vendors' review, what will happen?

we r planning the vendors' review, starting with the management company, then all others, namely security, housekeeping, lift, electrical, pest control, swimming pool....

few objectives abt this exercise, reviewing their performance is primary one, we r sitting now with them, telling them what r the area need to be improved, of course we will give praise too, for the things which have blessed the residents.

another objective which is equally important, cost cutting, this exercise will enable JMB to zoom in to 1 vendor at a time, to really to study if we really need to spend the amount money to sustain their service, or perhaps we can consider reduce the head count, or working hour, ideal outcome is we will paying them less w/o sacrifice their quality of service. :)

as u can see in the notice board, we need residents to tell us how did the vendors performed so far, then we will hv more complete picture abt them, so pls write to us here, or our email, vistajmb@gmail.com.

let's work together, to make vista a better place to stay...

thanks.
cheng/JMB

tough but exciting time!

in spite of the financial difficulties we r facing, i'm actually quite excited with what's happening now.

contradicting, huh?

u will understand that once u see how the JMB committee members r so committed to think of ways to make $$$, & to cut cost, some said reduce vendor head count, some said cut office hour, some said direct hiring workers...all are good one! but we will take the time needed to process it, & if it's really beneficial to residents, then we will inform u guys b4 implement it.

other exciting changes may take place is regular vendor review, where the whole group of committee will sit down with all vendors, perhaps quarterly, to listen to them the challenges they facing here, & also telling them the area they need to improve.

Vista condo r so blessed coz the current & previous batch of JMB! the 1st batch of JMB had put in a lot of hard work to cause some very important changes, especially to form the JMB (it actually took abt 7 month of struggle & negotiation!), then replacing the inefficient vendors, did some major repair, they hv built the good foundation for the current JMB to continue the improvement to Vista. the good news is, the current JMB r equally committed as the previous 1!

no doubt we still be confronted by old problems like poor collection & vendors' performance, but i'm confident that in due time these all will be solved. coz in the past we only relied on awan setia to deal with these all, but now we hv 12 JMB committee members together with the residents to counter it!

i always believe that the solutions of various problems are already there, just waiting for us to discover them.

the future of Vista condo is bright, coz of the her residents & JMB.

cheng/JMB

the vista financial challenge

we hv told our regular vendors & contractors that the payment for the coming few months will be delayed, most likely can only be settled in full in Dec'09, when the new car sticker be issued.

we did foresee this, even b4 we hv issued the car sticker in month of June (pls refer to article & comment earlier), but it took us awhile to find out that 85% hv settled Jan-June service charge coz of sticker, but abt 60-65% continue to pay after collected it.

those "extra" money hv collected in June coz of sticker, used mainly to cover the shortfall for the month of July & August, & other urgent major repair works like water tanks, generator, capacitor bands, etc, also used some for the new parking area, which is the investment for the future return, we should see the full return in the next renewal in Feb 2010, then after, it should consider as net income.

even though we hv confident that by end of Dec'09, collection will surge up to 85% for July-Dec when residents collecting new sticker, but it's important to help residents to cultivate habit to settle their SC promptly, so that we can hv sufficient fund to attend to the urgent maintenance cases as some non-regular vendors only accept cash term.

we plan to call an EGM in the near future to address this problem, so now let all of us (resident & committee) start to think of few ideas, then we will hv an excellent brainstorming session in the EGM to overcome this financial nightmare, which hv been haunting almost all the medium cost apartment in PG.

so, let's start thinking....

thanks.
cheng/JMB

committee members' struggle

i'm afraid soon we will lose 2 more committee members, due to accusation of bribery.

we hv lost 1 few months ago, very committed & capable 1, after he found out residents suspect he took some allowance, he resigned. great loss for us.

perhaps it's price to pay for all these improvement the JMB hv brought to Vista Condo, almost behind all the size-able projects, certain JMB member, especially committed & active 1, will be accused of bribery.

i hv few cases brought to my attention in the past, all w/o proof, such as "i heard somebody who also heard from somebody that somebody is making money...", but when i try to investigate, nobody can actually tell that who started it, or eyewitness it, but the problem is, it hurts the member who was accused.

i can't give the warranty that all members r clean, but as far as i'm concern, they r clean coz i hv no proof or eyewitness yet. (at personal level, i trust each 1 of them)

so far, 4 committee members suffer these kind of accusation since JMB start operating actively in Feb'09, 1st person got hit when we were interviewing & choosing vendor, 2nd person was 1 who help to get plumber to fix all the leaking water tank, 3rd person was getting the contractor to fixed the piping & roof leaking problem, 4th person was accused coz of new parking area.

the fact is, we hv interviewed vendor or compared few quotation before we decided to pass the project to certain contractors, especially for big projects.

(now we r dealing w/ new report, i hope we will get the eyewitness for it if it's true)

can any1 suggest to us how to stop this so that the active & committed members can continue to serve the community of Vista Condo?

Thanks.
cheng/JMB

action on hardcore defaulter

we r sending out the final warning letter to the hardcore defaulter, those hv owed more than 6 mths service charge, the letter will be out next tuesday.

we give them until end of sept'09 to settle all, failing which,

1) notice of demand will be sent, then follow by legal action.

