Proxy system
comes under fire
17/11/2008 The Star
Condominium and apartment residents in Petaling Jaya have called for the
abolition of the proxy system.
They made this call in a meeting organised by the All-Petaling Jaya
Selangor Residents Association Coalition (APAC) and the Condominium,
Apartments and Highrise Committee (CAHC) on Friday (Nov 14) at Taman
Mayang public hall.
The condominum and apartment residents were invited to the meeting to
share their concerns, suggestions and experiences with regards to clauses
under the Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act
2007 or Act 663 and the Commissioner of Buildings (CoB).
Chairing the meeting were APAC chairman Liew Wei Beng, CAHC chairman
Tengku Nazaruddin Zainudin, Subang MP R. Sivarasa’s aide Aloysius Francis
Pinto, lawyer Eddy Chung and Bukit Gasing Joint Action Committee member
Gary Yeoh.
Speaking out: Owners sharing their thoughts on the issue during the
meeting.
They were questioning the logic behind Sec 6(5) of the act, which reads:
“Notwithstanding subsection (4), joint purchasers shall not be entitled to
vote except by way of a jointly appointed proxy”.
“We do not understand why neither one of the purchasers can vote and they
have to appoint a proxy,” some said.
They added that the proxy system was subject to abuse.
“We had no opportunity to verify if the proxies present at annual general
meetings were really appointed by the owners or were sent by the
developer,” resident Gary Wong said.
Andrew Tan highlighted that the clauses were interpreted differently by
all 12 local councils in the state due to loopholes and ambiguities that
actually benefited the developers.
“The developer told us that according to the act, we could not appoint our
spouses as proxies,” he said.
Other clauses of the Act deemed to have created grey areas are Sec 6 (2),
which deals with the quorum for the meetings, and Sec 5(2) that deals with
the issue of notice of the meeting.
“Sec 6 (2) requires purchasers to settle maintenance charges to be
eligible for the meeting but it does not stipulate the deadline, is it on
the day of the meeting or a period prior to that?” Liew asked.
He added that even though Sec 5 (2) required the developer to give a
written notice 14 days earlier, it did not stop them from limiting the
time for purchasers to appoint their proxies or prevent them from holding
the meeting on a weekday to minimise attendance.
He said the two associations would send a memorandum to Selangor Housing,
Building Management and Squatters committee chairman Iskandar Abdul Samad
and Petaling Jaya mayor Datuk Mohamad Roslan Sakiman, urging them to look
into the points raised.
“We will also urge them to draft guidelines on how to convene the first
meeting and to come out with a common interpretation of the act for all
local councils,” he said.
Pinto proposed that the CoB operate as an independent body under the state
government instead of the local council to prevent favouritism and that
scrutineers should be present during the appointment of the joint
management committees to ensure fairness