Managing Defaulters - CARROT or the STICK?

My last couple of posts in this blog has been to promote safety and security awareness within Taman Mutiara Puchong and of course not forgetting all the other readers where ever they may reside at as safety and security should always be on top of everyone agenda in day to day life.

In times of economic uncertainty, crime rate will increase and as such we have to be more vigilant and responsible in ensuring that all necessary precautions have been taken to prevent such activities from taking place and especially to us. Prevention is the CURE and not the usual saying of "Prevention is better than a cure".

With the above reiteration of some of my previous posts main points, I am inclined to use this blog space to address the issue of "DEFAULTERS" of service fee payments in Taman Mutiara Puchong, with the intention of drawing upon the support and feedback of all the socially responsible residents whom are paying. Mind you majority of residents in TMP are responsibly paying the monthly service fee but it is unavoidable that we still have a handful of people that pays late, which is of course the norm and also a small group that thinks they are above the law and wants to go the full distance with the authority in what ever issues.

The latter is the group of people I am most concerned about as their current action or inaction in fulfilling their moral obligation and responsibility of owning a property in TMP is something all of us paying owners in TMP must come together and address.

Below are the current implementations of action to be taken against defaulters in TMP:
1. Issue reminders if payment not received after billing due every 14th of the month
2. If payment not received after 3 months ACCESS CARD BARRING will be exrcised accordingly. (Access card barring exercise will be done once every 2 months effective after the 15th April 2009 barring exercise).
3. If payment not received after 6 months LEGAL NOTICE will be served accordingly to the said unit owners.
4. Telephone reminders were made during the above said time frame to all defaulters.
5. SMS REMINDERS have also been implemented recently as this is a more personal approach as well as cost saving, efficient and more environmentally friendly as oppose to printing notices and sending to every household plus banners.

After much discussion amongst committee members in the Residents Association, the following suggestions have been voiced out to ensure that proper measures are taken to further educate the defaulters first and upon such measures failing only stronger methods will be enforced to maintain fairness with firmness to ensure equality for all unit owners (majority).
A) Final appeal letter from the RA to settle the amount in arrears and to meet the unit owner to discuss and settle the issue amicably if need to out of goodwill as fellow residents.
B) Hiring of legal counsel to further demand payments by issuing DEMAND LETTER and to take waht ever legal action accorded by law to take against such defaulters
C) Barring entry of visitors of the said defaulters by not allowing their vehicles entry. They can enter only after registering at the guard house but their vehicles are not allowed in. All privileges accorded to a gated and guarded community resident will be taken away.
D) Guards will not patrol houses without security tags but special attention will only be given to houses with SECURITY TAG.
E) The soon to be setup BUSINESS COMMUNITY NOTICEBOARD will only allow participation from prompt pay master of the monthly service fee to advertise businesses within the community for the community.
The above are just some of the suggestions put forth and the RA are still looking into more alternatives to bring to task a certain number of defaulters not acting in the best interest of the entire community.
It is every unit owners obligation to contribute the said monthly service fees from the date of "VACANT POSSESSION" irregardless of whether it is rented out or empty. There are no excuses that will justify not paying as from the very beginning it is a known fact by any home buyers that a gated and guarded housing development will have monthly committment fees payable i.e. condominiums and other gated and guarded housing developments. It is even stated in the Deed Of Mutual Covenants plus House Rules guidebook given to each and every home owners.
At the end of the day after all that is said and done, the RA of TMP just wants to ensure equality, fairness and rule of law, for without TMP will one day become one of the many casualties of a gated and guarded community that will be overun with crime and disorder which is not in the best interest of good law abiding citizens of Malaysia.
PLEASE FORWARD ALL YOUR COMMENTS IN THIS BLOG TO FURTHER EXPLORE OTHER ALTERNATIVES AND IDEAS WHICH CAN BE PUT INTO ACTION TO FURTHER SAFEGUARD THE QUALITY AND LIVING STANDARDS IN TMP.

ONE VOICE ONCE COMMUNITY FOR SAFETY AND SECURITY

Security Deposit Transfer - Updates

Please click in the image to enlarge.

The RA decided to post this letter is to make publicly available information to all residents in Taman Mutiara Puchong (especially all unit owners whom have duly complied with the DMC by depositing the said security deposit).

