Tag Archives: Condo Management

Taking the driver’s seat in a condo

Posted on 2 Aug 2009 | Comments Off on Taking the driver’s seat in a condo

Tan Hui Yee examines the conundrum of condo maintenance.

SUPPOSE you buy a luxury car one day, which comes with a one-year warranty and a paid chauffeur for that period.

There’s not much to complain about, as you zip around town in the cool comfort of the passenger seat.

After one year, when you finally get the keys, you realise something is wrong. The brakes are not working, the acceleration is not so smooth.

You head back to the car distributor, but he says: ‘Sorry, your warranty period is over.’

Condominium owners are faced with this conundrum when they move into their new home.


— Photo: CDL Continue reading →

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The trouble in condos

Posted on 2 Aug 2009 | Comments Off on The trouble in condos

HOME owner in The 101 complex in Beach Road complained to the property’s manager earlier this year that the water pressure in her unit was low. The water pump, it seemed, had broken down.

But the residential and commercial building had no money to fix it, says its property manager Vijayen Nair. It was deep in debt of more than $200,000 after messy lawsuits involving disputes over its common area, and some of its apartment owners were withholding maintenance payments.

The home owner herself owed about $2,500 in maintenance fees. She paid up almost immediately to get the pump fixed.

Mr Nair, 52, whose firm Philip Motha Property Management runs about 30 condominiums and commercial buildings, says it is an example of how bad things can get if people do not care about their estates. ‘Generally, people do not know what is going on,’ he says.

The 101’s problems are far from uncommon in Singapore. Continue reading →

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