Govt must tackle high-rise poser

HIGH-RISE tenants are likely to face problems with water supply in the near future.
The Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act 2007 spells out that a joint management body (JMB) will be liable for all jointly owned properties including the pump house, water tanks and piping in the building. The problems start when consumers are not fully aware of this act and its function. In near future, it will be compulsory for high-rise tenants to have individual meters and pay directly to water companies.

However, these consumers still need to spend extra to maintain the rest of the jointly-owned water supply properties. This situation is different from landed properties as the responsibility of the water supply company lies up to the individual meters or to certain distance from the main pipe.

Now, the question is whether the JMB which comprises residents has enough funds to operate such jointly-owned properties. Secondly, how will the tariff be decided? This is because compared to landed property owners, high-rise residents receive fewer services while bearing the cost of common properties for water supply.

It is dangerous to leave the issue as it is. If the JMB fail to collect enough management fees, it may end up unable to maintain the properties well. And in many states, there are no JMBs for high-rise buildings.

The Housing and Local Government Ministry must coordinate with the Energy, Water and Communications Ministry to solve this problem. There should be a mechanism to manage these properties and not left to the consumers because they bought a high-rise property.

Piarapakaran Subramaniam
Fomca Environment Desk

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.”

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.