2) regular car parking lot used by them in the past, will be allocated to other residents.

there r 39 of them, most have not pay since Jan'2009, total debt is abt RM35k, including the fire insurance.

imagine what RM35k can do? a lot indeed, especially now the aging lift need some repairing urgently, also, many gutters r in bad shape, how abt TNB & water bill, security, claening, etc...

it's not fair just rely on the good pay masters to pay for the service of vendors & utility bills, & we hv given enough time & chance for these hardcore defaulter, so now it's time for action.

(for u guys' info, abt 60% of residents do pay SC on time, abt 10% will pay abt 1 or 2 mths late, 15% r not paying since collected their sticker, most likely will pay in dec'09 when they need new sticker)

special thanks to the 60% of the good pay master, we hope ur good example will be followed by all the Vista residents.

thanks.
cheng/JMB

painting of blk J&K, starta title

we do hv short term projects, and long term projects.

short term projects r for those urgent cases, some of them hv accomplished, like repaired water tank, gen set, switch board service, "1 parcel 1 parking lot", new parking area, also on going & coming 1 like replacing capacitor bank, repair gutter, pumps...

long term projects, we got a few too, but one of most important 1, to get both blk J & K painted, can't say when can it be done, but residents can work together to hasten it.

(it's my personal goal too, hehe! :)

to paint the 2 blocks, the cheapest quotation so far is abt RM250k, if we can get all the parcel owner to contribute RM1000 each, then this project can be commenced even 2moro, but it's unrealistic, right?

yeah, u will say why not use our sinking fund, u r right, we hv abt RM370K there, it's still with the developer, & they hv a right 2 hold it until we form our management corporation, or MC, to replace our JMB (joint management body)

to form MC, the condition is to hv 25% of parcel to collect their strata title, (25% of 275 unit is abt 70 parcel), according to our estimation, we should hv abt 30 parcel owner got (or applying) their strata title (ST). we need another 40 parcel owner to do the same.

it's also requirement of strata title acts that owner need to (apply) collect it within 1 year after notice (to collect ST) be given, which mean owner still have another 6 mths to do it coz i remember notice was served in Feb'09.

failing which? r u guys still hv the notice from Developer, if not mistaken should be fined RM10,000 or imprisonment max 1 yr. (let me check again)

so, we would like to make an appeal here, pls help to spread the words around, ask ur neighbor to collect their strata title, so that we can get the MC formed & after we got the sinking fund, we will paint the building!

some residents ask me, is our sinking fund money "still there"? i can't answer that, i only can say according to the audited account of 2007, it's was abt RM370k. hope that not legal action will be taken for the money to be transferred to residents.

thanks.
cheng/JMB

the hindu temple matters

many like to call the hindu temple at the back of block-j as "our hindu temple", forgetting that the land actually is outside our compound, it's not ours.

but the entrance to this temple is at our fencing, so any1 like to go to the temple got to pass our compound.

so each time when there's big religion festival in the temple, the big group of devotees will gather at our compound, waiting for their turn to perform the ritual, and they also eat & fellowship at the children playground.

understand that every year, July, the hindu temple committee (from our residents) will organize a public prayer there, but this year another group seem like to do the same, but they r outsider, according to them, they also hv done it twice already.

so, they thought this time they can do the same, and, they printed the flyer, distributed to their group of ppl, calling a public prayer on the merdeka day. now, our problem is, the last public prayer was performed only a month ago, it's too soon for residents to face another 1.

in our last JMB board meeting, we struggled until 12.20am (midnight), almost all of us thought we should say NO to them, but as we considered the hindu-faith residents here, & also they hv informed their ppl, we r unwillingly, but allow them this time with the following conditions,

1) any damage of personal property (car, bike, etc) & common property should be borne by their committee.

2) not eating & drinking at the children playground, but they should do it at the foyer, rental RM100, deposit RM200 for cleanliness.

3) not vehicles should be allowed to enter.

4) do not enter our swimming pool.

5) this should be the last time for this external group. (but for Vista hindu temple committee, still can carry on theirs yearly 1, with the prior permission from JMB.)

6) no loud speaker or amplifier should be used during the event.

7) they should hire RELA ppl to control the flow of the crowd.

8) no canopy, tent, any kind of awning or shade should be set up.

9) no wine, beers, or any kind of alcohol drink should be consumed during the event.

JMB know that we r going to face some music from our residents, but we wish u can understand that this is a tough situation & decision to make.

for me personally, JMB should be beyond religion, race, political stand, as i told the committee, we should put residents' benefit as priority.

again i say, we remain neutral, and vista-resident is our priority.

thanks.
cheng/JMB

contractors' performance

last nite the committee sacked Alex, the security guard who had help to catch the theft few mths ago, sigh, he was found drunk while he was guarding the guard post, so bad that he can't even open the gate for the incoming vehicles, so, out he goes!

he is the second vendor we have asked to leave Vista, the 1st was the previous supervisor, due to his attitude problem, many residents hv complaint abt that, then we sadly adviced his boss to release him.

let's do some review on the contractors here, again, pls send us ur feedback so we can hv the better picture of that.

we r actually rated security service "ok", Ganesan, Kaka, Wan, even Alex hv been helping a lot, the only problem we had w/ them is letting car w/o proper sticker to come in too easily, it end up fined more than RM100 so far.

