vandalism attempt again?

today writing this blog with heavy heart....

got a report from an active committee that he feel strongly that somebody try to sabotage his car, this morning he found some inflammable material under his car engine, even though it can be there jz by accident, or wind blow it there, but as i talk to him, feel suspicious too, will make police report for that.

as we look back, we do encountered some kind of confrontation or vandalism if not every month, then will be every other month, because of our involvement in the management of this place, especially try to enforce the house rules.

few time committee's car side mirror broken, one time wind shield scratched, also been confronted face to face not less than 10 times since yr2010, small cases like be scolded in the lift by a resident, more major cases were challenged by 10 person (together w outsiders), 2 times by 5 residents, also other thing like mocking & abusive SMS, phone calls, even pasted notice....

each time these thing happen, the first thing come into our mind is what for we do this free service for vista condo? what for we get all these problem by doing work w/o getting any salary? what for we try to bring improvement to vista condo but at the end get all the blame & abuses?

time like this, we always feel want to quit.

no problem for us to quit, after all, residents should hv seen we manage to hv surplus in the account, lifts are more stable, car park lot are sufficient, restored back some law & order according to house rules,& if God willing, we may hv get back our sinking fund in this year & get state gov't to fix the entrance shade.

just want to say, we are human too, do have our limitation, too much of negative feeling generated by these kind of wrongdoing, we will eventually can't take it anymore & quit.

in fact for few times we also be asked by some angry residents to quit, perhaps they are right.

the only worry is if future batch of committee also suffer the same thing (by enforcing the house rules) & choose to quit, & eventually nobody willing to do this job, then we got to hv outsiders take over fully the management & maintenance here, then the outcome will be very unpredictable.

of course among residents should hv more qualified person to handle the job, pls do take over....

thanks.

options of save cost on the lighting

after few weeks of checking around, few options we can consider of how to save some electricity on the lighting side.

at the moment we spend abt RM2000 monthly current consumption of those common area light, as we have abt 400 set of 4ft 36w fluorescent tube (mainly at the corridor area ...) which on abt 12 hour a day & 30 days a month:-

400set x 30days x 12hours x 36w x 0.43rate / 1000 = RM2229

we were told that LED will save definitely more than 50%, some cases can even reach 70%, which is abt RM1100 to RM1500, wow! sound wonderful! imagine if really can save RM1500 per month or RM18000 per year, see how much can we do with the money?

but wait...., the cost for investment will be big question to ponder, at the moment the good & reliable LED light is abt RM100, so for 400set is abt RM40000, this will take abt 2 year plus to see the return of investment, unless vendor willing to drag the credit term for that long, or else will be too much risk to face.

another problem may be headache for the LED is the theft, as at the moment we still troubled by some tangan-gatai matters by few residents, this make us hesitant to consider much on the LED light, coz at the end we may have to use the money saved from the electricity to replace those stolen LED.

well, we were also told in some apartment energy-saving bulbs have been used to replace the fluorescent tube, it managed to save up to abt 50% too, the plus point for the energy-saving is it's not as costly as LED, but the set back is, it can be easily stolen, & didn't produce as much brightness as fluorescent tube does, but we still keep this option in mind, coz of the 50% saving....

one more option, which looks more practical for vista condo, it's electronic ballast (where the existing fluorescent tube no need to be changed), the ballast itself cost abt RM10 per set, if go by quantity will get lower than that. if switch to electronic ballast then some minor modification is needed at the casing side, say RM5 per set, but if we change to the whole new casing w ballast will be abt RM30, together with the new fluorescent light.

according to the data we have gathered after consulted some electricians & engineers, the saving is in between 30% to 50%, or in our case, RM660 to RM1100. Even though not as much as LED or energy-saving bulbs can do, the advantage is the risk of been stolen will be much lower, also the cost of investment is only RM6000 (go by RM15 per set), shall see the return of investment in abt 9 month's time.

we still studying on the matter of lighting electricity saving, welcome residents' feedback, especially if u have experience on using those lights mentioned above, thanks.

we are money face

we r always in the business of saving money & making money.

i remember not long after we hv built the rental parking area, one angry resident (identity still remain a mystery) wrote a sentence on the announcement of new parking lot at the notice board, calling us MONEY FACE, well we must say there's certain truth in it.

all the time we are thinking, how to make more money for the management account, some funny ideas came to our mind before like, selling Gardenia bread, rice or cooking oil, which the residents need to use everyday, or even do the handphone top up,in fact we nearly materialise the Gardenia bread project, but the agent insist want us to fulfill certain quota, which we don't hv confident then, so it was gone, we also did talk to DIGI & Maxis, but again the plan didn't work out well, if can remember correctly it's due to agent license.

