The National House Buyers Association (HBA) has urged management committees of condominium or apartment complex to bring their action against defaulters to the Housing and Strata Management Tribunal (TPPS) or a commissioner of buildings (COB), reported Free Malaysia Today.
This comes as action taken under the Strata Management (Maintenance and Management) Regulations (SMR) and the Strata Management Act (SMA) are often times ineffective in making apartment owners pay maintenance fees.
“Under SMR, the management can publish the details of defaulters on the building’s notice board, deactivate electromagnetic access cards and suspend a defaulter from using common facilities,” noted HBA honorary secretary general Chang Kim Loong.
“But in many cases, these are ineffective, especially if the defaulter doesn’t live in the unit and rents it out.”
Headquartered in Putrajaya, TPPS also has office in Kuala Terengganu, Johor Bahru and Kepala Batas in Penang. Its jurisdiction is limited to Labuan and Peninsular Malaysia and not in Sarawak and Sabah – where housing issues are under the jurisdiction of their respective state housing ministries.
To bring an action to the TPPS, the management committee should first serve the defaulter with a written notice to pay the fees within 14 days.
“Failing that, the management can go to the TPPS to recover the outstanding sum.”
Home owners who fail to comply with the decision of the TPPS can face a fine of up to RM250,000 or up to three years imprisonment or both. Continued failure to abide with the ruling can make the defaulter liable to an additional fine of up to RM5,000 per day.
Meanwhile, the movable properties of defaulters can be seized and auctioned off, if the action was made through a COB.
With a filing fee of RM100, an action through the TPPS are cheaper than a civil action in court since lawyers are not allowed to participate in the tribunal’s proceedings, said Chang.
He noted that actions through take through COBs or TPPS are effective enough and there is no need to take more extreme measures such as those practised in other countries like Singapore – where apartment units of defaulters are seized.
Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) president SM Mohamed Idris, however, believes extreme measures are exactly what Malaysia needs.
“To me it’s not extreme; it’s fair…In Malaysia you have to do this or you won’t get results,” he said, noting that COBs should be empowered to seize apartments or condo units.
The law should also be amended to make it compulsory for condominium and apartment management bodies to periodically submit their records to the COBs.
“Management bodies are run by home owners themselves and they can report defaulters to the COB, but many are hesitant because they are afraid of repercussions from the defaulters,” he noted.
“If the government makes it compulsory for management bodies to submit management records on a quarterly basis, then COBs can take action against defaulters without waiting for complaints.”
Image sourced from FMT
Radin Ghazali, Content Writer at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email radin@propertyguru.com.my
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