I am interested to know what does the JMB of your condo do when they are faced with stubborn, stingy and inconsiderate owners not wanting to pay up outstanding maintenance fees?

it is the responsibility of every owner to pay your maintenance fee as promptly as possible. why is it so hard when nowadays you can even bank in the fee?
the management at the condo where im living have tirelessly reminded owners to pay the fee and they seem to be so inconsiderate even when their names are published on the board! Now TNB has cut the electricity supply to the condo and people are not able to use the lifts as well. It is so unfair to punish people who are promptly paying their fees just because of some of these super inconsiderate and stingy owners!! why buy a property if you cant afford paying for it to be maintained!

For those of you reading this post and who is an owner of a condo/apartment unit, I really do hope that you are paying up your fees especially if you are renting out your unit, it doesn't mean that you can ignore and be so inconsiderate of the well being of others in the place you own and be warned that any bad impression on your property can effect buyers interest.. especially in today's economic climate, you can dream on to try to sell your property if you are contributing towards its bad upkeep.

What condo is this?
Same here, i hate owners who don't pay their maintenance fees.

The problem is some fail to understand what community living is all about to be ready to live in stratified properties.

http://www.agc.gov.my/Akta/Vol.%207/Act%20318.pdf

Recovery of sums due
53. (1) Where a sum becomes recoverable by the management
corporation from a proprietor by virtue of paragraph 43(2)(a),
subsection 45(5) or (5A) and subsection 52(2), the management
corporation may serve on the proprietor a written notice requesting
payment of the sum due within such period, which shall not be less
than two weeks from the date of service of the notice, as may be
specified in the notice.Strata Titles 59
(2) If at the end of the period specified in the notice under
subsection (1) the sum or part of the sum due remains unpaid, the
management corporation may serve on the proprietor a written
notice demanding payment of the sum due within two weeks from
the date of service of the notice; and if upon expiry of the said
period, the sum due still remains unpaid, the management corporation
may file a summons in any court of competent jurisdiction for the
recovery of the said sum or, in addition or as an alternative to
recovery under this section, resort to recovery under section 53A.

Which condo?

Cut the water supply to those units which have not paid up in 3 months.

No need to get into grandmother story.

The JMB can forcibly enter the premise to seize the asset in the property to recover such arrears.
But some procedure must be strictly followed.

I am really surprised that many condos do not use this tool. This is already practiced successfully in some of the condo management, so it's not a fiction.

This post has been edited by puchongite: Feb 27 2015, 08:51 AM

Malaysia law useless, this is why..

I don't think it has anything to do with Malaysia law.

It's more like Malaysian attitude.

The law has already provided condo management the legal right to recover the money. But to be able to actually recover the money is a painful and costly operation.

Now TNB has cut the electricity supply to the condo and people are not able to use the lifts as well.

----------------------------------------

wah... so serious..

I am also facing the same problem at my place. The best part is, the maintenance fee is the lowest i have seen... only RM110 per month. And the services my apartment provide, is really good and safety is excellent. No break ins and so on. And yet, there is almost RM800,000 payment due from owners. Its also a low density apartment and yet these owners don't take responsibility.

Are all condo's water supply handled by management? Cause my apartment is handled directly by syabas. water bill is also by syabas.

But I wonder why many don't use this? Could it be there's no mandate from the residents themselves to initiate legal proceedings? After all, we're talking about quite a sum of legal fees & it's coming out from the resident's coffers.

Malaysia laws are quite ok.
It is the enforcement that is lacking and public apathy due to our world-class education system.
Actually there is nothing much can be done if somebody does not want to pay maintenance fees.
The legal process is lengthy and arduous and tortuous

I look at this, it's still the condo management's fault for letting the cancer to grow into last stage.

Should have nipped the problem at it's bud.

Are you an owner also?

the management also need to be in fault with, they should act and not wait until the electricity being disconnected at the cost of the residents that provide prompt payment. If this happens often, i think even the prompt payers would just ignore paying. In the end the management is dysfunctional.

Exactly. It's the fault of the management !

Might be got people in the management taking kopi-O money and causes relaxed execution.

Fit to become a grandmother story teller but not fit to be a condo management.

Are you in the JMB as well? To be frankly honest, it is the mentality of the people that live in the condo. Some people that live in condo have the mentality that they are living in landed property where they dont think that their action would affect people which are sharing the facilities.

