The residents of Iris Apartments, Taman Abadi Indah, Kuala Lumpur have been fighting an uphill battle with the developer Abadi Man Nien Sdn Bhd (formerly Kim Kee Development Sdn Bhd) for the past 15 years.
The residents were handed the keys in 1997 and a total of 478 units with two high-rise towers of 12 storeys and four low-rise walk-up apartments.
The developer, Abadi Man Nien Sdn Bhd, incorporated their own subsidiary company Abadi Man Nien Services Management Sdn Bhd, Co No: 411706 as the property management company.
The directors of Abadi Man Nien Sdn Bhd (developer) are also the directors of the property management company.
This is already a conflict of interest. The residents were living in such pathetic conditions such as the water received from the Syabas main pipes to the main water tank has no centralised backwash filter and the water is further distributed to eight water tanks to the 12 floors of high-rise apartments and eight low-rise walk-up apartments.
Since the construction of these apartments, the management has never cleaned the water tanks to date. The water is not fit for human consumption. The road lights within the perimeter of the apartments have also not been repaired since they became faulty.
The internal access roads within the blocks are also in such a pathetic condition with potholes and they have never been repaired. The management staff had a free hand to manage and make their own decisions.
The developer never made any attempt to form a residents’ association initially as this would disable them from carrying out their duties with a free hand.
Being the management company, they further outsourced other companies to manage the cleaning services, rubbish collection, guard services and so forth.
In particular one company, Crossway Cleaning Services, was awarded the cleaning services and was also the conduit to make payments to all services.
A check was done with SSM and it was found that Crossway Cleaning Services Reg No: 001094168-8 was incorporated on March 10, 1997 and its registration expired on Sept 14, 2007.
However, despite the registration with SSM having expired, Abadi Man Nien Services Management Sdn Bhd has been paying out cheques to Crossway Cleaning Services till March 2012.
Also, the security Firm Asas Security was also the outsourced security company.
The management only borrowed the uniforms and employed their own guards picked at random, and Indonesian guards were made static guards with a salary of only RM800.
On Feb 24, 2012, the Immigration Departnent carried out a raid and the guards were arrested for misuse of permits.
The management did not follow the guidelines imposed by Kementerian Dalam Negeri where foreigners cannot work as guards.
The payments of the guards were also channelled through the outsourced company. This has resulted in mismanagement of funds on all sectors.
A check with Syabas was made and we were informed that the “migration of water meters should have been done long earlier but the developer decided to keep quiet because water rate was fixed at RM1.38 per unit and if the new meter was done the water tariff would have been RM0.57 per unit.
The management choose to keep it at RM1.38 as the residents were charged every two months and the management could also roll over these funds for their use.
On another matter, the Smart Tunnel project which was constructed along the apartment site had been badly damaged and many of the units have structural damage due to piling works carried out by the Smart contractors.
The residents are still waiting and nothing has been done to rectify the cracks and the payment of damages by the developer.
In 2010, a resident took the matter to the Biro Pengaduan Awam, Jabatan Perdana Menteri and finally the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department T Murugiah made a site visit on the Feb 8, 2011 and all other agencies such as the Commission of Buildings, Housing Ministry, Syabas and other agencies were present.
The residents were present and related their plight and the deputy minister gave the developer two weeks to rectify immediate problems and also form a joint management committee, but to date the developer is still letting the matter drag on.
However, the only thing that the developer did was painting which was carried out around October 2011. The developer never at all times gave monthly reports of the accounts which is a mandatory requirement to the residents.
There have been no accounts shown over how payment for the painting was made. It is understood the sinking funds were used to pay, but these too was without the consent of the residents.
The residents have now formed a residents association and have been pushing the developer to form the MC (management committee) but till this date the developer is keeping mum on this issue.
It has been brought to the residents association that the developer has similar matters with all their other projects and there are matters still pending in court on the financial issues.
