Hi any recommendations? Getting frustrated as our current one is not doing much to solve our problems. Thanks
Newbie
Hi any recommendations? Getting frustrated as our current one is not doing much to solve our problems. Thanks
Senior
Senior
Senior
http://www.stproperty.sg/articles-pr...-condo/a/59763
THE REGENT Garden management corporation (MC) prefers to run the condominium its own way - after bad experiences with managing agents.
The 16-year-old condominium on West Coast Road had dispensed with a managing agent for the past eight years, said its MC.
And it is proud of being able to run the estate, DIY-style, it added.
Its chairman, Mr Francis Zhan, is a firm believer that condo-dwellers should take responsibility for their own estate and not leave its running to paid agents.
The MC is sympathetic, it said, to the plight of the Bukit Timah Plaza MC, now in hot soup after authorities found it had failed to keep proper maintenance of the water-supply and internal sewage-piping systems in the complex. More than 120 people fell ill after being exposed to contaminated water.
There are many benefits to residents running their own estate, said Mr Zhan, a retired management consultant.
For one, their condo's operating expenses have fallen by nearly 40 per cent since they started managing on their own, and this resulted in lower maintenance charges for all apartment owners.
The MC also managed to get corporate membership at the Singapore Zoo and Jurong BirdPark, giving residents free passes at these places.
On the other hand, managing agents they used had created poor impressions, said Mr Zhan.
"Appointments were frequently missed. The missing handle to our main entrance was never replaced despite our repeated reminders.
"It seemed like they would show up only at the end of the month to get their pay cheques."
Under one managing agent, the condo's operating expenses shot up once to more than $100,000 a year - a big sum for a development of only 31 units, he said.
And he cited one instance of how ineffective the managing agents were in handling difficult apartment owners. They could not even get one owner, who had owed maintenance charges for three years, to pay up.
But once the MC took over, it dealt with the situation promptly. Within six months, the owner paid up the more than $10,000 he owed.
Several property-management firms, which had offered their services to the MC, were also put to the test. They failed miserably.
They were asked to inspect the condo premises - after all the fire extinguishers plus the lifebuoy at the swimming pool were removed.
Said Mr Zhan: "None of them noticed the missing items, which are required by law in terms of fire and pool safety."
Residents have to be responsible for upkeeping their own estates, he said. "Condo culture is about being part of a family."
Senior
SISV-APFM Accredited Managing Agents.
http://www.sisv.org.sg/AMA/July04_Ad...ev%20Jan11.pdf
Search APFM (Association of Property and Facility Managers) and found their website newsletter until Dec 2010.
Look like they are too busy giving Accreditation of managing agents.
http://apfm.org.sg/sub/newsletter.html
http://apfm.org.sg/sub/AMA_List.htm
The President.
https://www.facebook.com/ChannelNews...52474127957934
http://profile.nus.edu.sg/sde/rstlimly/stf_rstlimly.htm
Last edited by Arcachon; 06-09-15 at 20:25.
Global recession is coming....
Always go for big boys (i.e. big MAs), and foreign names usually are better and more professional. We have good experience with DTZ.
Be very careful because NOT all SISV-APFM Accredited Managing Agents are good.
Avoid Chambers Property Management Services (which is a big local "boy" accredited by SISV-APFM), because we had a very bad experience with them and they did not act professionally in managing 1 of my estates. We discovered the problems (financial related - which they try to cover up) and wanted to hold them accountable and then they quickly resigned and refused to make good our losses.
Originally Posted by Sue Lin
Senior
it is important that the MA be bold enough to stand up to what is right and what is wrong ..
i have come across many MAs ... afraid to offend their boss ( council)...
even when the council does something wrong, they keep quiet ....
for example .... tender bids come in for condo painting job ...
MA must ensure that these bids are ALL RECORDED ..and only to be opened in the presence of all council members + MA manager...
i know of incidents where the council chairman open the bids himself (alone) and discards those low bids ...and award to the high bids which belong to his personal friends .. and taking kickbacks ..