Cleaning service, we rec'd positive comment, it was bit hiccup in April coz they can't send regular worker then, in fact they did more than what required like cutting grass, chopping branches, watering plant, shifting soil.

lift service, just so-so, we still encounter problems, the only person master the skill well is their boss, but the technicians still take too much time to fix the problems, respond time also not so good.

swimming pool, so far so good, now our worry is our own equipments, not too sure how long the aging pump & filter can continue to serve us, Rajan the swimming pool vendor keep reminding us of that!

electrical & gen set contractor, charge is (very) cheap, workmanship ok, but again respond time is a bit too long, no choice, he's from Butterworth, only when urgent case he will come immediately, others got to wait.

how abt the management? the workers tried very hard to meet our expectation, i would like to comment their commitment, especially during time when sticker just been introduced. but still wide room for improvement for the 2 workers, Vicky & Kumar, the way they attend to residents' complaint & inquiry.

pls write to us so we can assess their performance better.

thanks.
cheng

more review on sticker system

when we introduce the sticker system, 2 aims were in our mind.

1st, to encourage defaulter to pay their old debt.

2nd, to get for all parcel owner their own parking lot.

let's do some review, how far hv we achieved? up to this day, we still have 39 parcel owner refuse to settle their service charge since Jan'09. which mean another 236 owner have paid, it's abt 86% payment rate, not bad, huh?

(if u got good idea to get this 39 owner to pay their debt, pls do write to us, thanks)

have all the parcel owner got their permanent lot now? i guess we r on the right track for that. in our record, there r more than 15 parcel owner w/o parking lot although they hv paid faithfully. previous management asked them to either park under the trees, or, just told them "no lot available".

in july, with the help of security guard & current management, we managed to assign for 5 owners their permanent lot, now they r happily parking their cars in the compound, 1st week of august we did for another 2 cars, now we asking the management to help the rest withour further delay, as there r still many unclaimed lot around, my target is b4 middle of aug all will hv their lot.

so i guess as far as these aims is concerned, we do achieve something, hope u guys agree w/ me.

but of course we do encounter some problem, even now, such as fake sticker, switching sticker, no sticker...i would say it's getting better now, thanks to residents' tips giving & security guards' hard work, i believe eventually we wil get rid of these all.

thanks.
cheng

new parking area is ready!

it took just 3 days for the vendor to finish the work for the new car park.

now we r sending notice out to inform resident to reserve a lot if they interested, the registration will be open until 1pm of 15th August, then will draw lot at 7pm same day to determine the lot user.

(vendor manage to create abt 40 lots, the registration will be closed once the reservation reached 40, even it's b4 15th of august, detail of that pls wait for notice, it will be in letter form to all resident)

now we r finalizing some of the detail, such as sticker, tenure, layout, traffic flow, etc...most likely it will starts at 16th of august, with the rental for august RM25, then RM300 for next 6 mths in total.

RM15,000 spent for the project, if we manage to rent all the lot out, then total collection is RM325x40=RM13,000 to cover the expenses. then after 1st tenure which end at Feb'2010, the future collection will be income which will be used for management & maintenance of our common facilities.

some residents commented why we r so eager to make money here & there, like renting out car park, storage, recycle item...., hv no choice, even with full collection RM27500, it just enough to cover the regular expenditure like security(6200), cleaner(4000), TNB(6800), PBA(1000), lift service(1400), genset/electrical(300), pest control(300), management service(5300)etc, it then left abt RM2000 for contingency repair, and the fact is full collection is not happening now, but abt 85% of resident r paying faithfully until June, we really need to generate income to sustain the business.

thanks.
cheng

new & on-going projects

residents can see some mess at the entrance of swimming pool, yeah, we r moving some soil to level (as much as possible) the floor near the pool, then will plant some grass to hold firm the soil so that it would not be carried away by water, it's part of landscape project we r doing now.

someone suggested to make use of the plants which have been taken from the common staircase & placed at the foyer now, just to arrange nicely & leave them there. for this we are asking the person who is helping us doing the landscaping to study, if the idea work out well, then it will save us some money, coz we initially wanted to plant Japanese rose there.

main entrance, behind the guard house, where the words "vista condominium" displayed, also at the moment undergo some beautification, some green plants have been moved there, will need gardener to water it consistently coz it looks a bit "pale" this morning, sorry for the vista name have been missing for quite awhile, will put it back soon.

major one, new parking area, work will be commenced on 27/7, monday. hopefully can create abt 30 lots there, the project will take one week to complete, will inform residents to come to office to draw lot, rental is RM50 per mth, 6 months rental payment in advanve.

important but not visible one, generator testing & switch board service, our generator has been repaired but not yet been tested in the full capacity, we have contacted the electrician & will choose a day to simulate the "black-out" situation to find out if the generator will really work, will inform resident for that.

