Not cracking under pressure
24/04/2005 NST By Ahirudin Attan

CRACKS in the wall are a nuisance but one that Malaysian house-buyers and house-owners are quite used to, and tolerant of.

But three ladies in a condo near Hospital Universiti in Petaling Jaya have been having sleepless nights since the recent tremors, which they believed caused cracks to appear on one side of the building.

The three quickly set up a "committee" to address the property developers and the relevant council over the cracks. One of them, single and occupying a unit on the 14th floor, said these are not the so-called "hairline" cracks. "These are more than that, they are deep and ugly," she said.

At the same time, the ladies also discovered, while investigating the cracks from different angles viewed from the ground, what they thought to be evidence of potential cave-ins at the clearing at the back of the condo building.

Inexperienced in how to deal with the authorities on cracks and cave-ins, the ladies called City Hall which, surprisingly (since it's clearly outside its jurisdiction), responded to the distress call.

An engineer from City Hall confirmed their fears — the cracks and the state of the grounds look like they should be dealt with urgently. He also told them that the correct authority to address their concerns would be the MPPJ, the Petaling Jaya council.

This the ladies did hastily, driven by concern that their condo (and their lives and those of their neighbours) could be in danger the longer they waited.

From there on, their real problems started. Unlike City Hall, the ladies said, MPPJ has been giving them excuses why they cannot send people to look at the problem.

A lady officer said that "these things take time", that the council would need to investigate the cracks and the grounds. If repairs are later found to be necessary, the council would need to see if there was budget for such.

I told one of the ladies that perhaps they had brought the matter up with the "wrong" officer. The lady on the 14th floor said they had got the "right" officer. If MPPJ is so unwilling to help, I said, why not go to the Press? They did threaten to go to the Press. That was when they encountered their second and third problems.

The second problem involved some fellow residents. If the ladies thought they were doing their neighbours a favour, they were in for a rude shock.

"One said we are trouble makers... that if we go to the Press, we are going to push the value of our properties down," one of the ladies said.

But what's more important: your safety or how much you can get from selling your unit? The ladies decided to go to the management of the condo, which is linked to the developers. There their third problem awaited.

"The representative of the developer said if we go to the Press, they will sue us. Can they do that? I — we — are only trying to do what we think is right here." I told her not to crack under such pressure but to go to the media with their predicament. She said she will do that. "But — touch wood — if the condo collapses before that, you promise you will help dig us out?"