Room for improvement

THERE are mixed views, but apartment and condominium residents generally agree that there is room for improvement in managing their shared living spaces.

Long standing issues continue to plague condo dwellers, such as poor cleanliness, wrongful use of facilities, low collection of maintenance fees and security problems.

Some believe in boils down to a lack of cooperation among residents while others have taken the developers and the management bodies to task.

A condominium resident in

Petaling Jaya, who wishes to be known only as Aaron, says the joint management body (JMB) in his building finds it tough to make changes because of the attitude of his neighbours.

He laments that some residents do not dispose of rubbish properly despite signs being put up to advise them.

“Even if the bin is not full, some just toss their trash on the floor.

“This is the typical ugly Malaysian mindset – since they have already paid to keep the place clean, why should they bother so much?” says the 32-year-old engineer.

Aaron also notes that lifts are sometimes vandalised with graffiti.

“The JMB is trying hard to get things right but it’s the people living here who need to cooperate to ensure it works,” he says, adding that many of the units have been bought up by property investors, and such units are left vacant since the owners do not live in them.

Because of this, they do not pay maintenance fees, causing Aaron’s building to be poorly maintained.

“Some rent out their properties to tenants, who do not care and are not bothered about paying for the shared facilities like the swimming pool,” Aaron says.

While his JMB blocks the access cards of residents who refused to pay up to encourage more payment, the move isn’t effective enough.

Julian Ding, who used to live in an apartment in Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya, says some residents who smoke can be inconsiderate by throwing their cigarette butts out of the window, which eventually end up on balconies and in common areas.

He also recalls that some residents do not use shared amenities properly – he’s seen people dragging chairs into the swimming pool and leaving them there.

“There were also some security problems. Once, an unknown man had followed a female resident into the compound,” says the 31-yearold father of a baby girl.

Ding now lives in a condominium in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, and says his current neighbours are better, with only a fraction not up-to-date with maintenance fees.

“Facilities are fixed if complaints are made and the area is generally clean. But I suppose this is because it is a low density condominium with only 70 units,” he says.

Teacher R. Nithia, a resident in Penang, says the management corporation (MC) in her apartment is problematic because the new post bearers are continuously bickering with the former MC members.

“While they are feuding, the residents are caught in between,” the 40-year-old complains.

She says there are security issues that need to be addressed, such as cars being scratched and vandalised despite the apartment having guards on duty.

“Our access cards to the car park have also been duplicated by non-residents.

“But while we have tried to raise this to the MC, they seem to be more concerned in undoing what the former MC members have done, like changing contractors and the security company,” Nithia says.

Meanwhile, there are some who feel the project developer, who is usually part of the JMB, should do more, especially if there are complaints about the building.

An IT manager who wants to be known only as Johan says the developer of his condominium in Subang Jaya, Selangor, had initially led the JMB but was slow to act on complaints about the workmanship of the building.

“There were many issues, including tiles popping up after only three years,” says the 32-year-old.

He says residents were also promised that their units would be equipped with broadband Internet but the developer has failed to provide such a service.

The JMB, led by the developer, also overpaid for certain services like security when they paid the salaries for eight guards but only six were actually doing the job.

“Last month, the residents took over the management as an MC, and we hope things will improve,” he says, adding that the residents plan to bring up their issues with the developer with the Strata Management Tribunal.