Not so gated community

24/03/2006 The Star

PROPERTY developers are heavily promoting gated (guarded) communities these days.

The buyer is promised security and facilities that can include a swimming pool, tennis court and clubhouse.

But the main selling point is security, which is supposed to be so good you do not have to install a fence around your home or grill up your windows and doors like we Malaysians often do.
All this comes at a cost, incorporated in the price of the house.

Our experience of living in a gated community the past four years is all that glitter in developers' brochures do not translate into a golden environment.

First, buyers should be cautious about buying properties with unusually low maintenance fees.

Those fees must cover the managerial costs of the service provider, monthly maintenance bills and repairs to common amenities.

We moved into our small gated community of 23 houses four years ago. For us, the main attraction was not the pool or the clubhouse, but round-the-clock security as promised by the developer.
But as soon as the houses were sold, the developer scooted off.

So the onus was on a few residents to actually run the show as the maintenance fees were barely enough to pay the monthly bills.

Organising monthly meetings, paying bills, monitoring the security staff, gardener and pool cleaner became a chore most of us had to do despite our busy schedules.

Raising maintenance fees, we discovered, was an impossible task. Some residents are convinced those fees are fixed for life.

The second issue buyers must beware of is the security promised is often illusory. Due to low remuneration, security guards often are retired elderly men, able only to patrol a small area.

The absence of fencing and grills, in fact, make these partially guarded properties even more vulnerable to burglars.

This is exactly what happened to us. In a matter of months, there were three robberies.

But here again, due to low maintenance fees, additional security is simply not feasible.

To wall up our yards defeats the purpose of living in a gated community and paying a premium for our property.

Is Malaysia ready to venture into gated community living?

Currently residents of gated communities sign a deed of mutual governance that states the do's and dont's when they buy the property.

In reality, this document is of a questionable legal standing and can be challenged.

The Government should collect a fund from developers which may be put into a trust which residents can utilise if they are shortchanged.

A more concrete and binding law of mutual governance must also be in place to protect house buyers.

DR RAJ & DR PUSHPA,
Seremban.