Junior
It is the MC members' duty to ensure this will not happen.
Junior
MAs are in short of supply, so the quality in general is not very good. MC has to be on the watch.
Newbie
Hi Sue Lin, I had the same problem and we just changed the MA for our estate to Auditer Consulting (tel: 6221-4312). Look for Yee Fun. Had been much better - facilities and finances are now under control...
Senior
http://amcis.org.sg/About-AMCIS.php
Welcome to the Association of Management Corporations in Singapore, or A.M.C.I.S., a not-for-profit national alliance of management corporations.
A management corporation is a body corporate constituted under the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act, Chapter 30C (the BMSMA) to manage the common properties of the development. All owners, known as Subsidiary Proprietors (SPs) are members of the corporation and own one or more apartment unit(s) (for residential developments), or shop/office unit(s) (for commercial and industrial developments). The common properties are deem jointly owned by all owners and, depending on the size of each unit, a share value is assigned to determine the ownership and amount of contributions to be made towards the cost of maintaining the common properties.
Common properties (or shared properties) include car parks, swimming pools, gardens, common staircases, lifts, tennis courts, roofs, gymnasiums, and any property of the estate that is not the exclusive property of any one owner -- that is, two or more owners may use the property.
The management corporation, the full name of which is MANAGEMENT CORPORATION STRATA TITLE PLAN NO. XXXX, (the short name is MCST No. XXXX). where XXXX is an Arabic number issued by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). There are more than 3,000 MCSTs in Singapore as at 1 January 2010, discounting those that have been terminated as the estates have been sold collectively.
To maintain the common properties, the MCST is authorised, at general meetings, to impose two levies, the Management Fund (for current expenditures), and the Sinking Fund (for capital expenditures) in proportion to the share value of each unit, something akin to the Service and Conservancy Charges levied by the Housing & Development Board (HDB).
Until 1 April 2005, the relevant legislation to guide MCSTs in their management was the Land Titles (Strata) Act, Chapter 158, (the LTSA) which was imported quite extensively from a similar legislation from Australia.
However, as the culture, history, practices, etc., of Singapore and Singaporeans differ vastly from the Australians, the application of the LTSA lead to more chaos than order resulting in the eventual formation of AMCIS, representing the MCSTs to seek Parliament to amend the LTSA.
This lead to the consequential repeal of the LTSA, except for Section 84A governing collective sales, as well as the repeal of the Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act, Chap. 30, and the enactment of the BMSMA which was brought into operation on 1 April 2005.
Until March 2001, there was no collective voice for MCSTs, while the other players in the industry such as housing developers (Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore, REDAS), surveyors and valuers (Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers, SISV), property managers and managing agents (Association of Property and Facility Managers, APFM), and housing agents (Institute of Estate Agents, IEA), were fully represented.
The Ministry of National Development (MND), the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) or the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), etc. cannot be expected to seek the views from the 3,000 plus MCSTs individually. Thus the national alliance of MCSTs, that is, AMCIS, must be charged with that responsibility of representing and speaking on behalf of management corporations.
Consequently, if you are a council member of a MCST, you owe it to your SPs to join AMCIS in order to protect your interests and have your voice heard by the authorities. Unity is strength as there are vast economies of scale when 3,000+ MCSTs joined forces to purchase their needs such as light bulbs, detergent, etc., on a collective basis.
OUR MISSION: To improve the standard of strata property management and the standard of living whilst reducing the costs.
OUR VISION: To enjoy 5-star condo standard living at HDB S&C rates or lower.
