In a fix over condo unit titles

Thursday December 25, 2008

In a fix over condo unit titles
By PRIYA MENON
priya@thestar.com.my
Photos by AZHAR MAHFOF



RESIDENTS of Heritage Condominium in Jalan Pahang, Kuala Lumpur, are bedevilled by a host of problems.

Apart from lack of maintenance and security, they are also facing difficulty in obtaining individual titles for their units.



Chairman of the residents’ pro tem committee Khong Kin Hai said when the developer of the condominium was declared insolvent, the court hired a liquidator who is demanding a 2% fee of the purchase price to produce titles for the property owners.

“Before the liquidator was appointed by the court, we had collected money and managed to get the titles on our own but they were left at the land office.

“Why must we pay so much for something we have already managed to get? Is it so difficult to get the titles from the land office?” asked Khong.

To add salt to the wound, their condominium is in a sad state of disrepair. There are three blocks of condominiums and each has four lifts. However, only one out of four lifts is working.

“It is dangerous for us to use the condo facilities. We have complained before but no action has been taken, The condo does not even have a certificate of fitness,” he said.

Another resident Fatimah Reynolds, a retired teacher said: “The buttons in the lifts are also missing and we are afraid of being electrocuted every time we stick our finger into the button hole,” she said.



She said the management office had been turning a blind eye to the problems even though it was still collecting maintenance fees every month.

“The squash court is termite infested; the pool needs tending to and the tennis court flooring has to be replaced,” said Reynolds.

Evidently even security is lacking as two men managed to walk into a sundry shop and robbed it on Nov 25.

“Packets of cigarettes worth RM1,500 were stolen and we lost RM1,300 in cash. How can this happen when we have guards and a checkpoint,” asked another resident, Major (Rtd) Kirpal Singh.



All these residents want now is to have their titles returned to them without having to pay an exorbitant fee.

“We hope the problem will be resolved quickly and we definitely want to elect our own management committee to ensure that we do not have maintenance problems in the future,” added Khong.

The developer, however, declined to comment on the issue for the time being.

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I hope we, our Metroview Condo won't face this type of problems. Inorder to prevent it happen we have to sound out all the forseen problems before the developer wash their hand and run away.