“Is Attending Your Condo AGM Like Running The Penang Bridge Marathon?”

May 29

I recently attended a hybrid condo AGM that ran for more than 7 hours. A KL based Property Manager I have known for more than 10 years said she knew a Condominium AGM that ran even longer -9 hours. Here are 🤠's 4 suggestions on how to put a stop to condo AGMs that are needlessly allowed to run longer than many marathons.

Why not propose a Motion for your MC or JMB committee to implement my suggestions before your next condo AGM marathon?

The AGM is an opportunity for the MC or JMB committee to review important issues affecting ALL owners such as property maintenance, capital expenditure for improvements to common property, a review of the MC/JMB's financial condition, the appointment of a new managing agent etc. So in my opinion (I have done my “National Service” by serving as an unpaid volunteer on KLCC MC and JMB committees), condo AGMs should not be the avenue for owners to air their complaints and grievances against property managers, committee members, or the staff or to propose detailed amendments to MC/ JMB Bylaws. You see, some people might feel very passionate about their proposal to amend the existing Bylaws on say, allowing pets in common areas to eliminate perceived “loopholes”. But most people I assure you just want to hear the MC or JMB committee or their property management team present on the more important issues. They would rather get proceedings over quickly and go home for lunch or dinner than listen to somebody's pet proposal (pun intended). Besides, I think revising Bylaws should be left to qualified lawyers to make certain the revisions are not ultra vires the SMA Act.
Complaints and grievances are best handled throughout the year through the proper channels. Many years ago I helped to implement a set of SOPs for complaints and grievances at a KLCC luxury condominium. Any residents or owners who wished to lodge a formal complaint were politely required to fill in a form and to provide details to the property manager. This step is necessary to document the nature of the complaint, eliminate any frivolous or vexatious complaints out of the scope of the MC or JMB committee to handle and to set up a date for follow up action by the property manager in charge. (If the complaints involved the property manager or a committee member, the form would go instead to an independent committee member for appropriate action. )
We allowed 4 business days for complaints to be settled, if my memory is correct. Otherwise a MC committee member would be notified of the outstanding complaint by the property management team, and to table the complaint or grievance for discussion at the next monthly committee meeting. All complaints were tabulated at AGMs and a track record shown on how fast complaints were settled by the property management team. We made it a Key Results Area for the property management team to keep complaints at our 66 unit condominium down to a low level.
AGM elections used to take hours because of the manual counting of voting rights if a poll had been requested, instead of a show of hands. Nowadays electronic voting is possible through a smartphone app called Lumi. But still, there are lengthy delays because each candidate nominated is usually given time to introduce themselves and to take questions from owners.
A better way I propose is to hold Zoom town hall style meetings BEFORE the actual annual general meeting for owners. These Zoom sessions can be held as soon as nominations for candidates close. A key advantage of this town hall style Zoom meeting is that all owners who want to serve get the SAME opportunity to show their fellow owners what their platform is and of course there is sufficient time to answer any questions. The current practice where some candidates round some of their pals to set up Whatsapp groups to push their own agendas is not “fair” to other candidates that might not have large personal entourages but who might just be better qualified.
Many owners, even professionals I know with PhDs, MDs, MScs or MBAs are quite confused about things like proxy voting, how to sign in for online voting, whether votes cast using an app like Lumi are actually secure, etc.
A AGM Handbook with step by step instructions and clear guidance might be a good idea, instead of sending a series of emails to owners. If there are significant numbers of owners whose first language is not English, it might be a good idea to get the AGM Handbook translated.

Post Script

Proxy Fraud At AGMs
I have never come across any suspected instances of Proxy Fraud at the AGMs I attended. But according to Habitat Magazine, in some condos where owner occupiers comprise only a minority with the majority of residents being tenants, there have been cases of Proxy Fraud.
How to prevent proxy fraud at condo AGM elections is an important question to ask your MC or JMB committee and property management team.
Pet Bylaws Revisions
MC and JMB committees that are thinking of establishing or revising ByLaws on pets might be unintentionally crossing a minefield. Many pet owners regard their pets almost like family members, for example, one of my unmarried cousins has two terriers that she refers to as her “ babies” . You might want to review the advice by a lawyer and a board member of a Manhattan Co-op on what things to consider for policies on Pet Bylaws here. See also relevant sections in the SMA Act on Bylaws for Pets here. I think but cannot be 100% certain it is the responsibility of owners corporations to put up special resolutions for additional ByLaws for Pets at AGMs, not for individual owners to draft their own resolutions.
Habitat has a useful Legal Podcast on condo management issues for condo boards and property management teams .
Security Breaches
Some 10 years ago, I was in a MC committee that took over responsibility for the property management of a 66 unit luxury condominium at KLCC. The new Building Executive that was assigned to our condominium suggested doing an audit of how many access cards were outstanding. In the preceding 10 years, it was discovered a shocking number of access cards had been issued to cleaners, dog walkers, friends and relatives of owners and previous tenants etc that could not be accounted for. The access cards were the cheap type that could be easily cloned at certain shops in Pudu.
The potential for a serious security breach was therefore high . The MC committee decided to upgrade to new HID access cards with individual serial numbers. The HID cards reportedly were harder to clone. All new access cards would be registered to owners or tenants and the numbers issued each year to new tenants moving in would be noted. We also installed new HID access card readers at all entry points.
The MC committee also reviewed the effectiveness of the existing CCTV surveillance system and replaced all the analog cameras and HDD recorders with 100+ high resolution digital cameras running on Ethernet cables and constructed a secure server room, access restricted to only the Building Manager.
Construction Defects
The bane of many condominiums, construction defects can range from mild like leaking pipes to very serious defects that might result in major damage to the structural integrity of a building eg. the collapse of a Surfside seafront condominium in Florida. I think MC and JMB committees must devise communication policies to inform owners and residents of construction defects that are attributable to the developer. There must be regular updates on the progress of claiming compensation for construction defects.
Hybrid Condo AGMs
One of the problems of in-person condo AGMs in Malaysia is not getting a quorum that reflects the views of the silent majority of owners. Under the SMA Act if there are no owners representing 50% present physically, ie in-person then the rule is to wait 30 minutes before restarting and the existing number of owners present in person will then constitute the quorum.
As the option to hold hybrid condo AGMs becomes popular, I think owners resident out of state or overseas might be more likely to attend and vote online. But first any concerns about the security of voting electronically, eg in certifying the tally of votes cast in favour of Motions or candidates for election, needs to be addressed by the MC or JMB committee and their appointed property manager. Will getting a third party independent of the committee and property management company be necessary to allay concerns ?