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