oh, yeah, recycle project, residents can notice 3 bins hv placed at the foyer, these bins were suppose to be placed somewhere else, but at the moment still can't find the ideal location, but we got the pleasant surprise when we saw the bin for the paper is almost full after 4 days, some residents told us if our recycle project responded well by this community, monthly income can reach few hundred, wow!

thanks.
cheng/JMB

new parking lot soon!

new parking lot at the grassy area at the end of swimming pool, near block K.

we plan to start the work (chopping trees, leveling, tarring, etc) at the final week of July, perhaps 27/7/09, it will take abt 1 week to complete the job.

notice the 2 trees there? we will not be able to chop the big one, coz according to rules, tree with diameter >0.8m should not be chopped, even on the private land. well, good to keep it too, it will provide some shade for new parking area.

estimated 30 lot will be built there, we will rent it out at RM50 per month, the tenure will be 6 mths, payment in advance. It should start at beginning of august.

estimated cost is abt RM12000 to RM15000, but not RM10000 as mentioned in AGM, one vendor actually committed to do it at RM10k, but later on found out he has done the wrong calculation, sigh!

we will put up the notice soon abt drawing lot, got to be fair so that everyone got equal chance to rent a lot there, most likely at the july we will invite resident to come to office to draw lot.

how abt the lot at our car park which have not been claimed by resident? we wil decide on it together with resident in next EGM.

thanks.
cheng/JMB

few incidents of sticker

out of abt 400 stickers which hv been given out, few incidents brought to our attention, it's a good experience for improvement.

2 residents placed the car sticker outside wind screen, we managed to alert 1, then he moved it to another side of screen, the sticker saved.

but b4 we hv chance to alert another 1, as expected, car sticker lost, sigh! (we decide not to charge RM50 for it, coz the notice hasn't been put up yet)

Ganesan the guard caught a tenant with a funny look bike sticker, oh, it's a scanned one, we warn that fella, confiscate the counterfeit sticker, bar the bike until he got the proper sticker.

Deva saw a car with the blank sticker (w/o info of car# & lot#), checked with the owner, she said the sticker was given by her landlord, oh, she added her landlord got it from the previous management....???

we bar the car too, will check with her landlord where the blank sticker come from, stolen from office? or other source? police report will be made if involved wrongdoing.

also, few residents hv 2 cars but only 1 sticker, so they switch the sticker in between their cars in order to get both cars in, guard were not aware of their trick, but now will monitor them & make sure only registered car can come in.

o ya, one more, good one, a resident place the sticker at right place of wind screen, but sticker is facing the car seat instead of facing outside, so only he can see the info & picture of sticker, guard only can see the back of sticker...

sigh.....

cheng/JMB

RM50? why RM50?

RM50 for the lost car sticker replacement, expensive, uh?

i myself felt that, yes, too expensive, painful for residents.

we discussed abt that in committee meeting, finding is, we need to charge that much for good reason.

i must say compare to other housing projects nearby, Vista residents behave much better, serious, u can check around & wil come back agree with me.

but still some precaution needed for car sticker, especially if any1 trying to manipulate the system.

say, i hv 2 cars, wish to park both in Vista compound. so after i took my car sticker, but still thinking how to get another car to come in.

easy, i just need to declare my sticker lost, the management wil charge me RM3 for another sticker, then i wil hv 2 sticker now for 2 cars.

as Vista hv abt 280 cars in the parking area, i wil hv good chance that the management & security guard would not detect it...

just spent RM3 extra to get 2 cars parked in Vista, why not? i even willing to spend RM30 for that!

now u can see the reason for RM50, we want to discourage any1 from trying to cheat the management for the 2nd sticker.

my next question to u, if the sticker is placed properly at the wind screen, how can it be lost?

i wonder....

cheng/JMB

car sticker, brief review

4 days have gone since introduction of sticker system, 70% of lot owner have collected their sticker, we expected another 10% to do the same in this coming 2 weeks.

different suggestions given by residents so far, like if owner got 2 cars, then let these cars share the same lot; to provide loading bay; management to absorb the RM3 charge on sticker, etc.

we will seriously consider these ideas, but may not be able to implement all, depending on the practicality.

most of residents agree on the sticker plan, we want to thank especially those need to make adjustment, as only 1 car allowed to enter the parking area, the other car hv to park at the roadside, we r encouraged when we heard they said, "well, it's ok, we understand..."

not all responded well, few hv challenged the security guards, the guards in order not to offend them, allowed the car enter w/o sticker, for this, we hv fined the security company, 1st case happen on Sat, fine RM20. (for info, RM10 for motorcycle)

we would like to encourage resident to report to us or management if detect any vehicle enter parking area w/o sticker, except those who r providing transport service for tuition, nursing, school van or courier service.

at the end of july, we will open the unclaimed parking lot for renting, RM50 per month, pls wait for further notice.

thank again for all the support.

cheng/JMB

no, we r not tree hater

residents generally responded well abt removing those rotten trees.

looking at those trees, chopped, lay on the grass, we too, feel sad. if hv choice, we would not do that.

but at another hand, relieve too, especially consider the branches will fall at any time, it's too much for us to answer if it hit at any1 passing by.