Plus, it is not entirely the fault of the management if countless reminders have been sent to the owner such as calls, official letter from the management plus even legal action if maintenance fees are not paid for more than 3 months. The next step from the management if they dont a choice is to switch off the water supply to the unit.

This is not only happening at those mid cost apartment but even at high end condo/apartment because my dad is currently managing a condo which has a resale value of RM850k onwards. Thus, I believe if these owner can afford property at these prices but not paying the monthly maintenance fees of RM500/month for example

what if the owner is having financial problem , sickness or jobless ... you all still want to cut his water supply... how is he and his family going to live ...?

But first of all, is it even legal for the management to cut off water supply if the owner didn't pay the service charges assuming the service & water bill is different & the owner pays the water bill?

LOL.

Is the condo management a charity ngo, a religious body or a gomen welfare body ?

If the owner is in financial difficulty, he has to seek help somewhere else. And more importantly, everyone will come out of grandmother story of financial problem. If you are slack on one, you will be slack on 10,000 people, and that's how cancer cells spread.

My mistake, I should say the process to execute your rights in Malaysia is painful and costly operation... This is also why landlords are also headache with playing rental game in Malaysia.

It has been implemented and executed for years by some condo management.

I would say at best, it's grey but the condo management has an upper hand over it. It can say since the owner has not paid his maintenance fees and now the pipe or the meter is faulty and the management has no money to fix it or something ....

If other managements can execute it for so many years I am sure there is a way to get over it.

If he has financial problems then solve it. If that stupid excuse can be used then I want to claim I have financial problem too to skip paying the maintenance fees.

you can stop the owner using other facilities right? why need to cut water? no water can die wei..

you can "cut" other things like parking, clubhouse etc ... but no water can die wor...

In condo, if only your unit got no water, won't die !

The common bathrooms got water. Your neighbour got water.

And if you settle off the bills immediately, you got more water. LOL.

+1 ... water cut can be the last resort after numerous warning. So it is the resident's fault if they got their unit's water being cut. Heck if we no pay water bill also they will cut our water la ... then how ? wan cry-foul to who ?

The othr problem is the JMB is made-up of normal owners in the apartmnt or condo itself. I hav heard of mmbers of the JMB who try to excute some harder tctics to collct maintenance fees being threathend wth physical abuse by the errant non-payrs. In the end, the JMB membrs jus resignd from the JMB and wash hnds so as not to be beatn-up by the irresposble owners.

Isn't that the idea though? You have to cut something that matters to them or else they won't pay up. Do you think I care if I can't use the facilities? Unless you can stop me from using the lift I could care less whether I can use the facilities or not.

Now the SMA make recovery quite simple.

Step 1:-
- Assuming you give 30 days’ credit term.
- invoice date + 30 days.

Step 2:-
- 31st day, amount is considered DUE.
- service notice demanding payment.
- notice + 14 days.

Step 3:-
- file recovery claim with tribunal. (note recommended- court [first route too expensive] and section 79 [second route, unless the due is more than RM 100K, this route is very risky because you are about to foreclose a person’s property]).
- let the tribunal get its hand dirty.
- owner “without reasonable excuse” for not pay, commit an offence, liable to either fine of 5K or imprisonment not exceeding 3 years or both and RM 50K every day during the offence continues after conviction. (example: after being fined RM 1,000, the owner still refuse to pay the maintenance fee, he will be fined by court for every day he is in default).

I forgot to mention that it looks good on paper only. Not quite sure how it will work out in practice.

Lotsa maintenance fee horror story hor.

Let me share my experience, which may shed some light on a particular scenario, as well as condo management behavior.

1. Some owners are not easily contactable

In my case I bought a place but before it was completed, and before I was posted overseas. Thus my registered address with the developer was at a rented place I stayed before the posting. Condo management kept sending maintenance notice to my old address for at least year, even though nobody paid. They even issued a letter from a lawyer.

2. Condo management's attitude

I don't know why they never bother to even send letter to the actual condo address; you could argue that it's not their responsibility, and that kind of tells you condo management's attitude (I leave it up to you to interpret). I was overseas so I rented out the unit so my tenant would have informed me.

