Residents of Main Place @ USJ 21, Subang Jaya have called on the Housing and Local Government Minister and the Selangor Menteri Besar to look into their grouses and concerns against the developer and Joint Management Body (JMB) of the mixed development project, reported The Star.
This comes as the developer had been using its majority shareholder power (70 percent of the total share units) to make decisions that are favourable to them during the property’s annual general meeting, said Main Place Residents Association (RA) pro tem secretary Kelvin Chong.
Eight floors of the mixed-use project, which include the commercial/retail and parking areas of the development, belong to the developer. The other 25 floors, comprising 1,211 residential units, are occupied by some 3,500 residents.
Meanwhile, the JMB – comprising “one representative of the developer while four others are unit owners that do not even live here” – had done various things that contravenes the Strata Management Act 2013 (Act 757).
“Under the Act, the developer/JMB is supposed to hold an AGM every year and provide audited annual financial statements, including the maintenance fees and sinking funds.”
“However, since Main Place was completed in April 2014, the first AGM was only held in August 2017 while the second was in August this year,” said Chong.
“About 300 residents turned up at this year’s AGM, but the developer’s main shareholder status allowed them to control the voting rights and make major decisions without considering the residents’ input.”
The residents – who were forced to form a Residents Association as they were not represented in the JMB – also discovered that they were paying different maintenance fees from the developer when they sought the help of the Strata Management Tribunal.
“To our surprise, we found out that the developer and residents were paying different rates for the maintenance fees, when the Act states there should be only a single rate,” said Chong.
“The developer is paying RM2 per share unit while residents are paying RM3.35 per share unit…For example, a residential lot of 100 share unit (1,000 per sq ft) has to pay RM335 per month, while a commercial unit of the same size belonging to the developer costs RM200 per month.”
The developer had also privatised the public facilities, leaving only the sewers and drains as the common areas.
“This means residents are forced to pay an extra RM50 per month for facilities such as swimming pool, gym, playground and surau,” said Chong.
The developer also engaged the services of an international property management firm to represent them at tribunal hearings, the fees of which were billed to the JMB – which the residents deem unfair.
Chong hoped the “state and federal governments could look into our plight, as our case could set a precedent for other similar strata properties in Malaysia”.
Image source: The Star
This article was edited by the editorial team of PropertyGuru. To contact them about this or other stories email editorialteam@propertyguru.com.my
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