A need for committed homeowners

MANY homeowners or property investors think that once they have signed the Sales and Purchase Agreement or when a project they bought has been completed, that marks the end of their worries. However, on the contrary, it may just be the start of a new series of problems, warned DN Homeowners Bhd chairman Andy Khoo.

DN Homeowners was formed by the homeowners of Duta Nusantara, a non-strata landed residential development located in between Dutamas and Sri Hartamas in Kuala Lumpur.

Khoo was sharing his experience of managing a non-strata development during his talk entitled “Managing your property manager” at TheEdgeProperty.com Symposium on Property Management 2017 on April 8 organised by TheEdgeProperty.com with partners Nippon Paint Malaysia and Panasonic Malaysia. The event was supported by The Edge Malaysia while the supporting sponsor was Gamuda Land.

“Today, a lot of property developments have their own residents’ association. Sometimes, the association is formed after an unpleasant event has happened in the neighbourhood, for instance a robbery in the housing area. People are usually driven by emotions — but the energy often dies out very quickly,” said Khoo.

This is because a residents’ association is not governed by law unlike in a strata development, said Khoo. Hence, people are not as committed towards ensuring an efficient management of the property.

Indeed, getting committed people to volunteer their time and effort to contribute to a residents’ association is already a big challenge especially when the management is not an elected one.

One also has to keep in mind that these volunteers often lack expertise that could benefit the management of the property.

“For instance, in a residents’ association, the committee may consist of professionals such as lawyers, doctors, and sometimes even housewives and retirees. These people are not your electricians, landscape gardeners, plumbers or engineers who understand the mechanics of managing a property. Thus, it is critical how you set the property management entity to draw on the resources and right expertise when you need them,” said Khoo. Therefore, it may be a good idea to hire a professional property management company.

“If you hire a property management company, if the technicians take leave or are not available, [the property management company] will need to and must be able to replace them with the same amount of absentees who can deliver the same quality of work to the residents,” offered Khoo.

On top of that, the property management company has the licences required to provide the right people to manage the property such as hiring security guards who have already undergone proper training. The property management company also handles matters such as the performance review of the property management team. All these considered, it makes more sense to have a property management company do the job.

Financial transparency

A good property manager has to ensure that funds allocated are used wisely, said Khoo. “The money allocated to us is not our money, it is other people’s money. When we are handling other people’s money, we need to do it with 110% visibility. There must be proper attention and auditing done to show how the money is used. We do not collect excess funds and accumulate money [in Duta Nusantara].

“For example, there are some cases where the government has claimed back land to build public transportation such as the mass rapid transit. I heard that this happened in one of the developments in KL, and the residents’ association took the RM8 million windfall to build an entrance to the development. If I was the property manager, I would have ensured the money was given back to the residents in the form of dividends instead of accumulating the money to be used for other purposes,” said Khoo.

Another point that Khoo raised was that a property manager should be observant when it comes to signing cheques for purchases.

“Always ensure that the board’s approval has been given before any signing of cheques. Make sure that the required guidelines are met and that all the quotations have been compared to ensure that the best decision for the community has been made,” said Khoo.

He recounted an experience whereby he once received three separate quotations but upon detailed scrutiny, he realised that they all came in from one company as they all had similar fonts and set templates, with only the names and phone numbers differentiating them!

Love thy neighbour

Unless one has the financial means to buy a few houses in the same row, you will not be able to choose your neighbours. And there are bound to be disagreements among neighbours in a community but they have to be understanding and try their best to resolve their issues in the best possible way.

“A residents’ association is present so that we can have a greater sense of security and unity. We act as a social enterprise. Many a time, when there are disagreements with one another in the community, the first thing poeple do is to run to the chairman of the residents’ association. In fact, all they need to do is communicate with one another and understand where each other is coming from,” said Khoo.

He shared an incident where one resident was complaining about how a new neighbour who had just moved in next door was causing a disturbance because they would do their laundry in the wee hours of the morning.

“To me, the problem could have easily been fixed by the resident going over to the new neighbour’s house, with some nice ‘nasi lemak’ to welcome them into the neighbourhood and then subtly requesting if it was possible to do the laundry a little bit later in the day. Some issues can just be solved by simple communication!” said Khoo.

What’s essential for a community or strata property to be managed well is that owners and residents must have the right attitude and awareness of their roles in managing the property, he added.

“Different residents have different expectations. For instance, at one annual general meeting, a resident requested that the security guards be lenient in allowing her children’s tuition teacher in without any checks and for her to be treated like a family member.

“Then another resident asked whether the guards could stop his mother from visiting him! So you see, everyone has different requests and expectations. We cannot please everybody but we can try to seek a balance,” Khoo chuckled.

This story first appeared in TheEdgeProperty.com pullout on April 14, 2017. Download TheEdgeProperty.com pullout here for free.