(in fact personally still thinking abt these few projects, believe that when the time is right, it will be materialised)

oh ya, few days ago one MC member also talk to the drinking water dispenser vendor, profit not much, still in the midst of deciding...

so far out of these ideas, the one which have been implemented & made a lot of money is rental parking lot, which we hv invested abt 15k to chop the trees, tar the muddy ground, draw lines to make it usable, created 35 lots, rental RM50 per months, which hv brought us RM1750 income per month, in other words, after 10 month we built it, we hv earned back the money we invested, the subsequent collection is net income, not bad, huh?

(of course got some criticism during the time building the rental lot, hopefully now they can see the benefit)

some other ideas which we can consider now (beside gardenia, or top up), actually koperasi also good, but need manpower & expertise, anyone got experience in this thing?

abt saving money, i think we hv already done enough with the vendors, RM3000 for management, RM3300 for 2 guards, RM1400 for 4 lifts, RM800 for the pool...., they r either market price or even below market price, can't reduce further, or else will effect the quality of service.

so now, the only area we r thinking how save is the electricity, after the TNB come up with the new rate, now we r hitting RM7k per month, painful...., well, past few days MC members busy studying the energy saving light, & also the LED, which some condo are using these & give good testimonies.

so guys at vista condo, do share with us if u got any good idea for saving money or making money, coz at the end, it will benefit all the residents, include u & me, & our family too.

thanks.

entering maintenance mode

we r entering the maintenance mode now...for at least another 5 months...

every month from the collection, we allocate RM3000 for the facilities related matters, for both maintenance & upgrading, & the priority is always need to be given to the maintenance.

for eg, if in the particular month, not much maintenance action needed, then in the following month we will hv spare $$ to upgrade some facilities, so for the past 12 months we do manage to do that, upgraded facilities namely CCTV, wall painting, new office, guard house renovation, etc.

(for record purpose, besides those upgrading as mentioned above, the other major expenses for the facilities but fall under maintenance category in the past 1 year includes blk k lift major rotor & motor repair, lift shoes replacement, swimming pool 2 main filters, T&G system micro-controller & loop detector replacement for both incoming & outgoing barriers, bomba riser room items, replacing main underground power cable at blk k switch room together w some main MCBs & ELCBs at the main switch room @ blk j, etc..., pls don't be surprised of these all the major repair, for most of our current facilities are more than 10 yrs old, some have reached 15yrs & have not been changed since installation, so since JMB took over in yr2009 until now, we r replacing those equipment which life span is up or almost up, otherwise may face the risk of major down....)

since last month, as we started to repair some badly leaking water tank, total abt 6 tanks need to be repaired, cost in between 15K to 20K, so by the calculation of fund allocation 3k for month, which will take up at least 5 months to pay the vendor.

to make the situation worse, the past 2 weeks' heavy rain exposed another area which also need urgent attention, the top floor unit roof leaking & some other floor's external wall leaking, for this kind of leaking only can be detected when the rain is extremely heavy, where the rain water will sip into apartment wall & ceiling, & it's under management's responsibility to get the leakage fixed.

to tackle external wall & top floor roof leaking problem, cost range from RM300 to RM1000, depending on how serious is the condition, so far have received 5 cases...

(pls note that it's only applied to EXTERNAL WALL & TOP FLOOR ROOF, but if it's leaking from the upper unit to the lower unit, then it's up to the upper floor resident to work with the lower floor resident to get the thing fixed)

so..., the next few months will be not much action on the facilities upgrade, but the management staff & MC members will still be busy running around to make sure every repair will worth for each penny we r spending.

thanks.