We have received many enquiry pertaining to this hot topic in the past in TMP and as you can read for yourself the result. I for one do not want to write too much on this but prefer to get feedback from all the readers of this blog, may it be you are a resident/owner in TMP, members of the public with experience to this kind of situation or even better someone with the legal capacity to put in your thoughts here.

Please note the following information provided below before you post your comment :)

1. Official handover from Malton Bhd to the Residents' Association as at 29th February 2008 - (should have been on the 18th January 2008, but at that time Protem RA negotiated extension due to non-completion of Phase 3A & 3B perimeter wall fence and was agreeable by developer).
*** the said extension saved all residents a small sum of money in service fee between 18th Jan'08 - 29th Feb'08 = 42 days in total. (Note: Many residents are unaware of this)

2. Last minute notice by developer informing RA that they are not interested to act as the property manager for Taman Mutiara Puchong sometime a week before the end of Feb'08 leaving the RA with the heavy tasks of organising an AGM with residents to inform them of this and that the fate of TMP is now in our own hands to manage and to care for.

3. AGM was duly organised at the expense of the RA members cum volunteers (thank you everyone) contributing and sharing resources to enable the said AGM'08 to take place quickly on the 16th March 2008. Over 5,000 pieces of flyers informing all residents and owners to attend distributed by maildrop house to house, including sms, banners, post in blog, email notification and notice boards were utilised to communicate and notify all owners.

4. AGM held with over 200 resident owners attending including by proxies. Majority voted in favor of RM 100 service fee contribution per month. (Refer to the minutes of the AGM in this blog).

5. Minutes of the AGM sent to all house owners by maildrop once again to notify and justification provided with projection of monthly expenditure and costing also provided (after 10 working days from date of AGM'08).

6. Malton acknowledged proceedings of AGM was held in accordance of stipulated rules and regulations after representative officer in attendance at the AGM verbally provided the acknowledgement to all present at the AGM'08.

7. Between month of March'08 - May'08, 12 resident owners wrote to Malton objecting to the RM 100 service fee per month amount and a couple owners writing in to object transfer of the security deposit from Malton to RA as stipulated in the DMC.

8. Also point to note that after 2 months only partial payment received, justifiable by law?

9. RA already deposited the partial release of RM 200K, this sum is to be held in an interest bearing account as it should be as opposed to developer holding it without any interest earnt. Interest earnt will be communicated and funds to only be used for community related matters after the usual process of voting at EGM or AGMs of the RA in accordance to the law governing non-profit organisations like associations by ROS (Registrar of Society).

10. Owners objecting to the said service fee and to date have not paid are considered defaulters as provisions in the DMC clearly states (Please refer to the extracts of DMC in blog also available in Chinese). Same provisions will be used to deal with the defaulters to ensure fairness to all residents contributing.

11. Owners whom are requesting for their security deposit to be refunded and not agreeable with the transfer of the said security fee to the RA and at the same time not paying the monthly service fee of RM 100 are also deemed as defaulters.

12. Is it fair for a handful of owners (12) out of the initial 397 to act in this manner? What is the rulle of law here? The DMC.

13. Is it fair for the developer to hold the balance of the security deposit in this manner? Using the 12 as a reason? Monies held belongs to the majority of owners agreeable to the mandated service fee of RM 100 as voted by the majority at the AGM'08a month so why the partial payment and not the full amount except the 12 owners? In fact it should be the full amount including the 12 owners as the RA is legally the "Vendor" after the official handover 29th February? RA will act accordingly to highlight to these 12 owners the larger "picture" of maintaining TMP and making sure it is sustainable. Are these assumptions of a "resonable man"?

14. Since handover official and recognised and in accordance to the terms and conditions stipulated in the DMC between Vendor and Purchaser,including the transfer of the said security deposit why the need for approval by residents who do not agree?

15. Is it fair for all the other residents in TMP whom are law abiding for these handful of people disputing for the their own selfish intentions? This is after a gated and guarded community and with costs to maintain covering 70 acres of land with 504 units of houses.

16. Why make it so difficult for the Residents' Association to serve voluntarily? Are we not residents here? Do we not own a unit here as members?

So please comment on the above and do note that this is a forum format where we are not looking to point fingers but looking at these issues in a construtive manner and getting as many people involved to share information to discuss in the process of looking to settle these matters amicably, fairly but firmly for equality and equity for the majority.

This initiative will also be a reference to future house buyers or existing house owners to share and learn as we all know the development boom have given rise to many developers, some good, some ok and some haizzzz....no comment is the best way to describe them.