Proxy system comes under fire
17/11/2008 The Star

Condominium and apartment residents in Petaling Jaya have called for the abolition of the proxy system.

They made this call in a meeting organised by the All-Petaling Jaya Selangor Residents Association Coalition (APAC) and the Condominium, Apartments and Highrise Committee (CAHC) on Friday (Nov 14) at Taman Mayang public hall.

The condominum and apartment residents were invited to the meeting to share their concerns, suggestions and experiences with regards to clauses under the Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act 2007 or Act 663 and the Commissioner of Buildings (CoB).

Chairing the meeting were APAC chairman Liew Wei Beng, CAHC chairman Tengku Nazaruddin Zainudin, Subang MP R. Sivarasa’s aide Aloysius Francis Pinto, lawyer Eddy Chung and Bukit Gasing Joint Action Committee member Gary Yeoh.

Speaking out: Owners sharing their thoughts on the issue during the meeting.

They were questioning the logic behind Sec 6(5) of the act, which reads: “Notwithstanding subsection (4), joint purchasers shall not be entitled to vote except by way of a jointly appointed proxy”.

“We do not understand why neither one of the purchasers can vote and they have to appoint a proxy,” some said.

They added that the proxy system was subject to abuse.

“We had no opportunity to verify if the proxies present at annual general meetings were really appointed by the owners or were sent by the developer,” resident Gary Wong said.

Andrew Tan highlighted that the clauses were interpreted differently by all 12 local councils in the state due to loopholes and ambiguities that actually benefited the developers.

“The developer told us that according to the act, we could not appoint our spouses as proxies,” he said.

Other clauses of the Act deemed to have created grey areas are Sec 6 (2), which deals with the quorum for the meetings, and Sec 5(2) that deals with the issue of notice of the meeting.

“Sec 6 (2) requires purchasers to settle maintenance charges to be eligible for the meeting but it does not stipulate the deadline, is it on the day of the meeting or a period prior to that?” Liew asked.

He added that even though Sec 5 (2) required the developer to give a written notice 14 days earlier, it did not stop them from limiting the time for purchasers to appoint their proxies or prevent them from holding the meeting on a weekday to minimise attendance.

He said the two associations would send a memorandum to Selangor Housing, Building Management and Squatters committee chairman Iskandar Abdul Samad and Petaling Jaya mayor Datuk Mohamad Roslan Sakiman, urging them to look into the points raised.

“We will also urge them to draft guidelines on how to convene the first meeting and to come out with a common interpretation of the act for all local councils,” he said.

Pinto proposed that the CoB operate as an independent body under the state government instead of the local council to prevent favouritism and that scrutineers should be present during the appointment of the joint management committees to ensure fairness