Act 663 Building and Common Property ( Maintenance and Management ) ACT 2007

The owners of condo properties should know what Act 663 is all about. This particular act was drafted by the goverment mainly to protect the interests of the owners. We, owners cannot call our properties our own unless we are in possession of the strata-titles. Strata -titles take a long time to be issued by the land office. Many condos are without strata-title even after years of owning the properties. Some developers deliberately do not want to apply for the titles. Without the strata titles, all condos shall be managed by the developers. We, owners are at their mercy. We have no rights to determine the maintenance fees. We have no rights to make changes to the house rules. We have no rights to look into the account. By the time we receive the strata-titles which enable us to manage our own properties, more often than not we find that there is no more money in the account. The sinking fund is nil. This is the reason why this act 663 was drafted to give the rights to the owners themselves to manage their own properties. A body named JMB ( Joint Management Body ) is formed through an AGM called by the developer. Committee members are elected to form the JMC ( Joint Management Committee ) which acts on behalf of the JMB. The JMB exercises its control by taking over the BMA ( Building Maintenance Account) from the developer.

How do we manage our own properties? There are two options that we can use. The first one, we manage the properties ourselves. We collect the maintenance fees. We enforce the house rules. We appoint all the contractual servicing companies. We pay ourselves wages to do the work. This option is not viable at all for the simple reason that there shall be conflict of interests. There shall be allegations of corruption and abuse of fund. Committee members may abuse the power granted to them. All these may lead to many disputes among owners.

The second option is to engage a management agent to manage our properties. This is the option that we are adopting at Platinum. We pay them to do the job. The JMC has unanimously appointed PVD Property Management Sdn Bhd to be our management agent. They will take care of the day to day operation at Platinum. They are responsible for appointing all the contractual servicing companies. We control the cost. We control their expenditures. We have also set certain procedures ( I shall elaborate in another post ) for making payments. We have also appointed four signatories ( listed on the JMB notice board ) to the bank account. There shall be check and balance. All decisions are made by the JMC and not the chairman himself.

What is the rationale for appointing PVDPMSB ( Platinum Victory Development Property Management Sdn Bhd ) to be our management agent. PVDPMSB is the subsidiary of PVDSB, the developer. Our properties are still under the defect liability period. Any complaints made by the owners shall be attended to more speedily since they have the resources to do it. One plus point is that the fees that they charge us is reasonable. Many management companies are in the business to make money. Most of them are profit orientated. PVDPMSB is different because they have to maintain a high standard of services. They are not in it for the profit mainly because the developer will like to use PV10 as the selling point for the other properties which they are selling. Potential purchasers will think twice before they purchase any properties developed by PVDSB if PV10 is badly maintained. The JMC shall work closely with PVDPMSB to bring further improvemets to Platinum.

Goodnight and have a nice day.