Daily Archives: 13 Aug 2009

Difference between managing private and public flats

I REFER to Monday’s commentary, ‘En bloc debate, HK style’. Our laws are sufficient to run our private estates. In most management corporations (MCs), lobbying for support is prevalent where most members are inactive. Therefore, the estate is run by a minority, who are unpaid volunteers.

It is therefore natural that the active members will run the estate in their own interests. However, the law lays down strict requirements to document support obtained by lobbying, to ensure such lobbying is valid. This is laid down clearly in the First Schedule of the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act.

This brings me to a point about the powers the management council has under the law, to compel dissenting owners to comply with the house rules of the MCs.

An application to the Strata Titles Board for an order is not costly. As long as a house rule is properly enacted, and owners are given ample notice of the Continue reading

No more ‘future MRT stations’ in condo ads

TWO developers which included unconfirmed locations of future MRT stations in their condo advertisements have stopped using the information as a selling point.

UOL Developments has altered publicity material for its Meadows@Peirce, removing a location map that showed several MRT stations on the planned Thomson Line, which will be ready only in 2018.

Far East Organization has removed the supposed site of a future station in Marine Parade from a webpage on the Silversea condo.

The moves came after The Straits Times ran an article over the weekend on developers using unconfirmed MRT information in their sales materials.

Ms Claire Cher, spokesman for UOL Group, parent of UOL Developments, said the company realised that station sites in its Meadows@Peirce Continue reading