IMPOSSIBLE? At least one of our condo members is charging its owners $110 for both maintenance and sinking fund a month with FREE car park, FREE 24-hour security and swimming pool facilities, and lifts to every floor. If they deduct $65 for an uncovered car park as in HDB, they pay only $45 a month for the maintenance and sinking fund which is less than HDB's rates for 4-Room at $55, or 5-Room at $67, or Executive at $83 (rates at AMK/Yio Chu Kang), with FREE 24-hour security and swimming pool facilities. Although this condominium, located at Eng Kong Garden, has only 64 units and thus unable to benefit from the economies of scale associated with larger condos, it is still able to enjoy such low maintenance charges, well below HDB's rates.
At AMCIS, nothing is impossible -- we have developed solutions to solve your problems.
The Association of Management Corporations in Singapore, AMCIS
1 Coleman Street, The ADELPHI, #04-02
Singapore 179803.
Hotline: (65) 6100-1550
Telefax: (65) 6276-8747
Email: [email protected]
Senior
Management Corporation Strata Title (MCST) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/917833728302212/
I have created MCST Facebook group for those who like to know more about MCST, MA, MC (council member), AMCIS, STB, BMSMA, legal case between MCST and Developer, MCST and Subsidiary proprietors. Here's a place where resident and owner can hang out and make friends with the others Condominium resident and owner. To join the group, you must provide your Name, Block No., Unit No. or take a screenshot of your Sales & Purchase document indicating your ownership status or your Access card after TOP and Private message to the Administrators. The administrators of this group may contact you via Facebook message (Please check your "other" folder in your Facebook message box as the message may be filtered into this junk folder).
Senior
when an SP decides to renovate his unit...he needs to submit some kind of application to the MCST, together with a 'refundable' deposit.
upon approval by the mcst can the reno then begin.
CAN/Should MCST collect an admin fee (non refundable )for this process ?
Senior
If it is in the bye law.
Senior
who sets these by-laws ?
shouldnt SP be informed ?
i renovated my unit 4 years ago .. no such admin fee...
heard from a neighbour he was asked to pay admin fee ... and as SP we are not informed of the additional of this by-law
Senior
All AGM minutes did you read? It is the same with the law of the land, do you read all the law of the land.
If you are interested can start here.
http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/aol/home.w3p
Senior
Or join this group to share more on Management Corporation Strata Title (MCST) - https://www.facebook.com/groups/917833728302212/
http://app.mnd.gov.sg/stb/Judgments.aspx
Newbie
The By-Laws should be posted on the Notice Board if there is one (another By-Law) that stipulates a Notice Board be maintained. All By-Laws should be filed with the Commissioner before they can be implemented. Unfortunately, if you want to check with the Commissioner of Buildings, they currently only can check year by year on request and need to pay $$ for each year. Really disappointing that with computers, when we ask the Commissioner, they cannot give the latest all encompassing By-Laws that apply.
When the MA is screwed and working with the MC, they can irritate you and be a nuisance by delaying response, giving incomplete answers, delay tactics, etc.
Whether the MA is good depends on the assigned person, not so much the company. The MAs interest is to keep his jpb and prevent complaints against him especially by the MC. So long as MC is happy and afraid of change for fear of the unknown, the MA is safe. So what does the MA do? MA creates fear of change and tries to implement unique situations which make you reliant on him.
How much is the 'admin fee'?
Newbie
For small condos (less than 50 units), you should contact Aries Property Consultancy Pte Ltd (ariesprop.com). This managing agent uses technology to replace the human manpower required to manage the condo. Because they can reduce the expensive human labour cost, they are approximately 20% cheaper than any other condo managing agent but still able to deliver the same or better service standards than existing ones.
http://ariesprop.com
Junior
How about Knight Frank? Any good/bad feedback? I know they are not cheap.
Global recession is coming....
They are quite responsible but usually only want to take up high-end projects only (very selective), and obviously they are 1 of the most expensive ones.....
Junior
Thanks! We have just appointed them!
We have tried Earnest, Abacus, Reality.
Apparently Knight Frank is the best! Their hand over check list is 25 pages - built over years of experiences, nothing can be missed.
(Other MA is normally 2 to 3 pages).
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