased as the property was located in a prime area and this was the first increase.

“The maintenance charges have also increased as we have to sub-contract some of the work. As a company, which just took over the management two years ago, we are just doing our job,’’ said Vijayakumar.

Vijayakumar said the MC was not asking the residents to contribute towards the sinking fund but accept the increase in the service charges.

He also refuted claims that no annual report and accounts on this sinking fund was furnished.

The new committee allowed the MC to increase the service charges by 0.02 sen for the present moment.