Firstly I would like to thank all contributors for their comments on the issue of parking. The JMC welcomes all comments and would like to see if we can improve and fine tune the system while making it a conducive place to reside and own for all owners and residents.
At the very beginning let me explain the basic principles behind the decisions of the JMC with regards to the parking. Firstly, we view that owners and residents have sole exclusive rights to their purchased and allocated lots under their unit within the ambit of the house rules. Secondly, it is also the owners and resident rights to decide who they want to allow to use on their own parking lots subjected to informing beforehand this arrangement to the management and conforming to the house rules. This is to set the records straight that we do not dictate nor have any policies with regards to the owners car lots which is legally their properties under the S&P Agreement.
We will now then address the issue of visitor car park lots which is for visitors of the owners and residents. Originally, the developer has allocated all visitors car lots to be on the ground floor. This was actually a sound idea and you can see this is so because all the intercom phone for visitors to contact the owners was situated on the G floor of each block. With this, the visitor can contact the owner/residents and the owner/resident can unlock the door for their visitor to access. This helps to keep the security tight. Further to that, all the covered parking lots (P1-P4) is supposed to be strictly for owners/residents and this was again why these intercom was not put on these doors of these floors. This again is a sound idea and practised by most high end condominium in Klang Valley with the nearest example, Seri Maya down the road from us.
However somewhere in between, the developer decided to sell off these excess lots in the condo and they put a higher premium on the car parks on G floor. As a result, quite a large number of lots was sold off with some remaining unsold. Then, to compensate for the “loss” of visitor car park, the developer then assigned some car park lots on P1-P4 as visitor car park lot to make up for that numbers. When the JMB was formed, these “assets” were then handed over to us and for us to manage. So, now, on G floor, we have a few lots near the guard house as visitor car park lots and then a few more isolated single lots around the rest of G floor which makes the whole idea of managing a visitor car park lot a real headache. For example, how do a new visitor knows that there are more visitor car park lots on G floor unless he slowly drive around to look for a red car park lot which is a designated visitor car park .
Secondly, once the G floor visitor car park lots are taken up (normally in the evening or the weekend), then, visitors has to park on P1-P4 where designated. This becomes a security nightmare and also a problem for visitor as when they approach the doors on P1-P4, with no intercom and no access cards, and no idea where the next staircase can bring them up to the ground floor – they have no choice but to call the owners to come down and “escort” them up again. This do not befit a decent condo and hence still remain a problem which we inherited from the developer.
The third but very pressing problem which still exist today is the abuse of the parking privileges. Firstly, there are owners/residents who has more cars than their allocated or combined purchased lots. For eg, an owner has two car park lots but has three cars. Therefore, two of his cars are parked legally and the third car is parked illegally within the condo compound. This can be done by declaring the car is staying overnight or he park on a unused owner car park lot. Or he park on someone lot and then when found out, he move that car to another lot. The end results is, all these actions are illegal and not conforming to the house rules. More importantly, it is wrong because, there are people here who paid 15,000 -20,000 MYR for their extra car park and they would feel cheated if this is allowed.
More to this point is, later when the LRT opens up in 2009, we may find people who allow their friends or relatives to park their car within Desa Putra for free to enjoy the facility and access to the LRT station. So, in order to prevent that, we have to come up with policies to address such issues.
Now, in line with this, I have to inform all readers of this blog the situation we are facing now. Firstly, our current maintenance fees is INSUFFICIENT to run the place decently. Our balance sheet for the remaining part of this year will go into deficit (for eg, our current electric bill for the common areas is around 23-25K per month. This constitute around 30% of our collected maintenance fees. Under the new revised electricity tariff , we projected that the bill can go up to 30K in the next invoice, so it will rise to almost 40% of our maintenance fees). As one of the conditions for choosing Burgress Rawson to manage this place, one main consideration was their experience in turning over properties with deficit to a surplus within a few years on their track record. This means, we put the onus on them to help us turn this place firstly doing our best not to increase any maintenance fees for the owners/residents. Therefore, one key option is to generate as much revenue from our “assets” which includes of course the parking lots. By having these additional incomes, we can offset the need to charge a higher fees to the residents or if we do so, we can reduce the quantum needed due to these additional incomes generated. So, for this reason, please view these rental rates of the car park lots as simply means for us to help all owners/residents in meeting our budget and keeping it from going to a deficit.
