Strata titles for highrise folk

18/11/2003 The Star

RESIDENTS living at the Sri Abadi apartments in Sungai Ara, Penang, can expect to get their strata titles within seven months, UIS Development Sdn Bhd advisor Ramli Omar said.

The company had already submitted the application for strata titles to the Land Office some time ago and was now waiting for approval, Ramli said at a press conference called by the apartments’ residents association.

Also present were Bayan Lepas assemblyman Lim Chien Aun and RA chairman Kamarulzaman Abdullah.

Ramli gave the assurance to the residents during the press conference following complaints that no action had been taken on the matter of strata title and land conversion which had been forwarded to the developer since 1999.

According to Kamarulzaman, the land where the apartments were build was still under the agriculture land and had not been converted into a development land although the Certificate of Fitness (CF) was obtained in 1999 and 2000 respectively for the two blocks of apartments.

He said besides the conversion and strata titles issues, the apartment management company appointed by the developer was also not providing quality service to the residents.

“The problems include poor management of the common facilities, no transparency of financial accounts for service charges and sinking fund, leaking of water at certain units, wall cracking, faded paint at both the blocks and poor security guard services,’’ he said.

Lim said he had brought up the matter up several times during the State Assembly asking the government to take firm action against those responsible for approving plans for the construction of apartments located on agriculture land.

“I hope that the developer will keep to his word and get the approval for the strata titles soon,’’ he added.

Ramli said when the company first built the apartments, it was told that it was a first grade land, and therefore it did not required conversion, and only after the CF was obtained in 1999 that the company was told by the Land Office that it needed to convert the land.

He added that some of the residents failed to pay up their maintenance fees from 1999 till to date totalling about RM208,496 for Block A and RM135,702 for Block B.

The residents, however, refuted the claim by saying if the developer provided unsatisfactory services, they had the right not to pay the fees, adding that the developer could always take legal action against those who fail to pay up.