Residents committees at all flats
The Star 30/4/2005

THE Council (MDS) will set up residents' consultative committees (JPP) at all low-cost housing schemes involving flats to speed up the issuance of strata titles.

Council president Mohd Arif Abdul Rahman said the committees would comprise residents' representatives, councillors in charge of the area, council officers, the developers and management companies.

"We are getting the committees moving now and we should have all the facts on the problems faced by the flat dwellers and the management companies by mid-June," he said.

He added that once the data had been compiled, the council would start arranging meetings with the parties concerned and the Selangor Housing and Real Property Board to look into ways to overcome the problems.

Mond Arif said the council was seeking the assistance of the board as it was experienced in dealing with issuance of strata titles and the issue of flat dwellers taking over the management of the buildings.

At a briefing for council staff and councillors earlier, board executive director Alinah Ahmad said management companies hired by developers were in charge of maintaining the buildings only until the strata titles were issued.

After that, flat owners would have to set up a management corporation and take over all maintenance of the flats. Mohd Arif said owners in many of the low-cost flats in the district brought their complaints to the council after failing to settle problems with the management company.

"One such area is Taman Permata, where over the years the residents have raised numerous complaints on the condition of the units, including cracks and leaky roofs," he said.

Mohd Arif said there had also been many claims of cracks appearing in some of the flats after the March 29 earthquake off Sumatra but checks revealed that many of the cracks had been there before the incident.

On the issue of the leaky roof in M. Saraswathy's top floor unit in Block -5 at the Taman Permata flats, he said, since the developer was a state subsidiary, the council would spend its own money to carry out the repairs.

"Repairs on the roof in any high-rise residential area are supposed to be carried out with money from the sinking fund that the owners of all the units in the building would have contributed to," he said, adding that in the case of the Taman Permata flats, the fund had not been created.

Councillor M. Muniandy had called on the council to help settle the problem because the family could not use the hall and electrical items had to be switched off whenever it rained.