I feel like as a paying member, i cannot help but being very sceptical about the JMB.

This is why:
1) Every year say loss-making, and want to increase the fee
2) Why can feel before even formation, lots of non-knowledgeable people want to host group and voice about stuff which are actually no biggy
3) Like to change security team, say no money but suddenly instal a lot of gadgets.

So I want to know from members of JMB what are the perks/ thing we don't know?

And for people who share my doubts/skepticism about JMB, what are the perks u think are there?

Moreover, actually, I want to know also as I feel like I need to stomp the JMB floor (sadly) to really flush out non-performing committees.

I am currently a paying member in the landed area and a future paying member of commercial title residential property.

This post has been edited by KopiMalaysiano: Mar 24 2021, 12:43 PM

Peace and love for existing JMB

Songlap!

obviously but what do u know other than that

JMB members mostly will songlap. They used own cronies to get the contracts.

They will publish their accounts annually. Raise questions and concerns when the audited accounts are out.

I've seen a few JMB audit reports for diff projects and they are normally very loaded!

becoming JMB members the best...
got change to make some $$$... and u above all the rules

Many owners feel like u just the same...So easy to point fingers JMB members not doing work etc etc etc..
But when they become JMB member straight resign within 3 months or before 1 year... thats what my place has become now.

All only know how to talk cock and shouting during AGM but after become JMB their balls missing.


Anyway the perks are but not including, songlap, grant jobs to their shell company and/or relatives or known associates. and i dont know what else.

no money is common especially if many owners not paying management fees, or spent on unnecessarily stuffs.

how much allowance are we talking about?

sounds like gangsters in the neighbourhood la

but I always ask where they stay, to make sure they dun play play!

https://www.burgielaw.com/2016/11/26/jmbs-m...be-remunerated/

By rights is RM500 to RM1k per meeting attended. But must be approved and made transparent to owners.

This post has been edited by DragonReine: Mar 24 2021, 01:06 PM

U referring to older residential units

mine is mild not a s severe as yours

Why don't u join the JMB and find out. Good JMB and MO is needed to ensure the building is running properly.

i know u are a member, so how much meeting is yours convened?

got my day job, plus no "synergies" for me

I join is charity only become clerk

Best comment. A lot of owners join JMB with no money or perks. Important to have diversified JMB. All diff groups. Not from one same group of ppl. Then the place can prosper

Assuming you go in with honest intentions and with integrity+open mind willing to learn and work hard:

Perks:
1) Get allowance for attending meeting. Pocket change only but it's nice to be paid.
2) Get a strong say in how the building and facilities will be managed.
3) Learn organisational+social soft skills like people management and negotiating that can benefit you in career and social life Also helps you in future property ownership because you can understand better whether property is well managed or not
4) Network amongst neighborhood and in biz dealings while carrying out duties

Cons:
1) Headache dealing with incompetent and/or dishonest people (both on committee and among tenants)
2) Headache deal with responsibilities that you might not be prepared to take on
3) Get blamed for everything from bad weather to unfortunate breakdowns.

So its like being a MP but only within a building development.

Pretty much lol. JMB is like mini politics playground.

i guess that's why usually committee are seasoned men that are elders. The residential ones I know there is a lot of work, but I am just very worried about the upcoming ones, just seems so rehearsed like the all eyeing to get paid

Technically I'm not my comments is osmosis knowledge from helping and talking with friends and family I know there are places where JMB aren't paid much/not paid but they're very invested in community, and the community is influenced by good JMB to help. Win-win situation.

Like below mentioned, JMB/MC is like being an MP but within the building. If lucky JMB are mostly decent people who work well together and have civic consciousness, then community benefit. If not lucky and community stupidly vote in people who are loud mouth but no brain or heart, then in several years property become dumpster fire like certain countries who vote in incompetent crooks to become ministry leaders.

This post has been edited by DragonReine: Mar 24 2021, 01:46 PM

depending....
but who don't want free money

I just join to do Charity work for the community I live in with.
Somehow no perks so far, just receiving complaints from ppl most of the time.
If join please remember it is a volunteer job. no cash watsover.
If no join please remember, if wan to change things around. try to get into committee level and discuss nicely instead of complaining daily.

