Then please tell the tenant to convey the anger to the owner, it is owner fault. As simple as that.

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Added on May 23, 2012, 9:37 am

A tenant should not deduct maintenance fees from the rental. They will continue to use the unit as if the owner has paid. That is, the maintenance fees has nothing to do with the tenant. Until they are barred from entering the premises or the water supply is cut, then tenant may threaten the owner that they will withold the rental until payments are made.

I just realised I might have given some wrong advices. I think it is impossible for the management to block access or in your example, entry to car park to either the tenant or the owner. The only legal way is to cut the water supply if they owe the money or to sue the fella. Unfortunately this boils down to something similar in another thread about locking up the houses if a tenant doesn't pay.

Payment of maintenance is a separate issue compared with access. So at the moment I will stick to the legal way of doing things again, which is first to cut off water supply (you can argue that whatever he pays will go to maintenance first then water supply.. so if he ends up aging the water supply for 3 months, you can cut it off). If the bugger still refuses to budge, then write notice of demand. Honestly there is really little we can do with these parasites except to wait for the chance that they want to sell the premises and their lawyer would advise them to settle all outstandings.

In fact recently I was faced with an interesting problem. During a thunderstorm, a tree branch had fallen unto a few vehicles. Act of god normally cannot claim insurance. But who has to pay for the damage? The victim may argue about negligence, the management need to protect themselves by saying they are not aware of potential damage and pass the liabilities to landscape. Landscape would claim that under their contract, there was no mention of their responsibility to look at trees whether they are healthy or otherwise. So you can see, there are many stories from JMB without an answer and the question that TS has started truly has no resolution to date.

I think best if you actually get your lawyer to write to you in black and white as mentioned before, you cannot block an owner's entry to their properties. What they owe your management is a private matter. Unfortunately this debate has been going as old as the chicken and egg story. Always best to refer to the strata title act 2007, which is unfortunately a very thin book for an act (you probably can read the whole book in 2 hours) and you will find that there are specific section that deals with default and payment. Unfortunately blocking access is definitely not the solution as you have impaired a rightful owner's rights into their own abode. It is always ultimately up to the court to determine the final solution. Just because many JMB had gotten away with this ruse, it may not be the legal way to dealing with such matters.

Cutting of water supply is in fact legal as it constitute a service provision. No payment will result in no service. If the high rise has individual meters connected to the relevant state water authorities, then you cannot cut it off. Like TNB, you cannot cut it off.

All insurances do not cover Act of God unfortunately unless you specify. A notice at the toilet door saying "SLIPPERY" does not mean the shopping centre owner is devoid of liabilities if someone actually slip and fell. Unfortunately, the reality of law can be quite cruel at times which is why we pay litigation lawyers heaps of money to tell the court our actual logic of matters.