NOTE: I do not absolve myself from blame, it was my duty to inform them of my change of address. However, being first time owner the condo maintenance fee completely slipped my mind. When I realized, I contacted the condo management and paid up everything, including the high interest rates, with no arguments.

This post has been edited by khorsh: Jul 10 2015, 01:06 PM

how is they going to pay the mortgage loan itself if this happen?

anyway, i thought this problem only occur at low cost flat/medium cost apartment
first we need to understand why owner refuse to pay the maintenance?
is it because they expect tenant to pay it? if yes, is there any proper clause in rental agreement regarding who actually should pay for it?

too many questions and unclear answer. so the better/safest way is to deal with owner to include maintenance fee into your monthly rental.
let say rental is 1500, maintenance fee 200. make a deal with owner, bank in 1300 to them and another 200 to management. problem solved.

I agree that it's important to find out why first. However, JMB sometimes don't care, and I cannot blame them if there are not paid at all.

Yes including the maintenance fee into the rental is best; however, there are owners who are unwilling since they don't want to advertise the higher price. I personally prefer to rent out at lower price to a better tenant because I see it as a future home, or a long-term investment, and don't want to do something that will bring down the value of the property or bring trouble to others living in the same property.

This post has been edited by khorsh: Jul 12 2015, 11:26 AM

Is JMB = Persatuan ?

errr. can i point out a question?

Electricity in condo normally is direct TNB. If the unit pays their own bills promptly shouldn't be a problem to electricity supply. How come your condo whole building cut supply?

Management account in deficit. The expenses outstrip the income. Very few ppl realize jmb also can be bankrupted also.

many condos do practice to put all the owners' name and units on the notice board on regular basis. just to harass the stubborn owners.

or bar the access card

hope it helps a bit.

Perbadanan Pengurusan Bersama (Joint Management Body).

It is under SMA and not a Persatuan (Society) under Society Act.

This post has been edited by stryfox: May 1 2016, 04:57 PM

Can PM me on how to deal with Defaulter. BTW, I am one of JMB. We are also suing Developer for defects during DLP.

read this article on legal rights

This post has been edited by stryfox: May 1 2016, 05:03 PM


Attached File(s)
 CRIME_NOT_TO_PAY.pdf ( 2.69mb ) Number of downloads: 283

Pardon the ignorance, but what is SMA?

EDIT : Found it. It is Strata Management Act 2013 (SMA)

This post has been edited by watabakiu: May 1 2016, 06:38 PM

Akta Pengurusan Strata 2013 (Akta 757) Soalan2 Lazim.

Soalan:
Bolehkah pihak MC memotong meter air bagaimana-man pembeli yang tidak menjelaskan tung-gakan caj penyenggaraan?

Jawapan:
Tidak boleh. Sila rujuk kes mahkamah "John Denis De Silva vs Crescent Court Management (2006) 2 CLJ605 (S6-24-2340-2004)

easy just deduct part of rental payment to pay the maintenance fee, tenant agreement sure cover this

These days all condo shud hv card system for lift/common facilities access, just block it if not paying..

I recall a story i heard few years back, a condo did that, the people just broke the glass doors to access the lift/stairs. multiple times. amazing.

Dont. the tenant cannot prove full rental payment if a dispute happens (or atleast its messy) from what I understand. Unless got it in writing and signed from owner for adjustment of rental followed by maintenance fee responsibility shift to tenant.... kua.

Hi All. New strata Law says Owner will be jailed if not paying maintenence fee. Please find out !
https://www.facebook.com/KVbestproperties/p...767962196817384

Typical tenancy agreement does not include clause that tenant pay maintenance fee. Don't simply pay.

Happened to me. I'm the tenant. Owner didn't pay maintenance & sinking fund for almost 3 years. (I've been renting the place for nearly 2 years). So when JMB changed to a new access card system instead of using car sticker(because ppl using fake sticker to enter) and anyone with outstanding maintenance was barred from getting the card until all fees are paid up, that's when my problem started. I applied in Nov 2015 but they didnt implement the access card until Apr 2016(yup, whole 6 months later) and I didn't know owner wasn't paying until I questioned why I'm not getting the access card because they started to stop you from entering. (I go to management office every month to pay water bill yet they never told me got outstanding...)

So, kept complaining to agent when can get owner to pay the fees and finally tell the agent if owner not going to pay then change the tenancy agreement to include tenant pay the maintenance fee on behalf of the owner and deduct it from rental. Suffer 3 months keep kena stop at the gate then finally end of June 2016 only managed to get the access card. Now just wave the card and masuk....

Buat susah only the owner aih. Everything go through agent. Owner Singaporean.

then no choice. as a tenant, u should have make sure all "possible" are covers.

You insist on continue staying there. Why don't threaten to move?

Experts here, may I know if it's normal that Management Body never do any billing or invoicing but expecting owner to pay? Can we challenge the legality of charging late payment fee?

This post has been edited by lanjiecafe2: May 20 2020, 01:39 AM

you sure you did not receive? or send to your mailbox? or email? or via some apps?

Yes they never do billing. Expect owner pay accordingly. Only receipt and statement after one pays. Real shitty and impose late charges simply.

I see

Is a recuring amount and I dont see the need to issue invoice unless there is a change in amount.

Banks also dont do billing for monthly instalment if there is no change in the amount.

If borrower can pay monthly instalment on/before due date to avoid late payment charges, I dont see why owner can forget about monthly maintainance charges.

If owners dont pay on time, how can the Management body function ?

This post has been edited by mini orchard: May 20 2020, 08:00 PM

Bring it up during the AGM. They should issue bills, either through electronic or hard copy.

Anyway it's the non recurring amount. It's the additional charges. And they never have any black and white documentation in place. Btw I always pay my monthly maintenance chatges as a responsible owner.

The Management Body standard has been deteriorating with the changes of committee down the years, although the maintenance charges is raised. Lol.

Yes will definitely defend my right. Thanks.

Yes and btw banks always have black and white, the cutoff payment date, clear info on late charges and updates/ notices about additional charges, policies etc. You should be worried if your banks do not.

And clearly the Management Body at my place does not have it. Hope yours is good and can save u the trouble. The committee never reply inquiries, and is evasive and defensive.

What is the additional charges ?

No minutes of the past AGM for the charges ?

This post has been edited by mini orchard: May 21 2020, 06:50 AM

CCTV. No bill, no invoice, no plan of action, and no indicated payment date. There is no payment schedule in place.

You rely on minutes to pay bill?

Your 1st Q is not specific and this thread is about maintainance fee.

My answer is based on the thread.

This post has been edited by mini orchard: May 21 2020, 08:00 AM

Normally it can becone court case if under strata. The property can be seized by authority.

Yes, because I believe most Management Bodies do issue invoices, even for recurring maintenance charges, as a basis to impose late charges.

send legal letter je

If the continue to refuse issuing proper bills or invoice, you’re only obligated to pay the minimum maintenance fee and sinking fund. Make sure they issue you receipts. For additional charges, ask them to issue the itemised bill or you will not pay them.

They can’t do anything legally since they’re not providing you a breakdown of your charges anyway.

Anywhere or authority we can lodge report/ complaint about Management Body?
Not that I can't afford late charges of few ringgit. Just that they don't have systematic billing and reporting. I can't believe that they are not answering my queries, but sending me a notice out of the blue. Am seriously pissed.

Paying much higher legal charges over few ringgit late charges? If I have that money I would. Hahaha

One important thing is when you made payment, make sure you are given a receipt as a proof payment.

The usually invoices issue monthly or once every two months consists of these usual charges: maintenance fees, sinking funds and insurance. Certain states Quit Rent starting 2020 is being pay as cukai Petak, owners have to pay themselves like cukai pintu but once a year. If your water charges to the management office. You are an owner should be receiving these invoices. Unless your management office is too expensive to print the invoices. Even thought the maintenance fees is at a fixed charge amount, I believe you should received an invoice. For example, your monthly internet like Unifi; the charge is the same and they e-bill you every month.

To complaint about the management body, depending on which states you are in, go and ask your pejabat Dewan Bandar to refer to which department is charge for this type of issues. For KL is COB (Commission Of Building).

If don't pay maintenance fees, then can attend AGM but cannot vote.

The Act says if any charges due & payable is not paid by the 7th day before the
AGM, then cannot vote.

How to count the 7th day? Calendar days or Working days? Anyone can confirm?

If non mentioned in a contract, is deemed continuous day.

Bumped.