Still waiting after 10 years

30/6/2004 The Star By Siow Yuen Ching

RESIDENTS of the 200-unit Taman Tegoh apartment in Mount Erskine, Penang, are at their wit's end after waiting for more than 10 years to solve their strata title problem. 

Taman Tegoh pro-tem management committee chairman John Ow said the residents moved into the two-block apartments, situated at Gerbang Erskine, in 1994.  

“However, the developer only applied for strata titles in 2002 and now, two years later, we are still waiting for them,” he told a press conference on Sunday.  

Ow said they had pursued the matter with the Land Office on several occasions but were told that the application was returned to the developer for some amendments. 

“However, when we went to the developer, we were told that they had already submitted their application and were waiting for the Land Office’s approval,” he said, adding that both parties seemed to be passing the buck to each other. 

He said the residents were also very concerned over the sinking fund amounting to RM240,000 as they had no access to the accounts. 

Committee vice-chairman James Kee said the developer had also increased their maintenance fee from RM60 to RM90 per month since October last year. 

“The developer did not hold any meeting with us before increasing the maintenance fee and there was also no response to our written request for such a meeting,” he said, adding that all the residents were against the hefty 50% increase. 

When contacted, a spokes-man of developer Barisan Tegoh Sdn Bhd said the land had to be surveyed, partitioned and sub-divided before the strata title application could be carried out in 2002. 

“All the technical requirements have now been complied with and now we are waiting for the final inspection by the survey department prior to the approval of the application,” he said. 

He added that the monthly maintenance fee had to be increased because the management office had been running on a deficit of RM1,196 a month from recurring operational expenditure for the past 10 years. 

He said they had been advancing RM108,607 in payment to cover the expenses from 1994 to 2002 following the deficit. 

“We have shown the audited accounts as well as the expenditure bills and receipts to the residents to justify the increase,” he added. 

The spokesman also said they did not use the sink- ing fund for any purpose not approved by law and were prepared to account and justify any expenditure incurred.