Tenant Control....Yr Condo turning into a Hostel?

Mr Chan wrote:



I'm in the JMB-Ken Damansara III and thankfully, it has been fairly smooth going on the management of the condominium.

I have a question on what I would term as "Tenant control". I have heard that some condos have set in place a policy to discourage owner-investors from renting out their units to certain groups of people. I'm interested to know how this is implemented effectively and within the law.

Is it enough that the JMB calls for an EGM in order that the owner-residents vote on this new rule to be included in the House Rules? What sort of majority vote are we looking at? 51% of owners?

As there is a new shopping mall coming up next door (anchor tenant possibly is GIANT) and Carrefour opening soon at Tropicana Mall nearby, the owner-residents are quite worried that some units in the condo may end-up as workers' hostel.

Presently, we have units which are rented out as hostels to students from nearby colleges and 1 unit as workers' hostel for Carrefour. It's clear that we need to nip this problem in the bud before it gets out of control.

Appreciate advise and comments on this matter.

ACT 663 - The Voice of the JMBs

The All Petaling Jaya Residents' Association Coalition (APAC) in collaboration with the Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya (MBPJ) is organising a forum titled:
AKTA 663 - Suara JMB

at the MBPJ Auditorium, Petaling Jaya
on Tuesday 23rd December 2008
time: 5:00pm to 7:00pm

All Residents Associations and JMB/MC's (especially in PJ) are invited to send representatives to the forum and be heard!

3 Working papers will be presented:
The Roles of Residents Association in High Rise properties under LA21

The Roles of JMB - COB

JMC - Management Problems...

For further information and confirmation please contact:
YM Tengku Nazaruddin - 012 284 9146
or
Mr Liew Wei Beng - 019 332 2073
or
Mr Peter Chong - 012 905 9948

Please also inform your neighbouring properties.

Thank you

Some Useful INFORMATION - SOP

Nicholas wrote:

I was just browsing through the archives and one issue caught my interest – SOP. I would like to share our experiences and our ideas that may help other JMCs or MCs.



Last year, there were many complaints by some owners regards the conduct of the MC in Kiara Green Townhouses (KGT) pertaining to approvals of expenditures and external renovations.

We then secured 25% petitions from owners and the CoB’s directive to that MC to convene an EGM. The result – I became the Chairman of the new MC and one of our tasks was the formulation and implementation of SOP as a check and balance as well as guide future council members as to their functions, responsibilities and effective management of KGT. By the way, we could have sued the previous members for certain irregularities but we realized that most of them were just ignorant and unaware and thus we let the matter be.



Our is probably a unique structure whereby the council members appointed at the EGM and future AGMs are separated into the Executive Committee(Exco) and an Oversight Committee (OS). The Exco is responsible for the day to day operations while the OS acts as the watchdog. All minutes and decisions will be forwarded to OS for their information. We also allow any owner/resident to attend any council meeting as observer, provided sufficient notice is given. Major issues, like expenditures over RM10,000 or critical decisions will trigger the OS to sit in and deliberate. If all are in agreement, the decisions are finalized there and then. If there is no unanimous decision, an EGM will be convened to decide the issues.





The SOP have served us well and we also insisted that the appointed property manager adheres to our procedures. By the way, any amendments to the SOP will firstly require the agreement of the OS and any other serious amendments will require the approval of all owners either at AGM or EGM. Our next AGM is around the corner and I have no qualms about handing over to others.



I hope you will find this worthwhile sharing with others.

Calling all parcel proprietors in the State of Selangor.

FORUM TO DISCUSS POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS RE: ACT 663

DATE : 7th DECEMBER 2008

TIME : 2 pm

VENUE : P J CLUB, (next to A & W )

There will be guest speakers & VIP observers, to enlighten and share ideas and experiences.

COME, PARTICIPATE, SUPPORT

SPREAD THE MESSAGE

WE MUST EMPOWER THE AUTHORITIES TO ACT FIRMLY & URGENTLY.

Note : Please confirm your interest to attend to Jimmy Teo (jimmytwt@gmail.com) before 5th Dec. 2008.
( For proper planning on seating, food & drinks )

A JMB Committee needs your assistance...comments?

