Hi guys, my sis bought a subsale condo and now is going to collect the key.
But before collecting the key, her lawyer asked her to pay the unutilised sinking fee around rm1.8k to the seller.
And I'm wondering why need to pay as this amount should be paid by the seller (maintenance fees + sinking fees).
Kindly seek your advice whether this amount need to pay ?
Thank you.

This post has been edited by dopamine: Jan 8 2024, 02:30 PM

parking..... wanna know the answer as well.

usually, owner needs to pay all bills including sinking funds with the maintenance. owner shud pay up-todate. no?

should confirm with condo management if seller paid advance for the maintenance and sinking fund. If yes, then you pay the seller back la but let condo management know.

its up to date but un-utilised sinking funds.. from my previous sale, i didnt get back those..
but again, maybe this owner paid in advance a couple years.

Ur S&P lawyer should make sure all bills are paid up to date by the seller.

Not sure what meaning "unutilised" but if its the seller made advanced payment u can either pay back to seller or ask seller deal with MO for refund.

No such thing lah.
Those funds are paid monthly, whether it was used by MO or not during the owner's period is not new buyer problem.

If the ex owner didnt pay the bill before this, does that mean new buyer should pay for it?

Totally no logic

This is not advance payment . All these while previous owner paid the sinking fees as usual, so until today there are still having balance unutilised around rm1.8k which yet to be used by management. So now lawyer asking my sis to pay this rm1.8k to previous owner.

Dint know can get information from MO how much sinking fund is yet to be utilized.
For my case, bought subsales but the only prorated pay back to previous owner is the paid up to month (maintenance fee + sinking fund).

For Eg,
January 15 i got the key, previous owner already paid for january month(Maintenance fee+sinking fund), so prorated 16 days and pay back to previous owner.

Are you using the same lawyer as the seller ?

This post has been edited by sheahann: Jan 8 2024, 03:03 PM

This is not advance payment . This is the balance sinking fund which yet to be utilized by management . Now lawyer asking my sis to pay this unutilised sinking fund to seller . Per my understand, why I should pay this amount to seller, it is not logical right ? It is same concept as maintenance fees but sinking fees is kept by management for future use.

ya exactly my point.. just trying to point out that this seller is up to date, just that its unutilised amount

Ur lawyer is taking u for a ride.

I'm assuming its the seller's lawyer? Ur sis did not get own lawyer?

During the purchase, my sis and seller appointed each their own lawyer. So there are 2 lawyers.
Kindly seek your advice how should she work on this..

Sinking fund and maintenance fees are considered burn.
The only thing can pro-rafe back is any current monthly bill should be calculated until pass over kes, anything before that is borned by previous owner and anything over the day is payable by new owner
That including sinking fund, maintenance fee, cukai pintu, cukai tanah (if any) all shall be pro-rated and these will be calculated by lawyer to perfection.

I'm impressed how the seller/lawyer able to calculate how much was the "unutilised" sinking fund lol.

Wonder what is the formula used

They calculated based on balance sheet of sinking fees at end month divided by total condo units

no such things la unutilise sinking fund..sinking fund is emergency reserve for the condo

Sounds like seller+seller lawyer is trying to scam your sister. "Unutilized sinking fund" is nonsense.

Sinking fund, by definition, is an emergency fund for the condo. Obviously they won't utilize all lah, otherwise RIP if condo need emergency repairs or big maintenance.

If they did not pay advance, only monthly payments, then the sinking fund "unutilized" is their duty as a strata title resident to pay up.

They want to claim back any kind of condo-related fees, they need to claim back from MO, because that's THEIR money not your sister's.

Condo management doesn't care who the money comes from (old or new owner) and usually sinking fund is yearly. If you pay to your seller just make sure condo management don't chase after you for payment for the days before you officially own the property.

Sinking fund payment by monthly ler.

I dont recalled how much i paid sinking fund monthly but i think its like less than RM50/month.

If seller claiming for RM1.8K that is like about 3 years worth of sinking fund.

This post has been edited by WaCKy-Angel: Jan 9 2024, 11:19 AM

It’s a trap. The sinking fund is a savings account for the development. It is not meant meant to be zero. It’s meant to accumulate and fund any future capital works in the future.

I would report the lawyer to bar council that he’s completely inept.