not just rotten trunks or branches, but the roots seem may hv caused damage to our swimming pool (i hope not yet...), i never imagine their roots can extend that far.

few trees just next to the pool, the roots grow pass the fence, pass the children playground, then hit the cement at the drain, go & check, u will see some crack there.

this crack is at the surface, our worry now, how abt underneath? if the roots can crack the cement at the drain, can it also crack the swimming pool wall?

i really hope it's not too late as we r removing them now.

cheng/JMB

rotten trees at swimming pool

hv no choice but got to chop down those trees, the rotten ones.

only found out recently that, termites hv conquered our swimming pool too, they built their house at the trunks, branches, roots, no wonder there's always incidents of falling branches, thank goodness no body injured by that so far.

at first we only be troubled by the fallen leaves, which hv block the filter of the pool & caused problem of overflowing, waste our water, there was suggestion to chop the tree but AGM decided to chop branches, not tree.

but now, trees need to be chopped, for public safety, time is running out, those seemingly strong trunk & branches are actually will fall or collapse as inside them just hollow!

notice being put up to inform residents abt the plan, we will wait for 1 week for residents to feedback their view, or like to hv a look by themselves, in fact they should see how bad the condition.

thanks
cheng/JMB

repairing the broken ship, make it new again!

like it or not, we r inheriting the broken ship from the previous management, what we r trying to do now is to patch all the holes b4 the ship sunk.

past 2 months, holes been patched are water tanks, piping problem, the broken fencing, car park lot, generator, swimming pool, circuit board at switch room, etc...

we know that we got no time to complain, got no time to blame the previous management, got no time to tell resident how bad the condition, but we are competing with time to fix as many holes as we can.

we try to put thing to proper order, so we start with car park system, we got to make sure all resident will have their own parking lot, so there's no dispute over that area.

we try to convince residents to pay their service charge promptly so that we wil have enough fund to repair this broken ship, in the past they refuse to pay coz of car park & poor service quality, so we try to solve these problems so that they wil feel they $$$ is well spent, as we can see now the paying rate is slowly increase.

we are repairing the broken ship, and if God willing, after all the holes been patched, with extra effort from residents, we will make it in good condition like when it was newly built..., let's work together, to make Vista a better place for living!

cheng/JMB

car parking problem & solution

vista residents will hv opportunity to solve the car parking problem once & for all....but, are we too optimistic?

let's 1st talk our current problem, many residents park more than 2 cars in the compound, this cause shortage of the parking lot, then, those who are without parking lot refused to pay service charge (SC), then, due to shortage of fund, we only can employ 2nd class vendor to maintain our facilities, then, more residents don't pay SC coz they see the service is bad, then....u see the chain-reaction?

well, now the car parking sticker is suggested & passed in AGM, 1 parcel 1 sticker, which means only 1 car/parcel be allowed, this is good to make sure all the residents will hv their parking lot, also this will make sure residents to pay SC as the condition to issue the sticker is depend on their payment status.

idea is ideal, but implementation....? definitely tough! some1 told me better to hire few body guard to protect the security guard, worry that some residents will beat up the guard when refused the entry; also some say to place the CCTV to check if the guard will be bribed to let car without sticker to enter; also some say committee member will need to watch out their safety as these residents are angry.....

it takes all parties' cooperation to make this plan success! we hv told security guard not to quarrel with residents but just to stay firm, worst case they will need to call policemen. abt the bribe, we hv get the security company to agree with us that once we find a car without sticker in our compound, then deduction of RM20 will applied on the monthly fee, so if we find 10 cars, then deduction will be RM200! then abt the committee's safety, we only can look to God for protection.

i'm personally quite confident with the plan, simply bcoz i hv seen majority of residents do like to see the problem of car park, SC, facilities, etc to be solved, & they are agreeable to the plan, & at the moment we r sharing the vision to as many residents as we can, hope that they can see the points too.

tough, but exciting task, huh?

cheng/JMB

2nd AGM, Vista Resident is boss!

the most special & significant thing abt the 2nd AGM is the Vista resident are given all the right to decide all the item brought up during the AGM, and, this should be the way the thing goes!

no longer management or JMB to give direction & residents just to follow, but this time residents are really the only boss for Vista condo; JMB & management's roles are to make sure that all the decisions made by residents will be carried out properly!

so, small decision like removing swimming pool grill, chopping tree, swim wear, or big ones like car sticker, new car park, service charge, all these decided by residents, we r encouraged to see many residents voice out their opinions on each item been discussed, i must say all the suggestion r constructive!

next thing to be happened, implementation of solution of various problem brought up during AGM, we can foresee tough challenge ahead, especially some defaulter will feel the pain to pay their outstanding fee, & residents who used to park their 2nd car in the compound may not allowed to do it anymore, etc...

but, we hv confident that when Vista residents are united, place common good above individual one, then our future will be bright, & we know that, it's happening now....we really can feel it during the AGM.

let's work together, making Vista a better place for living.

cheng/JMB

development concerning car park

we have painted the parking lot according to the existing arrangement, to our pleasant surprise, total is 280 lot! it's more than enough for our residents!

but why do we still have not enough parking lot? it's really sadden us when come to know that some residents who hv paid their service charge promptly still don't hv a permanent lot!