Hhuh i didnt know JMB got can get money.. atleast mine doesnt have, only have refreshments during meetings.


lol so dont complaint if building getting run down lor.

Can apply to get money, but subject to approval by owners votes and i think another regulatory body (forgot which, I think it's in article).

90% chance it'll be very low or unlikely to be approved tho 😅😅😅 especially if owners don't trust JMB lol

also can only pay for major/mandatory meetings AND if the person attend the meeting for a certain number of hours (provided the meeting actually reach that long), means show face for 10 minutes to mark attendance doesn't count and should not benefit from allowance, and if meeting is only 30 mins chit chat then close shop also cannot benefit from allowance

This post has been edited by DragonReine: Mar 24 2021, 02:59 PM

Wahhhh so kesian ahhhh.

They y u join so kecian, wat u contribute. Sorry I just feel v fake.

Refreshment buy from who? got a tender process?

nope i did not join because i got no related skills..join also no use

habis how u know/say no money?

I was quoting ur sentence above.

Anyway u can always check the JMB books to see got money or not..
Btw even if got money also those are probably reserved for fixed expenses and keep for emergency repairs.

As long as many owners not paying fees sure not enough money.

oh I was referring to JMB saying loss-making la this one, P&L always say loss

got pay la

anyways thanks a lot did lean smth from u guys.

My exp as JMB in a new affordable housing building is mixed. Plus with MCO AGM postponed so cannot wait to step down and replace by others. 2 long years already fml.

Pros:
1. You know almost everything in the building. From internal fighting, social cases (staircase wink2), police cases etc. Good place to train your social skills, empathy and see in practice how age does not relate to wisdom at all. Likewise tell-tale signs of building declining financial health, what constitute as bad developer behavior for you to blacklist in the future and MO red flags (e.g. tactic to embezzle money) will be part of the learning experience. You would also realise most workers, including MO, no matter how reputable their company are, mostly just work day to day and really don't care how to bring your building to the next level one, despite the pitch by the superiors in getting the contract. JMB must drive and whip them into shape, and you will be surprised how cronyism is prevalent in hiring execs and the MO company expects JMB to provide 'training and guidance' to their underpaid and inexperienced hires.

Cons:

1. Dealing with vendors in property management/construction makes you feel really frustrated, coz they will say yes in front of you and simply ignore or delay the required actions. You can't really go hard on them coz they know where you live and where u park your car and with their social status, you yourself know you have more to lose than them.

2. Some property are just poor, so no meeting allowance or even refreshments is really basic. Increasing maintenance fees is taboo and die2 will be downvoted during AGM by some owners who are renting out and not staying, so with no funds, how to do new additions or maintain service provider standards. These owners don't give a damn if lift not functioning or rubbish not collected since not staying in right, but they will only care if you implement more security measures which make it difficult for their tenancy or airbnb process. Can really feel the divide sometimes as owner's interests diverge.

3. Some JMB members join to cable their affliated companies for the service providers contract (esp. security and cleaners) or rental space (sundry shop, vending machine). Sometimes MO will also recommend their cable companies and disguising it as 'easy to handle with good track record or we can speak same language with the foreign workers so minimal communication issues'. Tendering process needs to be transparent but sometime interested owners will still cry foul when their companies did not get selected, and some bad JMB members actually ask for 'commission' (e.g. RM200) to put good word in and get a specific service provider selected which makes the deliberation really chaotic as fingers are pointed everywhere. These bad JMB members can be detected as those really gungho early on and then just don't care anymore once their interests are satisfied.

4. Some owners are little napoleons. They will wasap you for things like noise when they can contact guards to check it out, they will ask you about procedures when MO can easily inform them, they will complain on breakdowns and say JMB and MO not doing job, ignoring wear and tear or developer's bad procurement. What they won't do is volunteer to be a JMB member. Sometime pool closed for cleaning, an owner will ask why closed when they pay maintenance d, but if we don't, the same owner will ask why pool is green. Worse is that some of this complainers are chronic defaulters who thinks maintenance fees is optional but service is mandatory. They also bend rules or thinks for eg contractor deposits are useless, but their illegal contractors are the one that dispose cement powder in refuse room because they don't want to get caught using roro bins. End up the cement hardened in the drain pipe and backflowed in multiple floors, requiring total replacement using building money. Some are 'legal experts' who have nothing to do but to file tribunal cases after reading a few pages of strata act, declaring themselves as hero for 'knowing their rights' in resident chat group, feeding wrong information, wasting MO and JMB's time in tribunal only for the case to be summarily dismissed. They then go back to the group like nothing happened and continue their misinformation campaign.

