Ensure board gets off on right footing

Ensure board gets off on right footing
20/6/2005 The Star

I REFER to your report, “Board to hear condo residents’ woes to be operational soon”, (The Star, May 23).

If the main objective of the long-awaited Strata Titles Board is to represent condominium owners, then the idea of having such a board is already lost in its inception.

Those who have been actively involved in the activities of a highly successful management council, like I have been over the past seven years, will know that the main problem in the implementation of the Strata Titles Act is the recovery of bad debts arising from the non-payment of maintenance fees by condominium owners/residents.

The only way to get these defaulters to pay their dues is through the courts. This takes much time and money spent on legal fees.

The management councils are made up of the apartment owners themselves, elected by their peers at an annual general meeting.

These elected members sacrifice their time and, sometimes, their own money to manage their property.

I hope the authorities will get the basic intention right in the formation of the Strata Titles Board.

C.K. CHIEW, Kuala Lumpur. (via e-mail)