Why YOU should evaluate the performance of your KLCC condo Building Manager
My Better Half owns a seven year old 5* luxury seafront condominium in Penang that won the inaugural award for Best Managed Residential Property by EdgeProp in 2018. I rate the JMB’s in-house property management team (many are ex Knight Frank staff) highly. For example, during MCO last year, the in-house property management team and the JMB committee arranged for a virtual EGM by Zoom with ONLINE voting on key resolutions by owners, as physical in person voting was just not feasible. Such innovative ideas should I believe be adopted more widely by other condo MCs and JMBs committees.
Yours truly regrets to mention my suggestion to the current MC committee of Kirana Residence to hold last year's AGM (in November 2021 when Covid19 cases were still very high) by Zoom was not successful. I am a Warga Emas (senior citizen, in Malay) with a medical condition that makes it risky for me to fly down to KL to attend a physical in person AGM.
Perhaps the MC committee or the property management team thought the technical challenges of holding virtual AGMs were too high ? Or possibly, it was a cost issue (you need a 4K camera and gigabit broadband connectivity). In any case I was disappointed at the inability of the property management team to emulate what a Penang JMB and its property management team achieved in successfully holding a virtual EGM. I believe as technology improves , the hardware costs of holding Zoom AGMs will almost certainly come down. I think the majority of owners would probably prefer to have Virtual AGMs instead of in person AGMs that cost $$$ to attend if your’re an out of state or overseas based owner.
Based on my experience as a previous MC chairman of a 5* luxury KLCC condo, I think it is important to have written down Standard Operating Procedures aka SOPs for Key Result Areas (KRAs) to evaluate the performance of property management teams at your high end KLCC condominium. Even if you are a long standing member of the Silent Majority Club of High End Property Owners, maybe you should try asking your appointed condominium building manager if their property management company has in place a system of tracking KRAs and reporting to MCs /JMBs and owners.
Why take the trouble? I think it's always better to find out and nip any budding problems at your investment property before they turn into bigger problems that require more $$$ to fix.
🤠’s list of Condominium KRAs :
Financial Performance - collection rate of Service Charges, Service Charges overdue by 180 days, Sinking Fund and cash balances, Projected Capex for current year, cost cutting programs etc
Routine Maintenance - e.g. annual water tanks inspection, annual fire safety inspections for extinguishers and alarm systems, gas and water pipline checking for leaks (important if your building is over 10 years old, electrical generation power supply, swimming pool inspection for leaks, building facade condition - need for repainting etc etc
Complaints by owners and residents - e.g. % increase or decrease in the number of complaints by owners/residents compared to previous year, average time taken by building manager to resolve owners' complaints, number of outstanding complaints
Legal issues - Cases brought to Housing Tribunal, legal suits against owners etc or legal suits against the MC or JMB
Procurement issues - major repairs or renovation projects eg condo lobby renovation
Service Providers - performance of landscape contractors, cleaning contractors, lift service contractors etc
Copyright UNEC
When yours truly served on MC and JMB commitees of some KLCC condominiums some time ago, I was frequently asked by building managers if I could assist them to design financial reports for the committees, including the Annual AGM presentation by the building managers. I did a literature review of the resources available on the financial management of condominiums and strata properties in Malaysia.
However I found few that were good enough to satisfy my exacting standards.
A happy exception was the ICAC of Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Independent Anti Corruption Agency also provides comprehensive “toolkits ” or guidelines on best practices on how to avoid or prevent corruption in property management teams. I find some of the ICAC’s advice on Procurement Practices and Tendering is indeed worthwhile looking at.
Check out for example, the ICAC YouTube video in Cantonese on “Tender Rigging = Corruption?” And the ICAC video on Integrity in Building Maintenance in Cantonese with English subtitles.
Here is the link to the ACA website where you can download their toolkit for financial management for condominiums. The ICAC also has good general advice on the important topic of “Property Management-Corruption Prevention Red Flags”. I asked the Penang state office of the Malaysian Anti Corruption Agency if the MACC issued similar guidelines for owners’ corporations and property management companies. I think they don’t have any at present.
For my posts on condominium property management, check out my blog 360 KLCC.
Post Script
A selection of my blog posts based on my experiences as a KLCC MC and JMB committee member :