of course every resident know where is the problem, many vista residents do park 2 or more cars in the building compound, strangely some of them are holding 2 access card (touch n' go), & others are doing do the hand-scanning, just wave to the guard & the barrier will be opened!

this AGM we are going to deal with this! we must insist that every unit only will hv 1 car to be allowed to come in, with the condition that the service charge must be paid up to date! we wil suggest to use the car sticker & the guard will only allow cars with sticker to enter.

abt the guard, we will make sure that they will strictly follow this instruction, no sticker no entry, or else we will serve them notice of warning, if repeat again then we wil give them a boot!

we wil also like to surprise our resident abt 25 new lots....., the detail of the plan wil need u to come to AGM to find out.....see u there!

cheng/JMB

2nd AGM, pls do attend

2nd AGM is fixed on 27/5/09, 8pm at the Vista foyer, time really fly, it has been a year since we selected the JMB in the 1st AGM.

a lot of changes took place in the past 12 months, some of the significant 1 like changing the managing agent & other contractors...in fact we changed all the contractors! and right now we are monitoring their performance so pls do give us ur feedback too.

some of the other things are not as visual as these, but equally important, like repairing the water tanks & main pipes, generator, thorough cleaning of swimming pool, repainting the car park lot, replacing the capacitors in switch room, etc, in fact we plan to do more than this, but restricted by our financial position.

this coming AGM we will like to make few major decision together with the residents, especially the car park, there are some suggestions from the committee & residents of how to overcome parking lot shortage problem, let's discuss in d AGM & get the best option of that!

See ya.
Cheng/JMB

Oops! some hiccups!

10 days after new vendors took over in various jobs, basically things are moving ok, but...but...but, got to admit that, some hiccups here & there, they r :

1) swimming pool : we didn't expect the chemical cleaning will take more than 10 days! vendor just told us that if weather is good & they can clean the pool according to their schedule, then it will be re-oponed on 13/5 instead of 15/5.

2) staircase lighting : some of the lights at the staircase at both J & K block are ON & OFF at the wrong timing, we are at the moment trying to check which timers are controlling these lights, the electrician from the old management seems not very keen to help us in this area, well, no problem, we just need few more days' time to get our own technical guy to find out.

3) cleaning : we forgot to tell the cleaners that they need to "wash" the rubbish rooms of every floor after they hv remove the rubbish, but after sitting down with their boss, we believe they r following the instruction now...

4) security : some residents r not too comfortable to see many peoples like to gather around the guard post, thought they r outsiders, actually these r our residents, 1 of them is our committee member whose overseeing the security, another 1 is K block resident who just like to help up there.

also, there may be some other things JMB r not aware of, so pls do inform us if know any of that.

thanks.

cheng/JMB

new beginning with new Vista vendors

Residents will notice some new faces at the management office, security post, even the cleaners, lift technicians, pest control, and very soon u also can see new electrician for the gen set & swimming pool maintenance, and perhaps the only one remain unchanged is the car barrier vendor, which we think the service still ok so far.

after 2 months of interview & JMB discussion, we hope we had gotten the right contractors for various area, but of course only time can tell if JMB had made the right decisions concerning these. So feel free to feedback to us if residents have discover any vendor not performing up to the mark!

the management office have extended the office hour to 9pm (Mon-Fri only) from May onward, hope this will bring convenient to resident for paying service charge & making maintenance request. we will be soon register a hotline (mobile #) for the building supervisor, so that residents can call him even without dropping by the office, pls wait for the announcement.

up to this point, we haven't got the decision for the swimming pool & gen set vendor, but it should be decided by latest 1st week of May'09, so pls bear with us at the moment if the swimming pool is a bit dirty.....

cheng/JMB

water tanks repair update

we would like to share the good news with u that JMB have completed the repair work for the 3 water tanks according to the planned schedule, the total cost is RM4200. On top of that, we also spent another RM400 to repair the leak at the bomba water tank, we r expecting the next water bill will see RM1500 less than previous months!

for block-J residents who usually pass by the common area in between pump room & swimming pool, u will notice the dirty water (i called it tea-O water) on the floor has gone! that water was one leaked from the bomba water tank at the pump room, and it happened for pass few years, and now as we hv repaired the water tank, we will not need to suffer the sore-eye by looking at the tea-O everyday!

i attached photos here for you to see the different with & without tea-O water...guess which 1 is b4 repair & after repair...

cheng/JMB

hooray! new office is ready now!

JMB is excited abt the new office, it started operating on 20/4/09, a simple setting but nice environment for resident to pay their service charge & lodge complaint concerning maintenance matters.

JMB will be using the office for the meeting as well, at the moment we meet on every wednesday nite 9.30pm, feel free to drop by to give us some words of encouragement & ur suggestions of how to "make Vista Condo a better place for living".

the office hour is 9am to 6pm, lunch break 1pm to 2pm. but starting from May, we will extend office hour to 9pm, as many resident only come home after 6pm in the normal working day. (saturday is 9am to 1pm).