Quite interesting tbh. Highly recommend to try once as social service to community.

And worst of all those trouble-makers are the ones that never pay, right?

Yup. So when I get a text, I make it a rule to check if they have any outstanding amount from the monthly defaulter list, and phrase my reply accordingly. Super sarcastic to persona non grata would be "Pool is being cleaned by vendors which is paid by owners, to be booked by non-defaulters, so not sure why its closure is relevant to you".

Slight sarcasm to casual defaulters who are nice would be to highlight services that they are entitled to should they use the right channel e.g. if they ask why roro bin is missing when they wanna throw their reno waste, I would reply "Wow, by right MO should have a list of when unit renovations are ending, which they take into account when they set the date for the roro to be emptied. This is your entitlement for paying the deposit and service charge wor. Should totally inform MO to provide a temporary bin for you while waiting for roro to come back bro. If throw in refuse room, confirm you kena fine so not fair la". They would get the message, keep quiet afterwards, and instruct their contractor to dispose the waste themselves lol.

Most of the time I just blue tick lol. Charity has its limits haha.

Really an insightful eye-opener. My respect level for JMB has increased. Good, write up a lot of information. I do have to agree the stakeholders are troublesome and I can imagine people asking to join watsapp, and payment allocation to bank if u aren't already using apps to manage this sort of issues.

I also can foresee the members who ask for a commission or cry when not selected, these are the jerks that I fear and need to eject from the committee, as got 1 property I can already foresee that will happen since chaps are adding members voluntarily but when give advises, can see not knowledgeable but still want to chair and hold power.

it does look like a business that easier to get contracts, but when things are bad with contractors, all fingers point to the committee, citing sweetheart deals were made.

I also didn't want to look for trouble since I like to have privacy at my property as well, given the circumstances I do feel like not stepping into that role, and I think my JMB will be co-chaired by the developer so perhaps lesser fear there.

1 question, your JMB, is it audited?

Yes audited as its strata and need do AGM and present accounts. This is when the chicken and egg question on raising fees will be hotly debated. Is it fair to raise the fees due to defaulters, which essentially 'punish' good owners and risks more defaulters? But if you don't raise, your income cant cover operating expenditure but you can't cut expenses further, because a lot of costs are fixed (e.g. if your condo is only 1 block of pure residential, regardless if it is 40 floors or 15 floors, you need a minimum of 4 guards, 2 to man entrance, 1 at facility level, 1 to patrol/respond), so low density (15 floors) means your tolerable defaulter % is way lower, as you can't reduce number of guard and cost of security without taking one important aspect off (e.g. no guard at facility). You will be surprised that lifts really guzzle electricity and that would explain why some MO are really 'slow' in fixing out of service lifts.

My view in JMB membership should be on what you can bring to the table. Of course, members who are from building or facility management working line is best to call MO's and vendor's bullshit, but accounts or biz background people are also good as bottom line is, a lot of the issues in a building can be resolved with money, and as such, focus should be on increasing revenue (biz people instantly recognize owner or MO's proposal that doesn't make economical sense or too expensive). Diverse backgrounds from all races is good as you will be surprised how some owners can only understand one language which is not English, so JMB lo need to help in translating notices. Developer rep is great when still in DLP as common areas rectification will be paid by them via subcon, so their participation level in JMB and speed of defect rectification is a good gauge on developer attitude in maintaining their brand image.

Once you are out of the red and vultures start to swarm for self-interest, as owner, do read the JMB meeting minutes, and when JMB members are seeking re-election, call them out on attendance, whether they keep quiet only in meeting or they actually raise good points and if issues are actually solved or they just talk to look good. Haha but the risk is suddenly you are voted as JMB la lol. More mature landed gated developments practice rotation basis so everyone has a chance to serve.