Therefore in view of that, the JMC has to formulate policies based on these few issues :
1. We have car park abuse problem where people misused or park their cars illegally – this is wrong and not acceptable.
2. We formulate a rental lot program where people can rent the car park legally and therefore do not park illegally or obstruct or cause chaos in the parking lots
3. These rental lots can also then generate income for the building maintenance fees instead of sitting there empty ie maximising the facilities to generate income
4. The JMC also formulate policies where visitors can park for a day visit at the G floor parking lot subjected they leave by 12.30am for security reasons
5. If for some reasons the visitor decided to stay overnight (have too much to drink, too late to drive back), the owner can inform the guard house and the pass can then be changed to an “overnight visitor pass” which then allows the car to park in that visitor lot overnight. This privilege is only for a day. For those cars which do not have it, the car will be clamped after 12.30am.
6. For visitors who comes on a short term visit (for eg, relative visiting, parents visiting etc) – they can apply to the management and the management will allocate them a special car park lot on P1-P4 for that duration of the visit. This will not be charged as the JMC view this as facilities for the convenience of the owners/residents. The maximum duration of stay is up to 2 weeks and if longer for valid reasons, the management office will decide on a case by case basis. Those previous case who has paid 5 ringgit per day will be refunded as we have now fine-tuned this policy.
7. The JMC views that those parking done for eg if the friend is coming over to park the car at the condo and then going somewhere with the owner/resident to somewhere else (overseas trip for eg) will be viewed as parking with fees. The management office will then charge a sum for that duration with the main intention to simply discourage this practise. However in order to discourage abuse, the fees charged will be higher than the monthly rental fees of that car park lot, so, those who feel they can abuse this will find it pointless financially to do so. However if the owner has an empty second lot, is is up to the owner to allow the friend or visitor to use his extra lot as explained earlier above.
8. We will “persuade” the cars who are parking outside around the roundabout to take up the offer to rent a car lot and park legally within Desa Putra. This is also in view that DBKL has written to inform us that they will soon tow away cars which are parked around illegally around the roundabout and the access roads as this is their land and secondly, they have received direct complaints from residents who find this parking on both side of the road extremely dangerous. So while the cars are given a grace period to move to somewhere permanently, we formulate the policy to address this issue and the management will issue a special “Merdeka” offer for them to take up the car rental lots inside Desa Putra. Failing which, one of the days after August or towards end of August, they may find their car missing and in the DBKL car compound ground and the hassle to go there to claim back their cars.
Lastly, as I said earlier, we welcome all comments and we will be happy to engage in discussions with you all to explain the policies and decisions made. We aim to be transparent and open, so all minutes, decisions are put up on not just this blog but also on the notice boards. All finance matters, accountings, statements will also be put up openly for all parties to view and make comments (if any). Most importantly is , these policies are not simply to squeeze money from residents or owners but using these assets wisely and in a manner which can help to offset the costs to all residents /owners so that we can try not to increase the fees or to increase a large quantum. So, if these are the avenues which can help generate funds for these purpose , we shall pursue this as a means to be financially prudent as possible for all the residents/owners.
We have a lot of issues which we need to resolve and tackle, given the fact that yesterday JMC meeting dragged until 12am and we still cannot finish all the points raised. So, we have our work cut out for us and we hope the residents/owners will give us the full support to make Desa Putra a better place and also, increase in the value of the property – which is another key point we want Burgress Rawson to do for us all here.
Thank you.
4 comments:
Eddie, Stephen, thank you for the diligent efforts to address the parking woes bothering both the owners and residents of DP. Reading through the lengthy explanatory notes by Stephen, I was much surprised by the existing chaotic state. Nonetheless, it gave me an excellent opportunity to gain a good insight into the present situation.
Your proposed actions for remedy are commendable. Prof. Milton Friedman said it in 40 years ago: There is no such thing as a free lunch. Turn the assets of DP into revenue-generating. I am in hotel line and I have never let anybody use my rooms free. This should apply to DP's parking lots.
You have my wholehearted support to turn DP into a 4-star- rated condo. My call on JMC: Join hands together to make this mission possible!
Cheers!
guys,
i think that's what we should be doing to improve the situation in DP now. What i can see is that if they do not heed the advice, the one who's going to suffer is only them and maybe us as well if the maintenance fees were to be increased.
I applaud the effort to solve this parking problem. However, one particular committee members had gone overboard on this. He is trying to replace the security guard's job by odering the guards to clamp visitors cars that is parking legitemately on visitors parking.
It happened to me. My visitor is actually my mother in-law who comes daily to attend to my wife which is under confinement.She will typically come in the morning and go back arnd 4-5 pm.
However, a committe member instructed the guard not to allow my mother in-law to park in visitors parking as he said that the car belongs to a resident. The person even check the guard's log book. When proven that the car goes in and out daily and never stayed overnight, he refused to blv the guards. Even implying the guards are taking up money to allow my mother in-law to park at the visitors parking. This is just too much.
A good feedback!
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