The Building and Common Property (Maintenance and Management) Act 2007 was done with good intentions. However, it has its irregularities that will burden consumers in the long run.

Common properties are properties jointly-owned and maintained by all residents in high rise buildings. The Act above spells out that a Joint Management Body (JMB) will be liable for all jointly-owned properties including for the pump house, water tanks and piping in the building.

The problems start when consumers are not fully aware of this Act and its function. In the near future, it will be compulsory for residents in high-rise buildings to have individual meters for their water supply and to pay directly to a water supply service provider that is licensed.

However, these consumers still need to spend extra to maintain the rest of the jointly-owned water supply properties themselves.

This situation is far different from landed properties as the responsibility of the water supply company only extends up to the individual meters or to a certain distance from the main service pipe.

Now, the question is whether the JMB which comprises residents of high-rise buildings will have enough funds to maintain and operate such jointly-owned properties.

Secondly, how are the tariffs going to be decided? This is because water supply services received by residents of high-rise buildings are lesser compared to landed property owners though the former still have to bare the cost of maintaining the common properties for water supply.

Fomca believes that the situation is far too dangerous to be left as it is now. If the JMBs fail to collect enough management fees, they may end up being unable to maintain the properties well.

It is also noted that in many states, JMBs do not exist for high-rise buildings. The Act leaves consumers on the losing side.

Fomca hopes that the housing and local government ministry will coordinate with the energy, water and communications ministry to solve this problem.

There should be a mechanism to manage these properties and we do not want the responsibility to be shouldered solely by consumers just because they bought a high-rise property and not a landed one.

Many JMBs will face a problem if this issue is left unsolved.

The writer is manager, Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca).