The termites had also infested the common areas such as switchboards rooms and telephone booths.

Residents are unhappy as they have made verbal and written complaints to the maintenance office two years ago but the management only started the termite treatment in May .

The residents had filled a complaint with the Monitoring and Enforcement Division of the Housing and Local Government Ministry on the problem .

An affected resident , Saleh Abdul Latif, said he informed the management about the termite problem in two written complaints on March 11, 2000 and Aug 7, 2001 but no action was taken then .

"They only carried out the treatment last month after we wrote a complaint letter to the Housing Ministry, "he said .

Saleh said he was dissatisfied with a letter from the developer , TTDI Jaya Sdn Bhd, early last month which stated that it would only bear the cost for termite treatment at the common area while the owners have to bear the cost for similar treatment inside their apartments .

"This is unfair. I think they are trying to avoid taking responsibility for the condition of our apartments, "he added.
Another residents, Tony Raymond, said they were put off by the indifferent attitude of the maintenance office in tackling the termite problem .

"The management had been lackadaisical about it and now we are all living in fear not knowing when the wooden structures would give way," he said.

When contacted, an officer from TTDI Jaya Sdn Bhd said they were aware of the problem and had engaged a contractor to carry out termite treatment at the common area of the apartments .

She , however, declined to comment further saying that only the general manager Zahari Harun , who was outstation for a week, was authorized to speak to the media .