We will have 1 full time clerk to collect service charge during working hour, & 1 building supervisor who will oversee the performance of our facilities, cleaning service, security....

i would like to personally thank the JMB committee make this temporary office available, especially Teh for painting the door & wall, put up the new netting, Jeffery for getting aircond & other electrical item fixed, also Lim, Soon, Arman helping in painting the wall, we got to really thank God for all the committee member in JMB, their commitment in various areas are just fantastic!

cheng/JMB

Generator scandal!!!

It was power failure on 9/4/2009 (Thursday) night 11.40pm. Under normal circumstance, the back up generator should power up the lifts (J & K) and the lights at common areas, but it didn’t happen….

The JMB found out our Generator change-over panel had NOT been serviced for over years! Look at the picture, the ants have even built their fortress, as high as 2 feet tall, 2 inches thick! This caused short-circuit & the generator couldn’t functioning when we needed it the most!

But we were told by the management that the contractor have serviced the generator regularly, Vista resident are paying RM500.00 per month for generator & electrical service! Another evident of irresponsible act!

water tank, 1 fixed, 2 to go.

the plumber has came on last wednesday, labored a few hours at block-K rooftop, get our water tank fixed, the result was good so far, & the cost is RM1800.

now we r going for the other 2 water tank at block-K & block-J pump room respectively. plumber willing to give us special rate for these 2 tanks, abt RM1200 each (perhaps ground floor work is easier). he was the one who installed the water tank for Vista Condo when the project started 15 yrs ago, he may feel obliged not to charge too much for his old customer... :P

we hope to get these repair work completed b4 end of April, then by saving the water bill abt RM1000 per month, we will recover the repair cost in abt 5 months' time. (some1 actually told me the leakage may reach abt RM1500 per month!)

other development, JMB will get the car park line re-painted by the end of April, will number all the parking lot starting 001 to 275, then in May we will ask all resident to register their parking lot, strictly 1 lot per unit. the condition for car park registration is that resident got to clear the service charge, but for resident who can't settle outstanding bill now, we will allow installment, they just need to sign the repayment agreement in order to enjoy the parking facility.

feel free to drop by the notice board, we have just posted the cashflow of March there, this is to update our residents abt the account.

thanks.
cheng/JMB

more major leakings discovered!

now we r all the more convinced that we should terminate awan setia, & in fact we should hv done it many years ago.

we hv just recently done the inspection on the common facility, the water tank, pump, TNB room, telekom room, lift motor room....., to our shocking, there r 3 mojor leaks at our water tanks (1 at block-K rooftop, 1 at block-K ground floor, 1 at block-J ground floor).

from the stain we saw at the leaking area, these problem should hv been there easily few years, how bad these leak? each tank's leak is abt 5x of the water flow out from the water tape of ur kitchen, this could easily wasted our residents' money perhaps more than RM1000 per month!

we should blame awan setia for did not bother to fix it, but we hv found something even worse! some maintenance guy (in the past) found the leak at the water tank of block-J ground floor pump room, instead of fixing it, he just hacked a hole at the wall of the pump room, so that the water leaked from the water tank will flow into the common drain!!! what a irresponsible attitude & action they show!!!

we r at the moment fixing the water tank at roof top of block-K, cost abt RM2000, the another 2 water tanks need to be fixed soon, most probably another RM4000, JMB hv to find way to get RM6000 to fix these problem, we r crossing our figure praying that there's no other major repair work needed....

and as for this irresponsible management agent, we should hv terminated them much earlier on....

cheng/jmb

immediate action to be expected, soon.... : )

we felt that 2 common facility issues needed to be attended now..

1) the water tank at block-K, the leaking is actually quite bad! it have been there easily few month already. there are 4 water tanks supporting block-K currently, the one on top of the 20th floor unit 3&4 is leaking badly, i guess every month we hv wasted more than RM400 for the leakage.

plumber will come next week to fix it, wil cost us a couple of thousands...., some residents from block-K upper floor had complained to the management abt the problem since last year, but no action taken. sigh, typical way of them when dealing with complaint.

2) we wil make the grassy abandoned ground at the end of block-K to be more feasible as car park, we plan to put some debris or even to cement/tar it, then to draw the proper line so that residents who do not hv parking lot can make use of that. we hv counted, more than 15 cars can be parked there with proper plan.

it should be done in april, the cost......depend on what material we are going to use, of course ideal one is to cement, let's check our service charge collection first, hehe :P

since last EGM some residents hv approached JMB with many excellent idea of improving car park, security, office location, facility...we are greatly encouraged! just many of these ideas only can be put into action after new managing agent take over in May'09, simply bcoz men power & proper plan/supervisory are needed. we are also inviting residents to be in the commitee to oversee these plans, do u like to be part of the team to serve the Vista residents?

thanks.

cheng/JMB

and now....discount for defaulter!

another good deal is on the way, for those who like to settle their old debts, they will enjoy remarkable discount on the interest!

we r talking abt if they pay their previous year outstanding fee (maintenance fee, insurance, quit rent, etc) b4 May'09, then 30% discount on the interest will be given, then 25% for those pay b4 June'09, 20% for b4 July'09, 15% b4 Aug'09 & 10% b4 Sept'09.