Wasn't there an article that the jmb broke open the defaulting units and lelong the items inside or rent out the units to cover the defaulting maintenance fee?

Correct me if im wrong.

JMB can actually apply to Commissioner of Buildings to issue a warrant to seize moveable items/assets of defaulters to recover unpaid fees.

Yup but need to show reminders given, forms issued, tribunal request filed and wait turn, only to find out unit vacant as owner wanna flip virgin unit, so don care if got hutang, new buyer will net off later lah mindset. I might be wrong, but I don't think tribunals have the power to issue garnishee order to enforce payment, so need go court to enforce tribunal judgment, which take more time.

Meanwhile guards, cleaners, electricity, lift and pool maintenance are paid monthly and won't wait for them to sell off the property. Can block access card, slow a bit water pressure which again not much use for empty units. If many defaulters sure bleeding. This is the risk of high rise/strata hehe.

A proper JMB is registered entity and books must be audited, failing so u can report to COB and Police.

Yup but very tedious so most of the times JMB will only issue LOD in hope to frighten the owners to pay up.

I'm baffled that ppl nvr read the JMB meeting minutes... most of the issues already been address during those meetings, yet the owners keep complaining during the AGM and wasting everybody's time.

There is no harm in keeping oneself updated on the issue again and again if it matters.
But I think all unkers and aunties that solely rely on the meetings is for the reason that they are simply not literate enough to understand the minutes.

JMB is indeed very important. But the Management Company is equally important.

Common issues with a failed condos is because JMB try to outsmart Management Company advice. Anything that Management Company proposese that involves money/budget also get shot down (such as preventative maintenance, service & repairs).

Far too often Management Company will be changed once new committee or chairman masuk, then they brought in their cronies and the MO is messed up.

That being said, there are also far too many super lousy Management Company around. Super unprofessional and all they want is just to collect management fees every month.

to be fair there's a lot of jargon and sometimes legalese in reports that makes it very pening kepala to the average layperson

especially if it's in a language they're not fluent in (English/BM usually) 😅

there's also some who really genuinely clueless about what's happening until you explain it step by step in person cos they cannot visualise it when reading words on paper haha

but also got good percentage people who really Lazy™ and only go there to complain LOLOL

the complain kakis is quite big percentage...
like above 50% mostly places I know
thus live up the the concept... Malaysian only know how to complain everything under the sun

Many don't read, only listen to rumours, complain banyak but when ask if they got ideas or want to take action suddenly diam 🤣🤣🤣 Mouth lots of action points but hands always tied LOL

If u ask me start right away JMB i can only think about cleaning + security + Pool as mentioned. Lift maintenance, structural all that I think condo developer might step in to assist, idk I heard only its co-chaired.

i also dun feel is an easy job la this one, unless there are synergies

that also synergies are other committee's core performance (e.g. their business), but I fear kena taken advantage only as idk la but seems committee that are too peaceful just feels like smth wrong inside swhy everybody comfortable (get good paycheck) -

well it's like that...
cannot change the mindset

Once the condo is handed over to the owners developer is not in the picture ya.

Developer presence on management committee only lasts for as long as strata parcel titles not issued, once the master title has been split up into strata then developer zero involvement in the maintenance and management of the property.

check this out here: https://www.propertyguru.com.my/property-gu...-malaysia-15782

Even then developer only really step in if it involves things that are structural that invokes the clauses for defect liability period.

This post has been edited by DragonReine: Mar 25 2021, 01:29 PM

i beg to differ. Developer's liability will cease upon expiry of DLP. After that JMB is on its own. Most of the time commitee members have no idea how to manage & run the building but they refuse to take in Management Company advice. JMB only afraid residents will go harass them if they raise maintenance charges because it will make them unpopular and condo enemy no. 1. Some JMB appreciates the fact that an increase in maintenance charges is unavoidable however getting it passed in AGM is more difficult than landing themselves on to Mars.

its a thankless job. All responsible and committed committee member shall be entitled a nobel prize

well I checked with lawyers and my agent, seems first will be solely developer handle

This post has been edited by KopiMalaysiano: Mar 25 2021, 04:38 PM