Wrong to bar owners from managing their strata properties

I AM a condo owner and fail to see the rationale under the Strata Management Act 2013 (Act 757) Second Schedule 2(6). Under the Act, which is effective in 2015, “... a retiring member of the management committee shall be eligible for re-election but no member of the management committee shall hold office for more than three consecutive terms”.

This means managing committee members who served from 2015 will not be eligible to volunteer their services again in 2018. I am inclined to believe that in 2018, condo management would face problems if lack of owners or no volunteers wish to serve in the management committee.

It would likely cause some confusion as the new committee members would be unfamiliar with managing experience.

I think one of the reasons to bar owners serving more than three years is probably to avoid familiari­ty that may be subject to abuse, corruption and dishonesty. This cannot apply to all committee members especially those who have served well and thus are being re-elected by the owners themselves.

But isn’t there the Penal Code to deal with any such criminal offences if any serving member is corrupted or dishonest?

At the recent Strata Convention in Kuala Lumpur, the Commissioner of Buildings (COB) who has jurisdiction over strata properties said if no volunteers serve in the management committee, they would appoint people to manage the affected properties.

I don’t expect they would appoint owners as they will not know who are willing to volunteer to serve in the committee. Obviously, the people they appoint would be managing agents.

But roping in managing agents to manage strata properties will incur higher costs compared with owners themselves who volunteer to manage their own properties without any remuneration or salary.

At the end of the day, strata owners will need to pay more for their maintenance fees to engage the services of managing agents. It is not fair to the owners who should have the right to decide who they want to manage their property.

I am worried that our service fees will increase if we have to engage managing agents to manage our property.

The authorities should make an allowance and allow the majority of the owners to decide at an AGM who they want to manage their property regardless of the years they have served in their own property.

J.B. Lin

Kuala Lumpur