Property owners file reports
The Star 17/10/2004 BY SIOW YUEN CHING

More than 170 property owners from three condominiums and a commercial complex have lodged police reports against a developer for failing to show them the accounts for their sinking funds.  

The 179 owners, from BJ Court Condominium, U Garden Resort Condominium, N-Park Resort Condominium and Sunny Point commercial complex, lodged reports at the Sungai Nibong police station yesterday and on Friday evening.  

All four projects are developed by subsidiary companies of Penas Group of Companies and managed by BHL Property Consultants. 

Spokesman for BJ Court residents, Tian Toh Kok, said the project’s 804 property owners had paid RM2,000 each into a common fund six years ago upon delivery of vacant possession of their units.  

ACTION SOUGHT: A group of property owners gathering in front of the Sungai Nibong police station before lodging their reports yesterday.

The fund was to be managed by the developer or management corporation for the upkeep and maintenance of the common property, he added. 

“After almost six years, our developer has yet to show us any audited account for the sinking fund,” he told a press conference called by Batu Uban assemblyman Goh Kheng Sneah in Penang yesterday.  

“We are not sure what has happened to our money,” he said, adding that unit owners must give their approval if the developer wanted to use the sinking fund. 

U Garden residents’ representative Michael Saw said since Occupational Certificate (OC) was issued eight years ago, three property management companies had managed the 422-unit condominium project.  

“We were not shown the monthly expenditure accounts on a regular basis and the statements were also not clear.”  

N-Park Residents Association chairman Goh Tuan Tee alleged that apart from the sinking funds and monthly accounts, the residents were also left in the dark about the strata title application. 

Sunny Point representative Cherlum Cheng said they were still waiting for their strata titles after nine years. There are 968 units in N-Park and 70 shoplots in Sunny Point. 

When contacted, a spokesman from the developer’s office referred the matter to the management company. 

An official with BHL Property Consultants claimed that the monthly accounts were posted on the notice boards of the condominiums since the company took over from the previous management about seven months ago. 

On the audited accounts for the sinking funds, he said they would only present the account to the management corporations formed by residents after strata titles were obtained. 

He added that strata titles had been obtained for U-Garden but they were still in the process of applying them for BJ Court, N-Park and Sunny Point. 

He said only about 60% to 70% of property owners settled their maintenance charges and the funds had to be used to maintain and upkeep the condominium and complex facilities. 

“We need not seek owners’ approval to use the common fund for the purpose of maintenance and upkeep of the common property areas as per stated in the supplemental sales and purchase agreements,” he added.