Hi Everyone, I need some information from you guys especially those of you who have formed the JMB and have taken over from the previous Management Corp. If you are not in the JMB, appreciate if you could help to find out from your respective JMB: I need your help on the following:- 1. Lift - under comprehensive maintenance, some spare parts are not covered under comrprehensive agreement. Do you ask and are given the discount on these spare parts when they are replaced? If so, what is the discount rate given to you? 2. Do you go for comprehensive or the general maintenance agreement? What are your rationale for the selection? I need the information by, like yesterday, as we need to finalise the negotiation with the vendor for the maintenance agreement to be signed. Therefore, I would appreciate if you could respond as soon as you can before the end of today. Million thanks for your help and I apologise for having to rush you in this matter. Best regards Jenny

THANK YOU - Press Conference 14th November

Firstly, APAC would like to thank all of you who took the trouble to attend the press conference held on the 14 nov 2008 Friday. Please read through the points i have raised below and try to append your proposals in blue. My current list is not complete so guys help me to prepare the memo. As agreed, we will submit a 'Memorandum' to YB Iskandar and COB MBPJ as soon as possible with regard to the following issues:
Lembaga Perumahan - YB Iskandar
Uniform interpretation of Act 663 to cover all 12 PBTs in Selangor

A. CLAUSE 5 – Duty of developer to convene meeting



Proxy votes if allowed must be scrutinized by COB to ensure transparency and prevent manupulation



B. CLAUSE 6 – First meeting of Joint Management Body

C. CLAUSE 10- Extraordinary general meeting

D. CLAUSE 33- Recovery of arrears of charges

E. CLAUSE 34- Failure or refusal to pay charges


Should ensure and fastrack the establishment of a Secretariat or Department at PBT level specifically to address all Condos and Apartments Issues staffed by
a. a Panel of Senior or experienced Lawyers b. a Panel of Accountants to review accounts submitted by developers and JMCs c. Enforcement officers to act against errant developers and JMCs d. a Budget allocated to finance the setting up of the Secretariat. All these must be fastracked at PBTs level as problems are piling up as we speak
COB - MBPJ
a. databank on all condominium and apartments to be maintained into 3 categories - high-end condos - medium cost Condos - Low cost Apartments b. to fastrack the establishment of a Secretariat without further delay c. enforcement officers
Problems faced by all Condo and Apartment Owners
formation of JMBs and JMCs
First JMB meeting - preferably to be scrutinized by COB
to conduct workshops to train JMCs to hold meetings and manage the buildings
errant developers
accounts and various documents not given to JMCs such as owners listings
building drawings - structural & M&E drawings
sinking funds

HAVE YOUR SAY!

Condominium and apartment residents in Petaling Jaya have called for the abolition of the proxy system.

They made this call in a meeting organised by the All-Petaling Jaya Selangor Residents Association Coalition (APAC) and the Condominium, Apartments and Highrise Committee (CAHC) on Friday (Nov 14) at Taman Mayang public hall.

The condominum and apartment residents were invited to the meeting to share their concerns, suggestions and experiences with regards to clauses under the Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act 2007 or Act 663 and the Commissioner of Buildings (CoB).

Chairing the meeting were APAC chairman Liew Wei Beng, CAHC chairman Tengku Nazaruddin Zainudin, Subang MP R. Sivarasa’s aide Aloysius Francis Pinto, lawyer Eddy Chung and Bukit Gasing Joint Action Committee member Gary Yeoh.


Speaking out: Owners sharing their thoughts on the issue during the meeting.

They were questioning the logic behind Sec 6(5) of the act, which reads: “Notwithstanding subsection (4), joint purchasers shall not be entitled to vote except by way of a jointly appointed proxy”.

“We do not understand why neither one of the purchasers can vote and they have to appoint a proxy,” some said.

They added that the proxy system was subject to abuse.

“We had no opportunity to verify if the proxies present at annual general meetings were really appointed by the owners or were sent by the developer,” resident Gary Wong said.

Andrew Tan highlighted that the clauses were interpreted differently by all 12 local councils in the state due to loopholes and ambiguities that actually benefited the developers.

“The developer told us that according to the act, we could not appoint our spouses as proxies,” he said.

Other clauses of the Act deemed to have created grey areas are Sec 6 (2), which deals with the quorum for the meetings, and Sec 5(2) that deals with the issue of notice of the meeting.

“Sec 6 (2) requires purchasers to settle maintenance charges to be eligible for the meeting but it does not stipulate the deadline, is it on the day of the meeting or a period prior to that?” Liew asked.

He added that even though Sec 5 (2) required the developer to give a written notice 14 days earlier, it did not stop them from limiting the time for purchasers to appoint their proxies or prevent them from holding the meeting on a weekday to minimise attendance.

He said the two associations would send a memorandum to Selangor Housing, Building Management and Squatters committee chairman Iskandar Abdul Samad and Petaling Jaya mayor Datuk Mohamad Roslan Sakiman, urging them to look into the points raised.

“We will also urge them to draft guidelines on how to convene the first meeting and to come out with a common interpretation of the act for all local councils,” he said.

Pinto proposed that the CoB operate as an independent body under the state government instead of the local council to prevent favouritism and that scrutineers should be present during the appointment of the joint management committees to ensure fairness