SPEEDY WAYS OF RECOVERING UNPAID MAINTENANCE FEE THAT ALL MAINTENANCE OFFICES OF MALAYSIA WANTS TO KNOW. [PART 1]


1.     INTRODUCTION
After the inception of the new Act, Strata Management Act 2013, the law has provided various legal avenues for either Maintenance Committee Developer or Joint Management Body to recover the outstanding sums arising from any outstanding rates (eg: maintenance charges or sinking fund) that remains due and unpaid. Some maintenance offices might be facing great hurdles and difficulties in recovering the outstanding sums even after the issuance of the Notice to the unit owners and proprietors. However, it is pertinent to take note that Section 78(1) of Strata Management Act 2013 also requires written notice to be served on the proprietor for recovery of sum due. Hence, this article will briefly discuss on the legal avenues that can be exercise to recover the outstanding sums.

2.     LEGAL AVENUES TO RECOVER OUTSTANDING SUM

a.     BY DEACTIVATING THE ELECTROMAGNETIC ACCESS DEVICE AT THE EXPIRY OF THE 14 DAYS’ NOTICE.
The Strata Management Act 2013 empowers the Developer, the Joint Management Body or the Management Corporation to deactivate the electromagnetic access device such as a card, tag or transponder at the expiry of the written notice demanding payment (Form 11 or Form 20) of the sum due and provide 14 days’ notice.
For instance, Paragraph 6(4) Third Schedule (By-Laws) Strata Management (Maintenance and Management) Regulations 2015 stated that;
“(4) The management corporation may, at the expiry of the period of fourteen days specified in subparagraph 6(1)(a) of these by-laws, and without prior notice, deactivate any electromagnetic access device such as a card, tag or transponder, issued to a defaulter until such time that the any sum remaining unpaid in respect of his parcel has been fully paid, together with a charge not exceeding ringgit fifty that may be imposed by the management corporation for the reactivation of his electromagnetic access device. During the period of the deactivation of his electromagnetic access device, the management corporation may require the proprietor to sign in a defaulters’ register book each time that the defaulter requires any assistance for entry into or exit from the building or the development area.”
Based on the above authority, the management office can exercise their rights to impose such steps in recovering the sums that remains due and owing by the unit owners.

TO BE CONTINUED AT PART 2…

*The above article is written by Nurul Aida, a Lawyer with Messrs Esther Ong Tengku Saiful & Sree. Kindly feel free to contact us should you have any query.

*You may contact us at:

Address: 51-1, Jalan USJ 10/1A, Taipan Triangle  47620 Subang Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia.
Tel        : 603-56379700
E-mail  : etscare@lawyermalaysia.com

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