note that discount is on the interest, but not principle value, or else it will not be fair for those who hv been paying promptly all these years.

how abt if residents like to settle the old debts but not in the financial position to pay up all in this few months? well, we would like to make it easy for them to pay in installment manner, RM100 per month, we hv checked around & it seems not too burdensome for average income group. (but no discount will be given for this)

all they need to do now, just bring the receipt of last paym't, go to the collection booth at the foyer, fill in the repayment form b4 May'09, and start paying according to agreement.

what happen if defaulter choose not to pay? they r in the danger of losing the car parking lot, then if they continue to display non-cooperative attitude, they will be served warrant of attachment, it will ended up some of their asset be sold by city council to clear the debt, we hope this would not happen in Vista...

cheng/JMB

special discount for early maintenance fee paym't

the deal is really really good! If u hv some spared money in hand & plan to save them in bank, then u should take a good look on this offer!

1) 5% discount for those pay 3 months in advance (save RM15)

2) 10% for 6 months in advance (save RM60)

3) RM200 discount for pay 12 months in advance!!!

The rates are much higher than the interest rate any bank can offer now!!! The only condition is u must have no outstanding maintenance fee of previous months.

(I plan to pay 12 months in advance, which will save me RM200, abt 16% discount, compare to the FD abt 3%, wow! what a different!)

Remember, the temporary collection booth is at the foyer, in front of Vista swimming pool, I also attach some photo from the 1st day collection.

Thanks! Cheng/JMB

busy time - transition

for this 2 month (March & April), Joint management commitee, or in short form, JMC are working round the clock for the management transition, smooth one, hopefully.

we are having board meeting at least once a week, wednesday nite 9.30pm to finalize few things, such as temporary office, new contract for lift, housekeeping, security, pest control & etc, also cracking our mind to find way to improve car parking system & other facility....huge task! u actually can see almost every nite few JMC are gathering at the foyer, not for chit-chating, but discussing over these matters, we r thankful for their zeal & commitment!

our hope is like yours, the better future for Vista condo, like our vision slogan, "making vista a better place for living", we believe residents are making a 1st big step towards this by changing the current managing agent, which have long been regarded as inefficient, ineffective & irresponsible!

no one can guarantee that the new managing agent will be better one compare to the existing one, but new system will provide Vista residents the better way to monitor their performance, we are planning more dialogue/meeting in between resident & managing agent, also, residents will be given more authority over the matter in Vista.

our appeal to you, very soon we will enlarge our committee, pls join us when be approached, or if we don't spot u, feel free to volunteer yourself, after all it take everybody's effort to make Vista a better place for living.

Cheng/JMB

EGM major decision!

abt 80 purchasers turned up in the EGM (59 of them came early & registered, the rest came after meeting started), few major decision were made during the meeting, ya, major one...

JMB did expect residents will vote to terminate the managing agent, awan setia, but we did not expect out of the 59 qualified voters, 58 choose to give them a boot! it really show clearly how bad the impression the Vista resident have for awan setia. from the feedback of the residents, the main reason was poor management of residents' fund & maintenance of our facility.

residents have warned awan setia some time ago to improve their performance (last EGM in Oct'08), or else will be booted out. we did see some slight improvement in the 1st 2 months, in term of responsiveness & quality of work, unfortunately in the last 2 months, things back to square one, the 2 lift broke down at K-block is the last straw on the camel's back!

now we are talking to 3 managing agents for their proposal, most likely we will go with the company which are small one, abt RM5,300 managing fee per month. they will provide 2 workers (1 handy man & 1 clerk) for 9am to 5pm, another person from 5pm to 9pm, mainly for collection of maintenance fee, but also be able to attend to the emergency facility matter.

we do hope the new managing agent will perform better than awan setia, as they will be closely monitored by Vista residents, another reason is the communication will be better as the office will be in the Vista compound, resident can drop by any time to see them for various matter.

at the same time the JMB also appoaching security, cleaning, fogging, lift & other contractors for the new & better contract, if any1 of u can help us in this area, pls contact us or write to our email, vistajmb@gmail.com, u can even volunteer to be our commitee (carpark, security, miantenance/facility, fund management, community project), trust that ur contribution will bless the Vista residents.

let's work together, making Vista the better place for living.....

cheng/JMB

2nd Vista EGM (25/2/09)

The coming EGM will be significant one! first time in Vista history residents will have right to pick their preferred managing agent! JMB have been approaching few management company to send in their proposal, which will be presented to the residents on the EGM night for them to consider.

Pls do help us to spread the words around, encourage your fellow Vista residents to attend the meeting, we will discuss some other important matters, like painting of building, maintenance fee, & we believe on the night some residents will bring some good insight of how to make Vista a better place for living.

See u all.

Cheng/JMB

CNY Party

We would like to express our utmost thanks for those who hv joined the pary, we hope u hv enjoyed much the food, the fun, the game...but most importantly, we hope u hv established deeper relationship with ur fellow Vista residents, for this is the main purpose of the gathering. Here are some photos for ur viewing pleasure.....

CNY - Registration

CNY - Crowd

CNY - Crowd

CNY - eating orange

CNY - eating orange